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Michelle L. Thompson, DO, AOBFP, ABOIM, DipABLM, FACLM

Director of Lifestyle Medicine
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Hermitage, Pennsylvania, United States

Dr. Thompson is triple board-certified in lifestyle, integrative, and osteopathic family medicine, incorporating culinary medicine and mind-body skills into her patient care, along with teaching medical students, interns, residents, and attendings at UPMC since 2006. As the medical director for Lifestyle Medicine, she is leading the initiative to place self-care in the center of patient care and employee health. She is changing the way medical education and residency are taught, placing lifestyle medicine at the center of their training, overseeing family, internal medicine, and PM&R programs. Dr Thompson has served as Chair of Medicine, Vice Chief of Staff, created a Doctors in the Kitchen-Food as Medicine, along with a Physician Wellness program. An avid educator and faculty member for LECOM, PCOM, and UPSOM, she has taken traditional journal clubs for the residents into the teaching kitchen and designed lifestyle medicine grand rounds offered virtually system-wide.

Dr. Thompson has transformed the way health care is offered in primary care and her community, offering free classes, group medical visits, and empowering people to take control of their health. She has received many awards and grants for her community work, where she brought the Dr Yum Project, teaching nutrition to children and their families. Her pop-up teaching kitchen she designed, moves through the community teaching the daily dozen and pillars of lifestyle medicine.

As a Champion for UPMC Physician Thrive, she is a fierce advocate for physician wellness and stopping burnout. Dr Thompson created full-day programs for physicians and nurses to learn tools for resilience and self-care. Dr Thompson was featured in the New York Times on several occasions for her work in physician burnout, mind-body skills groups for physicians, and implementations of AI in healthcare. She was featured in the recent documentary Going Om discussing the health benefits of sound therapy as a tool in healing.

She is an advocate for system change and has been a pioneer in changing the way health care is delivered.

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