Walk With A Doctor

Q&A with Rajashree Menon — India Lead

Aaditya Khemuka
Jul 10, 2017 · 4 min read

Rajashree Menon is a healthcare and lifesciences industry professional. Rajashree has spent over two decades in the pharmaceutical industry; her most recent role was Marketing Director at Sanofi in India. Rajashree is currently advising digital health start-ups involved in providing affordable care solutions.

Her latest project — Walk With A Doctor — is seeking to rebuild the doctor-patient relationship and also create awareness about importance of physical activity.

walkwithadoc.org

https://www.facebook.com/Walk-With-A-Doc-India-1314681385293996/

Source: CNN Heroes Dr. David Sabgir

1. What is Walk With A Doctor?

Walk with a Doctor is a unique physican-led walking program focused on encouraging physical activity among patients. Each free local walk is hosted by a doctor so that in addition to the health benefits everyone enjoys just by walking, they get the chance to talk with their patients while they walk.

2. How did this program start?

Walk With A Doc program was pioneered by Dr David Sabgir, a Cardiologist from Ohio. It has its roots in his learnings from observing patients in his clinic for over a decade. As a cardiologist, he thought he was doing everything he could to help his patients. He spent extra time during appointments, listening to their issues and giving advice on how to live a healthier life. But in his own words “In the end, I just wasn’t successful at encouraging them to get out there and get physically active.”

Heart disease is the number one killer in America. But 80% of cardiovascular disease is preventable with more exercise and simple lifestyle changes. Yet Sabgir found that only five percent of his patients were getting the recommended 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity. He was frustrated, so one day he asked a few patients to meet him and his family in the park to take a walk. That was the first Walk, in 2005, where 101 people showed up. After ten years, there are 301 WWAD chapters spread across 44 states in USA.

3. What motivated you to bring WWAD to India?

The healthcare scenario in India is equally grim with heart disease & stroke being the leading killers and doctors facing similar challenge of motivating their patients to inculcate some form of exercise in their daily lives. Walk with a Doc has helped thousands commit to a healthy lifestyle in USA and we wish to make this program help many Indians commit to a healthy lifestyle under the able guidance of doctors here. I found an ideal sponsor in GOQii, the leading wearable health & fitness company working towards prevention of circulatory disorders by making people adopt a healthy lifestyle.

4. How does the WWAD event work?

The walk starts with a brief talk on a health topic of interest (8–10 minutes), followed by walking (30–45 minutes), a 5 minutes wrap-up session, and the announcement of next date for the walk. Walkers have the opportunity to interact with the doctor throughout the Walk to ask questions and simply walk with them. The Walk setting can be a community park, a promenade like Marine Drive or even an expansive shopping mall. These informal interactions help to empower the patient, make them more aware of their disorders, and help them manage their health more effectively. Benefits accrue both for doctors and walkers when the walk frequency is maintained over time.

5. What is the support you have received from the healthcare ecosystem (doctors, hospitals, others)?

Doctors from multiple disciplines, Cardiologists, Diabetologists, Endocrinologists, Orthopedicians, Laparoscopic surgeons have expressed their eagerness to do walks with their patient communities. Nutritionists & Integrated health practitioners have also signed up as Walk Leaders.

6. What was the feedback from your first WWAD event in Mumbai?

The maiden walk was conducted by Dr Aashish Contractor, head of Dept-Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine at Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital on 18th June at Marine Drive promenade. The walk began with Dr. Aashish taking the walkers through the basics of understanding the Heart health. Over 50-people attended the first walk. Dr Bipin Chandra Bhambre, Dr Jaini Patel, dr Chandan Poddar and Dr. Richa Nadkarni from Sir H N Reliance Foundation hospital along with Dr. Akshat Chadha — head of medical services at GOQii attended the walk as well. The walk ended with a summation by Dr. Contractor.

“It was wonderful to see the enthusiastic response of the patients, inspite of rainy weather. They enjoyed the walk and were interested in both learning and walking more,” said Dr. Contractor.

Most walkers present were over the age of 50 and found the initiative ‘Walk with A Doc’ a very encouraging concept. They felt that the whole walk was so different from the regular walks that they have attended in the past.

Rahul Nandkeolyar who was one of the walker had this to say, “Not having been much of a walker, I actually walked approx. 5 km in about 45–50 minutes. Felt good. I am now going to walk regularly around my home.”

7. How do you see the WWAD event growing ?

We have received very enthusiastic response to Walk With A Doc program from the doctor community. Against the backdrop of being home to the largest population of individuals with Hypertension, Diabetes & other lifestyle related disorders, doctors recognize the need for such a program to help patients & their families inculcate walking into their daily lives & reap the benefits of this simple very do-able action.

We would love to hear from doctors interested in participating in Walk With A Doctor!

For more details please write to us at research@happidoc.com

Aaditya Khemuka

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Building tools to enhance interaction between - physicians, patients, and healthcare industry

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