Unhealthy behaviors – poor diet, sedentary lifestyle, and use of tobacco are all major contributors to poor clinical outcomes for people with coronary heart disease risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. It is possible that these outcomes could be improved if clinicians collaborated with patients to encourage healthy behaviors. With funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Prescription for Health program, Tom Bodenheimer, MD, MPH, Margaret Handley, Ph.D., MPH and Dean Schillinger, MD, along with Ken Gjeltema, MD, a physician at Albany Family Practice, are investigating the use of Action Plans in the primary care setting. Action Plans, which are used in Kate Lorig's (Stanford) chronic disease self management classes in many health care settings are similar to short-term New Year's resolutions: A clinician and patient create an Action Plan by agreeing on a small change in his/her healthrelated behavior the patient will make.

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GeneralInformation

What are Action Plans?
Self-Management Support Tools

ActionPlans

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Handley M, MacGregor K, Schillinger D, Sharifi C, Wong S, Bodenheimer T. Using action plans to help primary care patients adopt healthy behaviors: a descriptive study. J Am Board Fam Med. 2006 May-Jun;19(3):224-31.

MacGregor K, Handley M, Wong S, Sharifi C, Gjeltema K, Schillinger D, Bodenheimer T. Behavior-change action plans in primary care: a feasibility study of clinicians. J Am Board Fam Med. 2006 May-Jun;19(3):215-23.

MacGregor K, Wong S, Sharifi C, Handley M, Bodenheimer T. The action plan project: discussing behavior change in the primary care visit. Ann Fam Med. 2005 Jul-Aug;3 Suppl 2:S39-40.