Abstract Details

Title Exercise-centered Shared Medical Appointments for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome: Early Insights

Topic Practice, Policy, and Ethics

Presentation(s) P10 - Poster Session 10 (8:00 AM-9:00 AM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 14-010

Objective We describe a single-center experience with novel exercise-centered shared medical appointments (SMAs) for symptom management in Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).

Background POTS is a chronic condition featuring diverse comorbidities, complicated by frequently inconsistent medication response. SMAs have gained recent popularity in the management of many chronic diseases as a platform for providers to deliver care to a group of patients at once, increasing efficiency and offering a sense of patient-patient community. Exercise can improve symptom control in POTS; it is unknown whether SMAs are an effective avenue for exercise-focused education.

Design/Methods All patients with POTS seen at the Cleveland Clinic between 2022 and 2025 were recommended to participate in the exercise-centered SMA. The SMA provided exercise recommendations and templates specific to POTS, with an emphasis on strategies to overcome symptom barriers to physical activity. The Composite Autonomic Symptom Score-31 (COMPASS-31) questionnaire was used to assess symptom burden before and after the SMA; lower scores equal less symptom burden. Paired t-tests were used to compare COMPASS-31 scores between collected timepoints.

Results Of 376 patients who attended an SMA, 106 completed the COMPASS-31 before and after their session, with 76 of these patients completing an additional COMPASS-31 at six-month follow-up. COMPASS-31 scores were significantly improved following the SMA (mean decrease of -4.04 +/- 11.49 from baseline, p = 0.0005), and improvement persisted at six months (mean decrease of -7.00 +/- 13.19 from baseline, p < 0.0001). Patients who attended more than one SMA did not demonstrate different COMPASS-31 scores from patients who attended only one SMA.

Conclusions The exercise-centered SMA allows providers to efficiently provide exercise counseling to multiple patients at once. Early analysis suggests patients report lower autonomic symptom burden following SMA-provided exercise counseling; additional study is needed to determine which patients will benefit most from this intervention.

Authors/Disclosures
Ryan Rilinger PRESENTER	Mr. Rilinger has nothing to disclose.
Mackaleigh A. Levine, Research Coordinator	Ms. Levine has nothing to disclose.
Robert G. Wilson, DO (cleveland clinic)	Dr. Wilson has nothing to disclose.

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