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Although I will be writing one more newsletter column as ACLM President, I expect that column will be primarily announcing results of our upcoming elections, so I'm going to take this opportunity to look back at the last several years and reflect a bit on the ACLM journey during that time.
 
Before I do that, however, I want to first give a big thanks to Jennifer Rooke, MD for her leadership in the new ACLM Practice Standards committee.
 
Dr. Rooke is working with a distinguished group of ACLM members from around the world to develop a set of core scientific recommendations around the practice of Lifestyle Medicine. I'm most excited about the relationship she's forged with Dr. Garry Eggers from Australia. Dr. Eggers is the author of the text "Lifestyle Medicine", and is working with Dr. Rooke on a wiki approach to ensuring that the practice standards develop with ongoing international input. Dr. Rooke exemplifies hundreds of ACLM members who are working together to make us who we are.  
 
But that wasn't the case 4 years ago. I distinctly remember the election process that took place in March of 2008.  Although the organization had existed for 4 years, it had struggled with finances and logistics. That evening in March, a small but hopeful group of current ACLM officers and members sat in a room and elected a new President - Marc Braman, MD, MPH and a new President-Elect - myself.
 
That fateful evening set ACLM on a track for success. During his 19 months as ACLM President, Marc did an amazing job of strengthening the ACLM foundation that was needed to move us into a functioning professional organization. His tireless efforts eventually led both Dr. Braman and the board to decide he was the right candidate to become our first Executive Director. In October of 2009 Marc relinquished his role as ACLM President and turned those responsibilities over to me - 5 months prior to the time I was scheduled to become President. Although there was a significant amount of foundation building to continue through 2010, as discussed in my last column, 2011 seems to have been a real break out year for Lifestyle Medicine - both as a concept as well as a professional organization.
 
Our upcoming election is so much more than a small group of passionate people making important decisions in a back room. It is a national and even international process of choosing between distinguished candidates who have spent careers developing reputations and connections that now lead them to recognizing Lifestyle Medicine as one of the predominant languages that needs to be spoken in our health care system of the future. ACLM has established traction. We are moving forward in amazing ways. I'm both curious and excited about where the road will lead next. What is clear, however, is that not only does our health care system need us, more importantly, our patients need us. And that is what gets me going every morning.

Sincerely,

Wayne Dysinger, MD, MPH
President

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