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What does it actually take to build a functional medicine program that thrives inside a conventional health system?
In this live episode from the Institute for Functional Medicine Annual Conference, James Maskell sits down with Laura Sandquist and Kate Otremba, who've spent six years building a large integrative and functional medicine program within Allina Health, a conventional health system in Minnesota.
Laura and Kate share the infrastructure they built to make it work — smart phrases, practice guidelines, and templates that help clinicians translate their functional medicine training into daily practice within the constraints of RVU requirements and insurance billing. They discuss how they addressed access issues through nutritionist-led and practitioner/nutritionist co-led group medical visits, and how a two-day CME training for primary care providers and specialists helped build trust and drive more referrals and holistic thinking across the system.
The conversation also covers their new venture, Whole Health NP, launched to help other practitioners bridge the gap between learning functional medicine and actually applying it — and why this whole-health approach extends well beyond integrative nursing to physical therapists, psychologists, and beyond.
Whether you're a clinician, health system leader, or someone building functional medicine programs of your own, this episode offers a grounded, practical look at what it really takes to make whole health work at scale.
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About the Guest:
Laura Sandquist, DNP, APRN, A-GNP-C, FMCP-M and Kate Otremba, DNP, MN, APRN, CNP, FMCP-M are co-developers of a large integrative and functional medicine program within Allina Health, a conventional health system in Minnesota, where they have worked together for six years. Their work includes building clinical infrastructure such as smart phrases and practice guidelines, launching nutritionist-led and co-led group medical visits, and developing a two-day CME training for primary care providers and specialists to build trust and collaboration across the system. They have since launched Whole Health NP, a company dedicated to teaching practitioners how to translate functional medicine training into real-world practice.
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