🚨 2025 Toward Health Year-End Review 🚨 A Message of Gratitude and Purpose First and foremost, we want to begin by thanking our patients, families, and supporters. Your trust, engagement, and commitment to your health have helped fuel a growing movement focused on reversing the vast metabolic decline of the past five decades. We are proud of your achievements, your progress, and the lifestyle changes you have made, and we are honored to care for you and your families. Toward Health is more than a medical practice. We are advocates for long-term health, resilience, and systems-level change, working to correct metabolic health outcomes that have worsened for generations. This advocacy extends beyond the clinic. Toward Health Founder and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Tro Kalayjian continues to engage directly with leaders at HHS, CMS, CMMI, and the Coalition for Metabolic Health, a national initiative supported by the Baszucki Foundation, to advance policy, reimbursement, and care models centered on metabolic health. Dr. Laura Buchanan and Dr. Kalayjian serve as board members of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners, which now holds ACCME accreditation, publishes the Journal of Metabolic Health, and provides AMA PRA Category 1 Credit for all SMHP educational programming. Our patients are not simply receiving care. They are part of a broader movement to change medicine itself. Clinical Care and National Impact In 2025, Toward Health strengthened its position as a national leader in metabolic and preventive care. The practice continued to deliver root-cause-focused care across direct-to-practice and employer populations nationwide, maintaining rigorous clinical oversight and high-touch patient support. Clinical leadership and team members presented at major national meetings, including Obesity Help and SMHP Boca, where Dr. Kalayjian and Amy Eiges, SVP of Corporate Wellness, shared outcomes and care models. Health Coach Tia Reid presented at a national liver conference, reinforcing Toward’s leadership across obesity, metabolic disease, and liver health. The Toward Health leadership team and advisors continued regular engagement with major insurers, and health systems to explore partnerships that improve local, regional, and national health outcomes. New Clinical Programs and Care Pathway Several major clinical pathways were launched or expanded in 2025. These included a structured food addiction program formally introduced at a national Food Addiction Conference, reinforcing food addiction and binge eating as biologically driven, treatable conditions within metabolic medicine. Additional launches included a GLP-1 Off-ramp Program designed to safely transition appropriate patients off incretin therapies and a comprehensive Hormone Replacement Therapy program addressing hormonal contributors to metabolic dysfunction, led with exceptional clinical rigor under the leadership of Dr. Buchanan. Core offerings were further strengthened with the introduction of a medical weight loss guarantee for qualifying high-risk patients, backed by adherence requirements and extended clinical support. Preventive Screening and Cardiometabolic Risk Detection Preventive care expanded with the development of a nationwide screening program combining coronary artery calcium imaging and an extensive laboratory panel at accessible price points. The program serves as a low-cost entry point for early cardiometabolic risk detection and is supported by internal data demonstrating approximately 50% cardiovascular risk reduction among engaged participants. All screening requests undergo centralized clinical review to ensure appropriateness and safety. Telemedicine, Technology, and National Scale Toward Health continued to lead as a national thought leader in telemedicine. The Toward Health app is now licensed by 15 clinics and large hospital systems nationwide and has been cited in multiple peer-reviewed publications. Care is delivered through a text-enabled, asynchronous model that allows patients to communicate directly with their care team between visits, improving access, continuity, and real-world adherence without reliance on frequent scheduled appointments. Remote patient monitoring capabilities were further advanced, alongside nationwide access to direct laboratory testing and imaging at substantially reduced cost. The practice also expanded national distribution and clinical interpretation of sleep studies, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and Holter monitoring, delivering these services at a fraction of the costs typically charged in insurance-based systems. Business Strategy and Employer Partnerships From a business and strategic perspective, the year marked an important period of progress and groundwork. While overall growth was steady, significant foundational milestones were achieved. The Employee Wellness offering was fully finalized, supported by comprehensive documentation, a refreshed and engaging webpage, and newly developed broker-facing materials designed to strengthen employer partnerships, especially among small and mid-sized organizations. Looking ahead, planned strategic discussions in early 2026 with public-sector stakeholders and private partners will focus on advancing reimbursement models, securing grant funding, and accelerating broader adoption. Research, IRB Collaborations, and Peer-Reviewed Publications Toward Health contributed two peer-reviewed publications in Frontiers journals. In Frontiers in Nutrition, TOWARD, a metabolic health intervention, demonstrates robust 1-year weight loss and cost-savings through deprescription reported an average 15.5% total body weight loss at one year, alongside significant deprescription and cost savings compared with GLP-1–based strategies. A second Frontiers publication evaluated the TOWARD intervention for food addiction and binge eating, demonstrating meaningful reductions in compulsive eating behaviors with concurrent metabolic improvement. In parallel, Toward Health continued IRB-related research collaborations with Wake Forest and Yale, and finalized an IRB-approved research project in partnership with Stanford, further strengthening the academic and scientific validation of the platform and care model. Patient Engagement, Community, and Coaching Patient engagement expanded substantially in 2025. Toward Health metabolic health-challenges now include more than 1,000 participants, and free fasting courses engage over 500 participants annually. The Toward Health app community exceeds 15,000 users nationwide. A free, high-accountability lifestyle reset program was launched for patients seeking to re-engage their health efforts and has already resulted in thousands of pounds of cumulative weight loss. Small group coaching continued to expand, integrating CGMs, structured accountability, and eight weeks of continuous support, with capacity to scale additional cohorts as demand grows. One-on-one coaching sessions included within group programs may be extended to family members. We are pleased to announce that our Health Coach, Bran Wiley, has graciously accepted the role of Health Coaching Director. We greatly appreciate his commitment and leadership and look forward to his continued contributions to the practice and our community. Grant Opportunities and Aging-Care Initiatives Toward Health is actively developing grant-supported initiatives focused on aging and cognitive health. A dementia and assisted living facility program is scheduled for release in early 2026, positioning Toward Health as a scalable solution for assisted living and skilled nursing facilities nationwide. The program is designed to reduce polypharmacy, improve metabolic and cognitive outcomes, and lower total cost of care through structured, technology-enabled metabolic interventions. Media Coverage and Nationwide Recognition Our visibility and influence have expanded significantly throughout the year, marking a period of substantial growth and recognition. We have successfully secured widespread media coverage, including features on major national networks such as CBS, PBS, Fox News, Business Insider, Medscape and various news outlets. This nationwide recognition extends beyond media appearances; we have also established a significant presence within the medical and policy communities. We have achieved nationwide recognition within the esteemed Metabolic Coalition, underscoring our leadership in metabolic health. This recognition has opened doors to numerous high-impact speaking opportunities, including addresses at university hospitals and vital roundtable discussions with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). We are also engaged in ongoing, productive discussions with staff members at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), aiming to influence national health policy. In the realm of specialized health media, we have been featured guests on prominent channels like Metabolic Mind, Metabolic Link, and Dr. Eric Westman’s popular platforms. Our expertise has also been highlighted through our roles as featured speakers at major national conferences and key industry functions, solidifying our reputation as thought leaders in the field. Looking Ahead to 2026 In 2026, Toward Health will focus on scaling the nationwide screening program, expanding Employee Wellness partnerships through broker channels, advancing reimbursement and grant initiatives, and continuing to expand evidence-based metabolic, hormonal, addiction-focused, and telemedicine-driven programs nationwide. We want to thank all our supporters, patients and families who have made this movement and our practice a possibility - without you we would be stuck in our terrible sick care system. Instead we are creating real change, exemplifying the way medicine should be practice: in service of our patients and communities.

Posted by Doctor Tro at 2025-12-29 18:48:26 UTC