Diabetes Reversal Shared Medical Appointments
Evidence-based shared medical appointments designed to help you improve blood sugars, reduce medications, and work toward diabetes remission — led by a board-certified lifestyle medicine physician, covered by insurance, and built around a model of care that research consistently shows outperforms the traditional 15-minute appointment.
About This Program
A fundamentally different approach to diabetes care
This program is fundamentally different from the traditional approach to "controlling" diabetes. Rather than simply managing blood sugars with medications or avoiding carbohydrates to work around insulin resistance, this model focuses on addressing the root cause: insulin resistance itself.
We do this through an evidence-based, plant-forward approach, aligned with the recommendations of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. The goal is not better numbers; it is getting diabetes off your diagnosis list.
Why a group visit — and why it works better than you’d expect
Most diabetes care happens in 15-minute appointments. By the time check-in is done and the chart is reviewed, there are perhaps 7 minutes left to address a condition that took years to develop and requires real change to reverse. No physician, no matter how skilled, can do that work in 7 minutes.
This program gives you 75 minutes, six times, with a physician who has one goal: helping you reverse insulin resistance. And it surrounds you with 8 to 12 other people working toward the exact same thing.
That structure is not a compromise. It is the mechanism. Research on group medical visits consistently shows that patients learn more, change more, and stay more accountable when they go through this process together. In published studies of lifestyle medicine group programs, 97% of patients achieved or nearly achieved every health goal they set. That result is not achievable in solo care; there is simply not enough time or accountability built into a quarterly 15-minute appointment.
Who Is This For?
If any of the following describe you, this program may be a fit
Type 2 Diabetes
You have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and want to improve your blood sugars, reduce medications, and work toward remission.
Prediabetes
Your labs show prediabetes or insulin resistance, and you want to reverse course before it progresses to a full diabetes diagnosis.
Program Format
Hosted at Prisma Health Woodward Adult Medicine (877 W Faris Rd, Greenville, SC 29605)
Participants per cohort
Per visit: medical care, education, and group discussion
Sessions, meeting every two weeks
This small-group, physician-led program is designed to help individuals improve blood sugars, reduce medications, and work toward diabetes remission through evidence-based Lifestyle Medicine. Led by Dr. Beth Motley.
Why Group Visits Work
The research is clear. Here is what happens in the room.
You get more time with your physician.
Not just more time than a typical visit, but dramatically more. A traditional diabetes appointment gives you perhaps 7 minutes of real physician time. Each session here runs 75 minutes. Over the full program that is more direct physician time than most patients get from their diabetes provider in two years.
You learn more because of the people around you.
Research consistently shows this and it surprises people every time. In studies of group medical visits for diabetes, 92% of patients reported learning more about managing their condition than they ever had in traditional one-on-one care. Someone else in the room asks the question you were afraid to ask. Someone else's experience unlocks a realization you could not have reached alone. The group does not dilute the education; it multiplies it.
The accountability is built in, and it works.
Setting a goal with your doctor in a private appointment is one thing. Setting it in front of 10 other people who will ask you about it in two weeks is another. In published research on lifestyle medicine group programs, 97% of participants achieved or nearly achieved every health goal they set. That figure reflects what happens when accountability is structural rather than optional.
Something shifts when you are not alone in it.
Diabetes carries a weight that is hard to explain to someone who does not have it: the fatigue, the frustration, the feeling that you have already tried everything. One of the most consistent findings in the research on group medical visits is that patients report a profound sense of not being alone for the first time. That shift, from isolated patient to engaged member of a group, is not a soft benefit. It shows up in the lab values.
Most patients are skeptical before their first session.
That is completely normal and worth naming directly. Research shows that initial hesitation about the group format is nearly universal, and that it almost always dissolves after a single session. If you are uncertain, that uncertainty is part of the process. Come once. The program does the rest.
Schedule
Meets every two weeks for six sessions
Dates: See Events Calendar Below
Class times: 8:30 – 9:45 AM or 10:15 – 11:30 AM
What to Expect
Six sessions built on the pillars of lifestyle medicine
What Causes Diabetes? Reversing Insulin Resistance
Calorie Density, Satiety, and Alcohol
The Whole Grain Hierarchy and the Glycemic Index
Exercise and Sleep as Insulin Sensitivity Medicine
The Food Environment, Habits, and Long Term Adherence
Diabetes as a Vascular Disease: Protecting the Heart and Kidneys
Eligibility
Requirements to participate
- Current diagnosis of type 2 diabetes or prediabetes
- Established with any Prisma primary care provider and last visit within the past 12 months
- Active MyChart account for eCheck-In prior to appointments
- Willing to participate in a shared-visit format
Billing
Billed as standard office visits through your insurance
These are billed as standard office visits through your insurance, just like when you go in for an A1c check and have medication adjusted.
What the Research Shows
Outcomes from published peer-reviewed studies on lifestyle medicine group visit programs — the same evidence-based model we use.
A1c reduction in published studies
Across multiple peer-reviewed studies and meta-analyses, shared medical appointment programs have produced A1c reductions ranging from 0.5% in average-risk populations to over 2% in high-risk patients, reductions that rival adding a new medication.
Systolic blood pressure improvement
Published research consistently shows group lifestyle medicine programs improve blood pressure alongside blood sugar, addressing the cardiovascular risk that makes diabetes so dangerous over time.
Rate of medication reduction vs. standard care
In published research, patients in lifestyle medicine group programs reduced or eliminated diabetes medications at twice the rate of patients in standard care, because the program addresses the cause, not just the symptom.
Patient satisfaction rate
Across multiple studies, 90–95% of patients rate shared medical appointment programs as excellent or very good, consistently describing it as the best medical experience they have had.
Patients who learned more than in traditional care
92% of patients in diabetes group visit research reported learning more about managing their condition than they ever had in any traditional one-on-one appointment.
Statistics reflect outcomes from published peer-reviewed research on lifestyle medicine and shared medical appointment programs. Sources include meta-analyses published in CMAJ, the Journal of General Internal Medicine, and Frontiers in Endocrinology. Individual results vary. Sources available upon request.
Dr. Motley on Diabetes Reversal
Watch Dr. Motley explain the science behind reversing type 2 diabetes with lifestyle medicine
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about the Diabetes Reversal Shared Medical Appointments
Will I be comfortable talking about my health in front of other people?
The group is small (8–12 people), everyone in the room shares the same diagnosis, and Dr. Motley runs the sessions in a way that makes participation entirely voluntary. You never have to share anything you do not want to share. You can spend the first session just listening.
What the research consistently shows, and what patients in this program report, is that the discomfort is almost entirely front-loaded. After one session, most patients describe it as the best medical appointment they have ever had. The sense of being understood by people going through the same thing, combined with the depth of time and education in each session, tends to make the privacy concern feel much smaller than it did before walking in.
If you are still uncertain, come to one session. You are not committed to the full program after one visit. Come once, see how it feels, and decide from there.
Is this covered by insurance?
Do I need a referral from my doctor?
What if I am on insulin?
How is this different from typical diabetes management programs?
Can I keep seeing my current doctor while doing this?
What happens after the six sessions?
Ready to Get Started?
Space is limited. Please contact the office directly to enroll or request a referral from your PCP.
This program works best for patients who are ready to engage, not just attend. If you are at the point where you want to genuinely reverse this disease rather than manage it indefinitely, this program is designed for you.