Partnerships

Since its inception in 1991, The Institute for Functional Medicine has inspired the development of functional medicine-related services, products, educational programs, and more (see figure)—all in response to the growing interest and demand for this clinical model, ultimately forming the functional medicine “ecosystem.” IFM isn’t capable of dedicating sufficient resources (nor in-house expertise) to simultaneously advance all of these critical components of the movement by itself. Therefore, we invite, engage, and formalize partnerships to facilitate, empower, and support our core objectives of expanding reach and capacity, improving clinical and practice skills, strengthening the evidence base, and catalyzing and integrating emerging trends.

As a result of IFM partnerships:

• • Numerous academic medicine, nutrition, and residency programs have participated in IFM’s education courses.
  • Practice efficiency tools such as LivingMatrix are saving clinicians one hour in patient visits every day; LivingMatrix has quickly become the largest database of functional medicine patient cases.
  • Patient outcomes research demonstrating the clinical and financial benefits of using the functional medicine model are in progress at major academic health centers, self-insured employers, and health systems.
  • The first-of-its-kind training and certification program for functional medicine health coaches is now available through the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy.

IFM’s 2020-2021 Annual Report highlights the organization’s work to empower confident and competent practitioners, advance health equity, increase access, and improve the overall delivery of patient care, all of which helps ensure the widespread adoption of functional medicine.