Medically Tailored Meals Address Malnutrition and Reduce Cost of Care

While many of us at God’s Love know that “Food is Medicine,” our research team has been actively building out the science to support that statement.

In partnership with New York-Presbyterian (NYP) and the Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), we recently launched a research study to measure the impact of medically tailored meals (MTM) on quality of life, physical functioning and use of inpatient and emergency services among patients with congestive heart failure. Dr. Rachel Bijou, a cardiologist at NYP-CUMC, is the principal investigator on the initiative. In collaboration with our partners, we have designed a rigorous study that will assess the differences in health outcomes before and after receiving six months of MTMs. We have been working closely with the Cardiology and Nutrition teams at NYP Hospital in Washington Heights to recruit eligible subjects. We anticipate recruiting approximately 65 participants.

The funding for this study came from the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP), a policy funding healthcare innovation in New York State. Recently, there has been much interest from the healthcare community on how social care services can be integrated into the standard of care for patients. MTMs are an innovative strategy to address malnutrition and lower cost of care for patients with complex illnesses.

We hope that this work will further demonstrate the impact our meals have on the lives of individuals living with serious disease and help further policies to increase access to MTMs across the state and country. We look forward to sharing results with you in the months ahead!