Preventive Integrative Medicine
It is a truism that prevention is better than cure. In the context of the interactions of the field of medicine with general human health and wellbeing, Multiplin goes one step further: "promotion is better than prevention". The focus of our services in this integrative area is on promoting the highest attainable level of health and fitness within the context of the specific individual; preventing disease is merely part of this process. Our approach to preventive medicine integrates cutting-edge knowledge from mainstream medicine and alternative/complementary approaches in the promotion of excellent health. Although our focus is primarily on catering for the needs of the busy professional, the services in this area could be of benefit to anyone.

Preventive Integrative Medicine our term for the science that integrates knowledge from mainstream and complementary approaches to health, and brings these together in practicable strategies suited to the individual for the promotion of excellent health. People who wish to promote excellent health are often left to explore "alternative" schools of medicine and health. Many of these lack the scientifically robust foundation that mainstream medicine has. On the other hand, mainstream medicine can be slow in its development in areas where vast amounts of research are not clinically demanded. Hence the need for an integrative approach to preventive medicine and the promotion of excellent health. Part of this covers part of the scope of the work conducted for the Malie Fourie Foundation.

General Health Promotion for the Busy Professional
In meeting professional demands, people have to focus on maintaining strategic perspective to ensure that they are doing the right things in the best way. This takes time and energy. As a busy professional, a person can easily lose sight of doing the right things in the best way (suited to him or her) for personal health and wellbeing (this includes professionals in the field of medicine itself). Knowledge of what to do must be combined with a strategy for how to do it (in the context of the particular individual). Everyone can benefit from maintaining a healthy body mass, and promoting general excellent health. In fact, from a professional point of view, such promotion inevitably leads to enhanced performance and increased productiveness.

It is lack of strategy in the context of maintaining a healthy body mass that causes some people to engage in ineffective (or dangerous) dieting and/or sporadic exercise. Instead, what is needed is a sustainable shift in lifestyle that takes into consideration the habits and desires of the specific individual, and his or her time constraints. This is the only way to maintain what is achieved. Attaining your ideal body mass should indeed always be part of a strategy for promoting excellent health (not merely "losing weight").

Mitigation of Risk Factors Identified in Primary Screening
Where a risk factor (or combination of factors) has been identified during a routine check-up (with the GP), the mainstream clinical physician invariably does not have time to provide structured advice as to how the client should implement changes in lifestyle (both in terms of what to do and how to do it). Hence the need for a dedicated service that caters for the needs of the particular individual in the particular situation: he or she is equipped with the most relevant knowledge for prevention/amelioration, and personalised strategies for putting that knowledge into practice.

Specific Service: Personal Health Promotion
Our service is tailored to the needs of every individual client:

Step 1: You start by sending a request for our questionnaire to prohealth@multiplin.com. (Please note that this service will not be available between 24 December 2008 and 26 January 2009).

Step 2: You fill in the questionnaire (which will then give our consultants and physicians an idea about your specific needs and aims).

Step 3: At this point, you will be quoted for the development of a personalised programme and follow-up support, since we will know what the programme will need to cover and the extent of follow-up that will be required.

Step 4: You will then probably be asked to answer some additional questions, before finalising your personalised programme. All communications are, of course, strictly confidential.

Step 5: We will follow up with you in the appropriate manner, providing any necessary further guidance and support.

The service is designed to cater for any person who simply wants realistically to promote personal health and wellbeing (and hence to promote maximum vitality and productiveness) and also for people who have had their basic health screen (at primary care level) and now, whether any problem area was identified or not, wish to design and to implement a personalised programme that is realistic for them. Our approach specifically takes into account the demands of being a busy professional. Time is a limited commodity, and any strategy to promote healthy behaviours must be mindful of this. In other words, our service caters for:

-Anyone who wishes to design and to implement a realistic personalised programme to maintain excellent health within the context of the demands of busy professional life.

-Anyone whose primary health screen has identified a lifestyle-related condition, and hence wishes to design and to implement a realistic personalised programme to ameliorate the condition and at the same time to maintain excellent health.

Dr Roché Steyn coordinates the service in this area, in collaboration with a number of physicians. The client will be informed of all those who were involved in developing his or her personalised programme.