Allison Aase, DO, MPH

Approach to care

• What does it look like for you to provide care to patients in larger bodies? How is, or isn’t, your approach different from how you care for patients in smaller bodies? If you work with children, how is or isn’t your approach different when working with children?

  I work to approach patients in larger bodies the same as patients in smaller bodies. The patients' goals and autonomy are always most important. When discussing preventative care, I like to focus on risk factors, family history, and lifestyle, and I never bring up weight unless a patient would like to discuss it. I understand that folks in larger bodies often experience significant bias in our healthcare system and try to avoid stigmatizing practices. As far as children, we often weigh kids (especially babies) to ensure adequate growth, but otherwise my approach is the same as adults. I never counsel children/teens to lose weight.

• What is your perspective on how weight is or is not related to health?

  I do not believe weight is linked to health, and I do not believe weight is a risk factor for disease.

• Finish this sentence: “Fat people are…” 

  people!

• How do you, your clinic, and the healthcare system you work in use BMI (i.e BMI cutoffs for accessing certain services, BMI on charts and printouts, etc)? Is this flexible?

  I personally do not use BMI when managing patients and do not think it is a useful tool in managing a patient's health. Unfortunately it is still heavily relied on and integrated into our healthcare system, but I do my best to delete it from documentation and remove associated diagnoses from problem lists when I see it.

• If a patient declines to be weighed, how do you and/or your staff proceed?

  That is completely acceptable- you have autonomy over your own body and get to make decisions about your healthcare. In children and/or patients with disordered eating or other relevant medical conditions, I will sometimes discuss taking blind weights so we can monitor trends, but this is ultimately up to the patient and their goals.

• If a patient declines to discuss weight loss, nutrition, and/or exercise, how do you proceed?

  I never discuss weight loss with patients unless they bring it up. If a patient does not want to discuss nutrition/exercise, that is perfectly acceptable and we can move along.

• What does the physical accessibility of your office space look like? What kinds of accommodations are present for people in larger bodies? Are there things you wish were in place that are currently not? 

  We have many providers in our clinic that practice weight-neutral medicine and many of our support staff are familiar with these practices. There is always room for improvement though. We could improve on having more accessible exam tables for patients with larger bodies.

• What do you do to allow fat people to feel comfortable and welcome in your office? 

  I try my best to make sure that every patient feels supported and safe in our care. I clearly identify that I do not believe weight is an indicator of health. Myself and other weight-neutral providers in our office are continually working to further these discussions with our colleagues and coworkers to create a more welcoming healthcare space.

• If you’d like to use this space to talk about any identities (gender, race, size, sexuality, etc.) you hold and how this relates to your care, please do so. 

  I am a cis-gender, able-bodied, white woman and recognize the privilege that these identities provide me.