Lifestyle Medicine Live Course Addresses Care, Well-being

The course, coming March 18-20, 2024, to the Hyatt Regency in Newport Beach, Calif., offers participants the opportunity to network in person and earn up to 24 Live AAFP Prescribed credits as they learn about the latest evidence-based approaches to care. It is approved as a CME event prerequisite for the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine physician certification exam.

Space is limited; sign up early for a discount until Feb. 18, 2024. 

“Participants will learn how to apply lifestyle medicine concepts not only to patient care, but to staff and physician well-being,” said course co-chair Brenda Rea, M.D., Dr.P.H., P.T., R.D., Dipl. ABLM, FACLM, Lifestyle Medicine Intensivist, who is program director of the Loma Linda University Lifestyle Medicine Intensivist Fellowship Program in Loma Linda, Calif. “The environment will be relaxing and restorative so the participants can practice the lifestyle medicine principles themselves and create a wellness plan for their personal health moving forward. Joy in practice will be renewed with an anticipated reduction in burnout and moral injury.”

Incorporating lifestyle medicine into patient care and self-care “will reflect back to you the joy of practicing the art of family medicine,” said course co-chair Amy Mechley, M.D., Dipl. ABLM, FAAFP, FACLM, Lifestyle Medicine Intensivist, a volunteer assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

The full schedule, learning objectives, registration information and other details are available on the course webpage.

Multiple Learning Formats

The three-day course includes morning yoga followed by a schedule filled with sessions that use a variety of learning formats, including direct interaction with surrogate patients, team-based problem solving and the chance to practice skills in an informal settings.

Topics will include

• health coaching,
• plant-predominant nutrition,
• substance use and sleep,
• connectedness and stress,
• physical movement and more.

Attendees can register for optional workshops, with an additional fee, on culinary medicine, payment strategies for lifestyle medicine services, and health coaching and motivational interviewing. 

More Member Resources

AAFP members have access to several other resources on lifestyle medicine funded by a grant from the Ardmore Institute of Health. These include a free online CME activity on incorporating lifestyle medicine into everyday practice and an accompanying implementation guide.

Other Academy resources, such as a lifestyle medicine assessment tool and a reimbursement and coding guide, are available on the AAFP’s Healthy Lifestyle webpage. Patient-centric materials on healthy living, meanwhile, are available on the Academy’s website for patients, familydoctor.org.

Rea also recommended

• Full Plate Living, a series of free nutrition modules designed to help patients add more whole, plant-based foods to meals they already eat; and
• an American College of Lifestyle Medicine essentials course bundle (available to AAFP members at no cost with the code “ESS-AAFP” while licenses last) that offers an evidence-based introduction to lifestyle medicine with an emphasis on nutrition to prevent and treat chronic disease; is it eligible for up to 5.5 Enduring Materials, Self-Study AAFP Prescribed credits.

Check back for new resources as they become available on the Healthy Lifestyle webpage.