A blog submission by PHA Board Member and American College of Lifestyle Medicine President Dexter Shurney, MD, MBA, MPH, FACLM, DipABLM
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine defines Lifestyle Medicine (LM) as the combined use of a whole food, plant-predominant diet, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connection in a prescribed synergistic manner as a primary therapeutic modality for the treatment and reversal of chronic disease. While these positive lifestyle habits are an established component of wellness and disease prevention and a core component of Population Health, it’s the most rigorous application of these concepts and their use as “the first-line medicine” that highlights LM’s65 contribution within the larger Population Health family. In other words, LM compliments and helps to enhance the core tenets of the Population Health in powerful ways. We find that the health synergies created by prescribing a therapeutic dose, individualized to the patient, in each of the lifestyle domains simultaneously is the key to breakthrough outcomes. The change to a patient’s health is often so rapid and profound that it can necessitate a simultaneous and rapid reduction in the patient’s prescription medications.
For instance, type-2 diabetics receiving an intensive LM prescription will often need to reduce their insulin dose by one-half within the first week of treatment to avoid a potentially harmful medication overdose (hypoglycemic) situation. Because of this often-rapid change for the need of medications, partnership with an appropriately trained LM practitioner is important, working hand-in-hand with other population health teammates, to provide the proper patient support and education is ideal.
LM is a powerful intervention, for the simple fact that lifestyle is at the center of so many common chronic conditions like heart disease, type-2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, obesity, dementia, and cancer. Therefore, a single but comprehensive LM intervention can be used to treat multiple disease states. For example, the type-2 diabetic that is experiencing a reduction in the need for insulin will also see an average reduction of 20% in their cholesterol numbers within 7-8 weeks, assuming their cholesterol was elevated to start with. When explaining LM I sometime use the analogy of vegetable gardening. When a plant has the proper soil, sun exposure, and water (not too much/not too little), the entire plant is healthy. The same is true for the human organism. Given the proper sleep, physical activity, nutrition, stress, etc. we see improvements in all the most common chronic conditions (diabetes, obesity, hypertension, heart disease, etc.), i.e. the “entire” human organism becomes healthy. It makes sense that for the 80+ percent of preventable chronic conditions that are rooted in poor lifestyle, that a lifestyle directed treatment option would prove to be tremendously effective.
Population health is a team sport. The complimentary role of Lifestyle Medicine as part of the Population Health Management framework is of vital importance and cannot be overemphasized.
About ACLM: Founded in 2004, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the medical professional society for physicians and other professionals dedicated to clinical and worksite practice of Lifestyle Medicine as the foundation of a transformed and sustainable health care system. ACLM educates, equips, empowers and supports its members as they provide evidence-based Lifestyle Medicine as the first treatment option in clinical practice and worksite settings through live and online CME-accredited events and educational offerings, certification, clinical practice tools, patient education resources, economic research, networking opportunities and advocacy efforts.
Ms. Polak is a senior director based in Washington, D.C. In her role, she provides policy counsel and analysis to clients with matters involving regu-lations, legislation, and business implications. Anne Marie’s experience includes developing strategic messages and policy positions for Capitol Hill, administration, trade associations, and corporate audiences. Prior to joining Leavitt Partners, Anne Marie was a vice president for Faegre BD Consulting in the firm’s health and biosciences group. She also spent five years with the Podesta Group in Washington, D.C., while completing her law degree in the evenings at the George Mason University School of Law, graduating cum laude in 2010. Anne Marie also worked in the government and legal affairs office of Novo Nordisk in Washington, D.C., and as a congressional aide to Rep. Michael Ferguson of New Jersey.
Dr. Fabius has recently returned to his start up. HealthNEXT, a company dedicated to the development of organizational cultures of health — after serving as Chief Medical Officer of Truven Health Analytics (formerly the healthcare business of Thomson Reuters), the world’s leading source of intelligent information for business and professionals. In this capacity he is charged with developing and deepening relationships with customers, advising on product development, and providing counsel to the leadership on business strategy and medical issues. Formerly, Dr. Fabius served as strategic advisor to the President of Walgreens Health & Wellness Division. This organization will coordinate over 1,000 workplace health centers and 10,000 pharmacies, many with retail clinics, into a seamless primary care network across the country within the next five years. In the not too distant future, it will be possible to offer large employers medical and fitness services on-site as well as episodic illness care, health coaching and disease management monitoring at the employee’s nearest Walgreens pharmacy.
