With Increased Virtual Treatment Programming, Eating Recovery Center Partners With Shapa Health For Numberless At-Home Weight Monitoring
Shapa U’s numberless scale pairs with a mobile app, allowing Eating Recovery Center’s care team to monitor progress of virtual patients while maintaining a safe and supportive weigh-in experience.
July 13, 2020 – DENVER, CO – In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Eating Recovery Center (ERC), the nation’s foremost healthcare system dedicated to the treatment of eating disorders, rapidly expanded its virtual treatment capacity to meet the increasing demand across the country. This included expanding its well-established Virtual Intensive Outpatient (IOP) program and creating a new Virtual Partial Hospitalization (PHP) program. With the addition of the Virtual PHP level of care, which usually requires close medical monitoring including frequent patient weigh-ins, ERC needed an innovative solution for simple, safe, at-home weight monitoring. Shapa Health proved to have that solution with Shapa U.
Shapa U is a blinded weight monitoring tool that fits seamlessly into the virtual care model. The numberless scale – which ERC provides to each Virtual PHP patient upon admission – pairs with the Shapa U mobile app, providing the care team with the at-home weigh-in results. While the care team can use the app to send weigh-in reminders, results are not revealed directly to the patient.
"Our goal was to create a seamless solution for clinicians to continue to provide accurate and compassionate care,” said Chris Harris, PhD, Head of Shapa’s Eating Disorder Program. “With the technology of Shapa U, we believe we have solved a major issue disrupting the delivery of virtual care to those with eating disorders during the COVID-19 crisis."
“When we’re treating patients at the Partial Hospitalization level of care, whether in-person or virtually, checking their vital signs, including their weight, as a marker of physiologic stability and progress towards eating-related recovery goals is usually an essential part of the support and monitoring needed,” said Anne Marie O’Melia, MS, MD, FAAP, Chief Medical and Clinical Officer at ERC. “Just as important is making sure the numbers are shared with the patient only when their care team determines it’s a helpful part of their treatment. Otherwise, weight exposures can derail a patient’s progress. Shapa U is a cutting-edge solution that allows our doctors, dietitians and therapists to manage that communication safely and effectively, individualized to each Virtual PHP patient’s needs.”
Dan Ariely, co-founder of Shapa and James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Science at Duke University, said, “With Shapa U, we have the unique opportunity to create an entirely numberless weigh-in experience for a population that has a complex relationship with weight and a scale but in which monitoring weight is an important part of tracking progress. Our goal is to bring the Shapa platform and mobile health technology to clinicians as they transition to a virtual care model that supports and sustains treatment.”
ERC’s Virtual IOP and Virtual PHP programs include treatment for eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED) and binge eating disorder. Available for children, adolescents and adults in 37 states, all virtual services are confidential, secure and supervised by a team of experienced professionals who provide the same evidence-based treatment that ERC provides onsite in their treatment centers.
Through the Shapa U Provider Portal, multiple practitioners within a practice can manage the care of their patients, allowing them to monitor progress and adjust treatment plans and care goals as necessary. With more than 500 patients in ERC’s virtual programming, this scale and collaboration is necessary to maintaining safe, seamless virtual treatment.
“With the work we’ve done delivering virtual care over the last three years, we have been well-positioned to expand patient access to virtual treatment quickly and safely during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond,” said O’Melia. “There is no doubt that partnering with Shapa U has enhanced our virtual program, especially contributing to the successful launch of our Virtual PHP programming. Our staff and our patients are already reporting positive feedback on how the Shapa U technology provides a smooth process for weight data collection.”
For more information on ERC’s virtual treatment options, referring providers and prospective patients can visit EatingRecovery.com/VirtualCare. Prospective patients and families can call 1-877-825-8584 to consult with a master’s-level clinician and schedule a free, confidential assessment.
For more information about Shapa U and to place orders, visit https://www.shapa-u.com/.
About Shapa
Shapa is based in Silicon Valley and was co-founded by social scientist and Duke University professor Dan Ariely as an innovative approach to chronic disease management and prevention. Shapa’s mission is to help people achieve their health goals by bringing to life Ariely's cutting-edge insights using human-compatible design, big data, artificial intelligence, and mobile technology. Starting with a scale, Shapa helps individuals change their behavior to prevent disease. To learn more and join the Shapa community, visit myshapa.com. In 2019 Shapa announced the licensing of Shapa HL and Shapa’s first granted US patent #10,34,152. Shapa previously announced a partnership with Vitality Group and other global healthcare providers leading in wellness and digital health for enterprises.
