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Health at Every Size® Healthcare Provider Listing

Clarissa O’Conor, MD, CLC

(she/her)

resident doctor

PCC Dr. Burdick Family Health Center
Chicago,
Illinois,
United States

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Takes Insurance
Sliding Scale Available
In-Network Insurance Companies:
- Essential Health Partners
- Aetna Better Health
- Blue Cross Community Health
- Cigna
- Clear Spring Health
- County Care
- Meridian
- Molina
- United Healthcare Medicare Advantage
- Wellcare
Specialties & Areas of Focus:
- Type 2 Diabetes
- Hypertension
- High Blood Pressure
- Addiction Medicine
- Opioid Use Disorder
- Lactation
- Breastfeeding
- Prenatal Care
Age Groups Served:
- Children (birth through 12 years)
- Teens (13-18 years old)
- Adults (18 years old and up)
- Older Adults (65+ years old)
Languages Services Offered In:
- English

My Philosophy of Care

As a family medicine resident doctor, it is a privilege to care for people across their lifespans, from pregnancy and newborn care until end-of-life. Practicing from a weight-neutral and HAESⓇ framework allows me to truly partner with my patients to achieve their health goals, by supporting them and offering evidence-based strategies to prevent and treat chronic health conditions, all of which have nothing to do with weight or weight-loss. As a family doctor, I specialize in treating chronic conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes. These are also the conditions that are blamed the most on body size, in direct contradiction to available research and basic tenants of physiology. I have found that many patients have a great deal of shame around these diagnoses, having been told for years by doctors that they are to blame for these chronic health conditions. My goal is to support my patients in unlearning this shame and blame and help them feel empowered to manage their health conditions with the medications and screening tests we know will help prevent long-term complications like kidney failure, heart disease and strokes. The inability for fat patients to receive this evidence-based care due to medical anti-fatness and weight stigma is nothing short of a human rights violation, and deeply intersects with other systems of oppression. Providing HAESⓇ-informed primary care is a joy and privilege, and I look forward to continuing to learn and improve how I do this.

About Me & My Practice

I first became interested in the Health at Every SizeⓇ framework in medical school, where it helped me weed through the weight-stigmatizing things we were being taught and opened my eyes to how pernicious and widespread anti-fatness and weight stigma is in healthcare. I am currently a family medicine resident doctor, which means that I have graduated from medical school and am in a training period under the supervision of more experienced doctors. I will graduate from residency in 2024 and will then be able to practice independently. I have a special interest in addiction medicine and hope to pursue extra training in this field after residency. I am also a Certified Lactation Counselor (CLC) and love supporting families through the journey of breast/chestfeeding. I promote the HAESⓇ framework as widely as I can and share research and resources with my colleagues. Outside of work, I love to break out my pasta machine and cook for friends, explore Chicago farmers markets, and cuddle with my cat, Thanos.

Accessibility Considerations

Unfortunately, my office is not accessible for patients of all body sizes. The chairs in our waiting room have arms, and there are some wider chairs available. The weight limit of our exam tables is 500 pounds. We only have one size of gowns and three sizes of adult blood pressure cuffs. Patients are asked to be weighed at every visit, and the Federally Qualified Health Center I work for requires that BMI is recorded and flagged in our electronic medical records. The other doctors in my office unfortunately do not subscribe to the HAESⓇ framework.

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