Mr. Buettner is an explorer, National Geographic Fellow, award-winning journalist and producer, and a New York Timesbestselling author. He discovered the five places in the world—dubbed Blue Zones—where people live the longest, healthiest lives. His articles about these places in The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic are two of the most popular for both publications.
Ms. Cooney provides strategic direction for the Centers three Pillars of Population Health – Clinical to Community Connections, Health Equity and the Social Determinants of Health, and Public Health Data Analytics and Informatics. Mary Ann previously worked for 14 years at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services where she was Deputy Commissioner for the Department and Director of Public Health.
Mr. Scully is a General Partner in the Healthcare Group, having joined WCAS in 2004. Before joining WCAS, he was the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for three years and the President and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals for six years. He also served as the Deputy Assistant to the President and as the Associate Director of OMB under President GHW Bush from 1989 to 1993, and has practiced law at Alston and Bird; Patton Boggs; and Akin, Gump, Strauss Hauer and Feld. He is a Principal at the Lincoln Policy Group.
Dr. Don Wright has served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health and Director of the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) since January 2012. In this capacity, he leads coordination and policy development for public health and prevention activities within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He is also currently the acting Executive Director of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition.
Dr. Sidorov is a board-certified in general internal medicine physician with more than 25 years of experience in primary care, inpatient care, medical education and evidence-based practice. Jaan believes physician leadership throughout the continuum of care is the bedrock of value-based care delivery. He received his medical degree from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, and completed his internship and residency at the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire. Jaan also served as a Chief Resident at Reading Hospital in Reading, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Ostrovsky is a practicing physician, social entrepreneur, and health policy expert who specializes in human-centered design, lean manage-ment, quality improvement, population health, and digital health. Dr. Ostrovsky was most recently the Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS), the nation’s largest insurer covering over 74 million people, annually.
Dr. Choice is vice president and medical director for physical medicine services at American Specialty Health (ASH). Dr. Choice oversees the Rehabilitation Services Clinical Quality Evaluation program and leads the content development, training and clinical quality processes for ASH’s musculoskeletal health and pain management products.
Ms. Forte is responsible for leading Tufts Health Public Plans expansion efforts. Prior to her current position, she was vice president of care management for all Public Plans members.
As Director of Strategic Initiatives, Ms. Bowman oversees new social needs intervention initiatives among our clinical partners — including program design, resource database build-outs, and integration of Health Leads’ signature technology, Reach. Elise brings 10 years of direct service experience to her role, having previously served as a Health Leads program manager, a case manager for adults struggling with mental illness and homelessness, and in developing parent engagement initiatives in public education settings.
Mr. Johnson leads the Sage Consulting’s work for a number of public sector, corporate, non-profit and multi-employer clients. David brings particular expertise in evidence-based workplace wellness programs and leveraging Behavioral Economics principles in Human Resources Management. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at Towson University.
Dr. Wadhwa is a leader in building population health programs for vulnerable populations. He serves as the senior vice president of market innovation and is the chief health officer for Solera Health where he is focused on scaling the Diabetes Prevention Program as well as health-related, social support interventions. Previously, Sandeep held population health leadership positions with 3M and McKesson. He also served as the State Medicaid Director for Colorado under its former Governor. While there, he oversaw a $4 billion program and led the effort to implement an accountable care collaborative. Sandeep also serves on the board of Reinvestment Fund, a $1 billion non-profit, financial institute devoted to revitalizing low-income neighborhoods. Sandeep continues to see patients at the Seniors Clinic at the University of Colorado Hospital where he serves as associate clinical professor in the division of Geriatric Medicine.
Focused on the intersection of information technology, informatics, clinical medicine and innovation, Dr. Jain is VP and Chief Health Informatics Officer at IBM Watson Health. He was Co-Founder, Senior VP and Chief Medical Officer of Explorys, Inc. formed in 2009 based on innovations that he developed while at the Cleveland Clinic. In April 2015, Explorys was acquired by IBM as an integral component of the newly formed Watson Health business unit. In 2017, he was appointed by Congress to the Federal Health IT Advisory Committee established by the 21st Century Cures Act.
Ms. Maljanian is an accomplished senior executive with more than 25 years of experience in the health care industry. Rose’s leadership experience
John Haughton MD, MS