About Eating Recovery Center
Eating Recovery Center (ERC) is the only national behavioral health care system dedicated to the treatment of eating disorders and related conditions at their more serious stages. ERC offers best-in-class treatment programs for all patients, no matter their age or gender, struggling from eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED) and binge eating disorder, as well as co-occurring and dual diagnoses. Led by the world’s leading experts, ERC provides behavioral health recovery services through an unmatched network of over 30 locations across eight states as well as virtual programming. ERC treats adults, children and teens and offers multiple levels of care, including Inpatient, Residential, Partial Hospitalization, and Intensive Outpatient programs. For more information, please visit eatingrecoverycenter.com.
Shapa U is a blinded weight monitoring tool that fits seamlessly into the virtual care model. The numberless scale – which ERC provides to each Virtual PHP patient upon admission – pairs with the Shapa U mobile app, providing the care team with the at-home weigh-in results. While the care team can use the app to send weigh-in reminders, results are not revealed directly to the patient.
"Our goal was to create a seamless solution for clinicians to continue to provide accurate and compassionate care,” said Chris Harris, PhD, Head of Shapa’s Eating Disorder Program. “With the technology of Shapa U, we believe we have solved a major issue disrupting the delivery of virtual care to those with eating disorders during the COVID-19 crisis."
“When we’re treating patients at the Partial Hospitalization level of care, whether in-person or virtually, checking their vital signs, including their weight, as a marker of physiologic stability and progress towards eating-related recovery goals is usually an essential part of the support and monitoring needed,” said Anne Marie O’Melia, MS, MD, FAAP, Chief Medical and Clinical Officer at ERC. “Just as important is making sure the numbers are shared with the patient only when their care team determines it’s a helpful part of their treatment. Otherwise, weight exposures can derail a patient’s progress. Shapa U is a cutting-edge solution that allows our doctors, dietitians and therapists to manage that communication safely and effectively, individualized to each Virtual PHP patient’s needs.”
Dan Ariely, co-founder of Shapa and James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Science at Duke University, said, “With Shapa U, we have the unique opportunity to create an entirely numberless weigh-in experience for a population that has a complex relationship with weight and a scale but in which monitoring weight is an important part of tracking progress. Our goal is to bring the Shapa platform and mobile health technology to clinicians as they transition to a virtual care model that supports and sustains treatment.”
ERC’s Virtual IOP and Virtual PHP programs include treatment for eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED) and binge eating disorder. Available for children, adolescents and adults in 37 states, all virtual services are confidential, secure and supervised by a team of experienced professionals who provide the same evidence-based treatment that ERC provides onsite in their treatment centers.
Through the Shapa U Provider Portal, multiple practitioners within a practice can manage the care of their patients, allowing them to monitor progress and adjust treatment plans and care goals as necessary. With more than 500 patients in ERC’s virtual programming, this scale and collaboration is necessary to maintaining safe, seamless virtual treatment.
“With the work we’ve done delivering virtual care over the last three years, we have been well-positioned to expand patient access to virtual treatment quickly and safely during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond,” said O’Melia. “There is no doubt that partnering with Shapa U has enhanced our virtual program, especially contributing to the successful launch of our Virtual PHP programming. Our staff and our patients are already reporting positive feedback on how the Shapa U technology provides a smooth process for weight data collection.”
For more information on ERC’s virtual treatment options, referring providers and prospective patients can visit EatingRecovery.com/VirtualCare. Prospective patients and families can call 1-877-825-8584 to consult with a master’s-level clinician and schedule a free, confidential assessment.
For more information about Shapa U and to place orders, visit https://www.shapa-u.com/.
About Shapa
Shapa is based in Silicon Valley and was co-founded by social scientist and Duke University professor Dan Ariely as an innovative approach to chronic disease management and prevention. Shapa’s mission is to help people achieve their health goals by bringing to life Ariely's cutting-edge insights using human-compatible design, big data, artificial intelligence, and mobile technology. Starting with a scale, Shapa helps individuals change their behavior to prevent disease. To learn more and join the Shapa community, visit myshapa.com. In 2019 Shapa announced the licensing of Shapa HL and Shapa’s first granted US patent #10,34,152. Shapa previously announced a partnership with Vitality Group and other global healthcare providers leading in wellness and digital health for enterprises.
About Eating Recovery Center
Eating Recovery Center (ERC) is the only national behavioral health care system dedicated to the treatment of eating disorders and related conditions at their more serious stages. ERC offers best-in-class treatment programs for all patients, no matter their age or gender, struggling from eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED) and binge eating disorder, as well as co-occurring and dual diagnoses. Led by the world’s leading experts, ERC provides behavioral health recovery services through an unmatched network of over 30 locations across eight states as well as virtual programming. ERC treats adults, children and teens and offers multiple levels of care, including Inpatient, Residential, Partial Hospitalization, and Intensive Outpatient programs. For more information, please visit eatingrecoverycenter.com.