Groups of patients going to see one physician in shared medical appointments are gaining ground.

A New York Times article on the topic reports: “Shared medical appointments are still relatively rare, but they are slipping into a system rife with 15-minute doctor visits, nearly doubling in popularity in the last 10 years, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. And they are being seen as one weapon for fighting fast-rising diseases like diabetes, which threaten to overburden the healthcare system.”