Health coaching: The missing link in chronic disease management

Coaches can contribute to improved patient outcomes, writes UCI Health otolaryngologist

IN THE NEWS: A common challenge for physicians is helping their patients create lasting behavioral change.

Changing one's behavior is complex, UCI Health otolaryngologist Dr. Hamid Djalilian writes in Psychology Today.

“Making health-positive changes is hard and most people struggle with this. Nearly all patients want to get healthy, but the struggle lies in overcoming the psychological, social and environmental barriers to change.”

Health coaches, he says, can be an important link between a physician’s advice and everyday life.

“A medical practitioner can tell a patient to reduce stress, but a health coach helps them figure out how. A medical practitioner can recommend a healthy diet, but a coach guides patients through the process—one step at a time, with accountability and support.”

Djalilian sees patients at UCI Health Ear, Nose and Throat Services. An internationally recognized expert in tinnitus, hearing loss, balance disorders and facial nerve paralysis, he has authored or co-authored nearly 200 publications.

An innovator, he is on a team that recently received a patent for methods and systems that use electrical stimulation as a treatment for tinnitus, a potentially disabling condition in which sound is heard when no sound is present.

Djalilian is also a professor of otolaryngology, neurosurgery and biomedical engineering and the director of otology and neurotology in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the UC Irvine School of Medicine.

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