Today JAMA published the culmination of a project ACLM initiated over 2 years ago. In pursuing the creation of standards and guidelines in Lifestyle Medicine, ACLM sought funding and collaborators toward these ends. As the project progressed, ACPM took over the lead role and hosted the convening of a Blue Ribbon Panel in July of 2009 in Washington, DC. This project has resulted in the first consensus recommendations for competencies in Lifestyle Medicine for primary care providers, and is therefore a major milestone for American health care, for Lifestyle Medicine, and for ACLM.
Click here for 'pdf' of press release.Text of press release:
JAMA RELEASES RESULTS OF BLUE RIBBON PANEL RECOMMENDATION OF PHYSICIAN COMPETENCIES FOR LIFESTYLE MEDICINE
JAMA. 2010;304(2):202-203 (doi:10.1001/jama.2010.903)
Panel addresses competencies for prescribing lifestyle medicine as a recognized gap in physician practice.
Woodburn, OR – The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), the leading national specialty societyfor clinicians emphasizing the use of lifestyle interventions in the treatment and management of disease, is pleased to announce the publication of a competencies in Lifestyle Medicine article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Lifestyle medicine, defined as “the evidence-based practice of helping individuals and families adopt and sustain healthy behaviors that affect health and quality of life”, is the recommended first line approach for chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure affecting millions of Americans. ACLM recognizes that current medical education and practice focuses on the use of medications and procedures for most health care. While these modalities do have significant value, a Lifestyle Medicine focus on more natural, wholistic methods of achieving health will go a long way towards improving quality and patient satisfaction and decreasing health care costs. “These recommendations acknowledge what ACLM has been advocating for years,” said Wayne Dysinger, President of ACLM. “Physicians now have credible recommendations that suggest practical competency in the areas of nutrition, stress management,and exercise should be a part of their everyday practice. The scientific evidence is overwhelming that Lifestyle Medicine is a foundational element of treating patients.”
An accepted set of competencies in Lifestyle Medicine for all primary care practitioners is a major step forward in the implementation of lifestyle approaches to disease prevention as well as treatment. “Patients have long sought remedies to their ailments that treat the cause of their problem, not the symptoms with the prescriptions of more and more pills,” said Dysinger.
ACLM is pleased to have partnered with the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) and other medical specialties in the development of these competencies. We are also grateful to Lifestyle Center of America and Procter & Gamble for providing support for this initiative.
About ACLM:
ACLM is the professional society for physicians and health care practitioners passionate about Lifestyle Medicine. We provide a regular newsletter, continuing medical education, and forums for ongoing discussion and policy development/implementation in Lifestyle Medicine and other member benefits. ACLM and ACPM will jointly convene the annual meetings of the two associations – Lifestyle Medicine 2011 and Preventive Medicine 2011 – February 16-19, 2011 in San Antonio, Texas. For more information on joining or supporting ACLM please contact us at www.lifestylemedicine.org.