One Bite at a Time: Implementing Lifestyle Medicine in an Academic Medical Center

The prevalence of chronic disease is staggering, with 60% of U.S. adults affected, and 70% of adults living with overweight or obesity. Academic medical centers are a hub of activity for patient care, education, and research, and many centers care for patients who are under resourced. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine has made significant strides in developing educational courses and curricula for tomorrow's healthcare workforce and has also worked hard to collect examples of LM implementation models under their Practice Advancement and Health Systems Council efforts. Integrating lifestyle medicine into large academic medical centers requires collaboration, innovation, and a willingness to advocate for patients to a variety of health professionals and leaders. As we work to expand patient access to health professionals trained in lifestyle medicine, there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to integrating lifestyle medicine into practice.

This session will present two models for integrating lifestyle medicine into practice at a large academic medical center: an inpatient consultative service for lifestyle medicine and a six-month cohort for a shared medical appointment group program in lifestyle medicine. We will share our experience in developing a proposal for new clinical programs that gain leadership support, including specifics for patient volumes, financial metrics and patient care outcomes. We will discuss a list of stakeholders to meet with before designing a service line. Additionally, we will review various methods to recruit patients and advertise a new service line to providers. Attendees will experience a hands-on approach to developing an innovative service opportunity of their own. Participants will brainstorm a potential lifestyle medicine service line in their clinical environment, create a list of people to meet with, identify outcome measures to target, and practice an elevator speech for their new clinical program.