Integrating Lifestyle Medicine Content into Health Professions Programs

Lifestyle medicine (LM) has demonstrated clinical efficacy when utilized within chronic disease guidelines where lifestyle interventions are recommended. Integrating LM content into health professions education, such as doctor of occupational and physical therapy programs, is critically important to empower future clinicians to adequately implement therapeutic lifestyle interventions to improve their patient's health outcomes. The American College of Lifestyle Medicine Partial Academic Pathway was developed to facilitate the integration of LM content into health professions programs. In this article, we describe the Partial Academic Pathway pilot, which began in the fall of 2022 and concluded in the fall of 2023. In addition, we describe the role of two health professions, occupational therapy and physical therapy, in health promotion and management of lifestyle-related conditions. Finally, we provide an example of how LM competencies were implemented into a doctor of physical therapy curriculum. As the students learning about LM enter the workforce, they have the potential to support their patients' health through therapeutic lifestyle interventions while reducing healthcare costs and improving patient satisfaction.