Quite simply, the Virtual Lifestyle Management service supports overweight patients to adopt better nutrition and physical activity habits so that they can lose weight.

The VLM was carefully designed to improve outcomes and enhance therapeutic clinician-patient relationships. It delivers the DPP’s research proven lifestyle intervention through online tools that create an effective intervention for individuals who are at risk for or currently have diabetes and other health conditions because of their weight.

This easy-to-use and engaging program offers lessons with streaming audio, interactive workbooks, email coaching, and more. The system features nutrition, physical activity and weight tracking tools that create lasting behavior change by helping patients overcome barriers and recognize patterns in their actions.

The service has the potential to reduce the complications of obesity and help prevent the progression from obesity or pre-diabetes to cardiovascular disease, diabetes or any of the myriad of other diseases strongly linked to a person’s weight. The VLM combines the research-proven protocols of the NIH-funded Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) , with the state-of-the-art online coaching technology of the DPS Behavior Change Suite™, to offer a clinically effective obesity prevention and treatment program that is also low cost and scalable.
Click here to learn more about the DPS Behavior Change Suite™

The DPP was a landmark multi-year study with 3,234 adults with pre-diabetes in 27 U.S.-based centers in which an intensive behavior change intervention was used to increase patients’ physical activity, improve nutrition and decrease weight by 5-7%. The DPP decreased the progression to diabetes by 58% (5 % vs. 11% for the control) and by 71 % for those individuals over 60 years of age. It was even more effective then the diabetes medicine tested(metformin). The intervention consisted of face-to-face, individual counseling sessions with a skilled coach at a per patient cost of about $3,540.00 over three years.

University researchers recently completed a 50 person (1/3 with type 2 diabetes), year-long, study of the effectiveness of the DPP delivered online via the VLM service which was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Telemedicine and e-Health: Vol 15, no 9, November 2009 pages 851-858. The study demonstrated that VLM users lost a significant amount of weight in the first three months and were able to keep it off throughout the year. The mean weight change among participants who completed the measured 12-month weight evaluation (n = 45) was -4.79 kg; 31% of these participants had at least a 5% weight loss and 18% at least a 7% weight loss at the end of 1 year. The study was presented at the American Diabetes Association meeting in June 2009.
Click here to view scientific papers covering the VLM and DPP

The VLM adds value to the medical practice. It allows provider organizations to generate revenue through increased health promotion offerings, through pay-for-performance, and savings on long-term healthcare costs. It also reduces the cost of providing comprehensive and effective lifestyle support through greater clinical and administrative efficiencies.
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Additionally, the VLM adds unique value for diabetes centers. While designed using the diabetes prevention program as a guide, many of the principles covered in the VLM work equally as well for patients already diagnosed with diabetes. Furthermore, DPS Health is dedicated to working with our partners to better understand upcoming changes in medical care reimbursement, and how health-promoting services, like the VLM, will be paid for in the future.
Click here to learn more about how the VLM works in diabetes centers

With media-rich lessons, streaming audio, interactive workbooks, plus nutrition and activity planning and tracking tools, the VLM educates and engages the user. On a daily or weekly basis, patients track their eating and physical activity so they can easily monitor their behavioral trends and long-term outcomes. Patients and their clinician coaches also receive access to email and chat rooms, greatly increasing easy access to support and creating an efficient flow of information throughout the program. On a weekly basis, users log on to learn through interactive lessons how to eat a healthy diet and how get more physically active; they plan physical activities for the next week in the propriety drag and drop planning grid and explore ways to overcome barriers so they can adopt and sustain new healthy behaviors.
Click here to learn more about the patient experience on the VLM

As a powerful tool for the clinical staff, the VLM greatly increases efficiency and allows clinicians to better support their patients’ weight management efforts. The advanced monitoring and coaching tools allow clinical staff to provide support to over six times the number of patients as the original, in-person DPP protocol (the original DPP protocol had 1 coach for every 20-25 patients, a fully implemented VLM service is projected to use 1 coach for every 125-150 patients). Clinician coaches are able to use a variety of internet tools to communicate directly with patients, including secure messaging and live chat. They also can easily access performance data from individual patients, or entire patient populations through a secure, online dashboard. With these tools, coaches are able to efficiently provide weekly feedback to patients via the internet in as little as 5-10 minutes per patient per week.
Click here to learn more about the clinician experience on the VLM