In 2023, Renfrew’s Research and Training Departments published the groundbreaking article, Traditional vs. Virtual Partial Hospital Program for Eating Disorders: Feasibility and Preliminary Comparison of Effects, in the scholarly journal European Eating Disorder Review.
This distinguished article summarizes treatment outcomes for both Renfrew’s in-person and virtual partial hospital programs using The Renfrew Center Unified Treatment Model for Eating Disorders (UTM)®.
Renfrew’s published research follows a multi-year project that included:
- Adapting and implementing a telehealth version of “The Renfrew Center Unified Treatment Model” across all partial hospital programs.
- Assessing eating disorder and co-occurring symptoms across in-person and telehealth partial hospital programs.
- Comparing treatment outcomes for those who completed virtual programming versus in-person programming.
Results show that:
- The Renfrew Center Unified Treatment Model telehealth adaptation was feasible for staff and effective for patients.
- Individuals enrolled in in-person and telehealth partial hospital programs showed similar improvements in eating disorder symptoms, depression, and emotional avoidance by the end of treatment and at the six-month follow-up time point.
- Improvements made by the end of treatment were maintained or continued to improve by the time of the six-month follow-up.
