In-Person Workshop: Lifestyle Medicine Implementation and Growth in Health Systems

Workshop Description: Lifestyle medicine (LM) is spreading across healthcare systems in the US. Currently, there are 116 LM programs represented in the ACLM Health Systems Council (HSC; December 2024). To amplify this growth, it is crucial for LM programs to leverage research-based findings about LM programming, share their own LM program experiences, and strategize applications to their own programs. Thus, the purpose of this workshop is to bring together representatives from existing and developing LM programs, as well as from the ACLM HSC project research team. Together, we will collectively learn, share, brainstorm, and synthesize elements of successful LM programs in the interest of making LM more accessible to all. This workshop builds upon results from our ACLM HSC Case Series study protocol (Ames ML, et al, 2024). For this study, we recruited 8 volunteer health systems from the HSC and employed purposive sampling to include systems that varied according to size, geography, program maturity, and patient population. We interviewed a total of 68 multi-disciplinary LM affiliates across these 8 health systems, including LM physicians, nurses, physician associates, executives, psychiatrists, dietitians, health coaches, nurses, billing officers, and program directors. We will present findings from our study that contextualize key components of successful LM programs. These key components include site champions, the team of system-wide LM supporters, supportive health system leadership, shared medical appointments, employee pilot launches, and evidence-based and multi-disciplinary team-based care. In addition, we will present a causal-loop diagram (CLD) that describes how the components of success interact with each other across health systems to influence LM program effectiveness. Two brief research presentations will be interwoven with collaborative group activities to brainstorm and apply concepts to their own programs. There will also be ample time for participants to share experiences and ideas with each other in the spirit of team-based LM program growth. The target audience for this workshop is all involved in LM program implementation, operation, and growth. We also hope to include those that are considering launching their own LM programs. In short, everyone who is curious about everything from how to get started to small tweaks to big ideas to bring to their own programs will benefit from participation. All clinicians, executives, and leadership that are invested in LM programming are invited to attend. We also extend a special invitation to all members of the ACLM HSC.