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Literature review demonstrates shared medical appointments improve health outcomes and equity in chronic disease care.
The escalating global burden of chronic disease, increasing health inequities, and provider burnout require innovative care models. Shared medical appointments (SMAs) are group-based interventions with potential to advance the Quintuple Aim framework: patient experience, population health, cost reduction, provider wellbeing, and health equity. This review critically synthesizes evidence regarding SMAs’ capacity to meet the Quintuple Aim in lifestyle and chronic disease care. Peer-reviewed studies, including systematic reviews, RCTs, and observational research, were selected through biomedical database searches including Medline CINHAL Joanna Briggs Institute and PubMed. Criteria: SMAs (and other related terms) addressing one or more Quintuple Aim domains. Strong evidence supports enhanced patient satisfaction, timely access, and communication in SMAs. Population health shows improved outcomes for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, COPD, and prenatal care. Cost-effectiveness is achievable with effective design. Provider wellbeing benefits include reduced burnout and improved teamwork. SMAs advance health equity, providing effective models for Indigenous, rural, and disadvantaged cohorts. SMAs align robustly with the Quintuple Aim and demonstrate multi-domain impacts. Chronic disease and lifestyle medicine practitioners and health services should consider their broad adoption and ongoing local adaptation.
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Stevens et al. (2026) studied this question.
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