Advancing Yoga as Lifestyle Therapy in Family Medicine

Yoga-based care is increasingly recognized as a key element of integrative and preventive medicine, bridging physical, psychological, and behavioral domains in primary care. Despite robust evidence for yoga’s effectiveness in managing chronic low back pain, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, anxiety, depression, and other stress-related disorders, translation into everyday family medicine remains uneven. Standardization of prescriptions, dose titration, safety monitoring, and adherence assessment are often lacking. Moreover, patient experience and symptom change—central to the holistic intent of primary care—are rarely integrated into clinical decision-making. Recent advances in validated patient-reported outcome (PRO) and electronic PRO (ePRO) instruments, combined with emerging workflow artificial intelligence (AI), offer an opportunity to close this critical evidence-to-practice gap. However, the operational challenge lies in embedding these tools seamlessly into clinical workflows without overburdening clinicians or patients.In recognition of International Day of Yoga, this Research Topic aims to strengthen the evidence base and practical implementation pathways for yoga in routine family practice by focusing on PRO-driven, workflow-aware innovations. The goal is to evaluate how patient-reported data can enhance yoga prescription personalization, guide safety and adherence, and support decision-making through AI-assisted systems. Key questions include: How can validated PROs inform titration of yoga as a lifestyle therapy? What AI workflows can integrate these signals into family-medicine consultations in real time? What implementation and evaluation frameworks best preserve patient-centered care while improving efficiency? By addressing these questions, this Research Topic seeks to operationalize whole-person care that is both evidence-based and technologically enabled.To gather further insights into real-world integration, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:o Randomized, pragmatic, and real-world studies of yoga interventions for primary-care presentationso Development, validation, and cross-cultural adaptation of PRO/PROM/ePRO tools for yoga-informed primary careo Workflow AI that integrates PRO data to support yoga prescription, dose titration, adherence, and safetyo Implementation science: embedding yoga into family-medicine workflows such as group visits and social prescribingo Economic evaluation, utilization, and health-system impact analyseso Equity, accessibility, and adaptation across diverse and low-resource settingso Telehealth and hybrid delivery models for yoga with embedded PRO monitoringo Safety, risk stratification, and contraindication management in vulnerable populationso Family-physician training, competency frameworks, and shared decision-making approaches Topic editors: Kaushik Chattopadhyay, Manjunath NK, Mooventhan Aruchunan Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/83040/advancing-yoga-as-lifestyle-therapy-in-family-medicine