Lifestyle Medicine

American College of Lifestyle Medicine Announces Addition of Integrated Health Care System Spectrum Health to its Lifestyle Medicine Corporate Roundtable

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine has announced the addition of health system innovator Spectrum Health to its Corporate Roundtable. The Grand Rapids, MI-based integrated health system has incorporated lifestyle medicine into their organization, with a focus on culinary medicine, a specialty lifestyle medicine practice, as well as research and residency training.

**Sharing on behalf of The American College of Lifestyle Medicine**

ST. LOUIS, Mo. Feb., 11, 2021–The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has announced the addition of health system innovator Spectrum Health to its Corporate Roundtable. The ACLM Corporate Roundtable convenes thought leaders and industry professionals to explore effective clinical innovations, activate marketing strategies, accelerate reimbursement and policy adoption, and pursue research and demonstrations of lifestyle medicine in practice. The Roundtable launched in 2015 and has grown to include more than 30 active member organizations in the lifestyle medicine ecosystem.

Lifestyle medicine programs have been under development at Spectrum Health, an integrated health system in Michigan, for nearly five years. Beginning with a focus on culinary medicine which has blossomed into a national model for food as medicine, the organization has invested in formalizing and expanding its Lifestyle Medicine Department and this month opens a specialty practice located within an expansive community teaching kitchen in downtown Grand Rapids.

Research and education have been foundational to lifestyle medicine at Spectrum Health, including the implementation of ACLM’s Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum in the Spectrum Health Family Medicine residency program in 2020 and ongoing culinary medicine programs since 2017.

Lifestyle medicine is defined as the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic intervention—including a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connection—as a primary modality, delivered by clinicians trained and certified in this specialty, to prevent, treat, and often reverse chronic disease.

“Lifestyle medicine is how Spectrum Health is adding health to health care and pivoting away from an exclusively sick-care model,” said Kristi Artz, MD, DipABLM, medical director of Spectrum Health’s Lifestyle Medicine practice. “Digital and virtual modalities are central to how we plan to scale to meet the pervasive need in the community, including Spectrum Health team members, patients, health plan members and community members who have lifestyle-related risks and chronic disease. Virtual consults, shared medical appointments and prescribing of mobile health apps, digital therapeutics and devices are key components of our lifestyle medicine practice within Spectrum Health.”

“We are excited to formalize our affiliation with ACLM as its newest Corporate Roundtable member,” reflects Leanne Mauriello, PhD, director of Lifestyle Medicine at Spectrum Health. “Lifestyle medicine is foundational to Spectrum Health’s vision to offer personalized health made simple, affordable and exceptional. As we developed our strategic and business plans for lifestyle medicine, we relied heavily upon the expertise and collaboration of ACLM and their partners including Corporate Roundtable members. We already partner with Wellcoaches and the Lifestyle Medicine Institute to license the Complete Health Improvement Program, and we are eager to grow and expand our collaboration with other ACLM roundtable members.”

“It is so important for health systems to integrate lifestyle medicine into their research, education and patient care services,” said ACLM President Cate Collings, MD, MS, FACC, DipABLM. “By doing so, Spectrum Health is helping treat the root cause of chronic disease, which lowers costs and improves outcomes—the very definition of value-based care. We welcome Spectrum Health into our Corporate Roundtable.”

ABOUT SPECTRUM HEALTH: Spectrum Health System, a not-for-profit, integrated health system, is committed to improving the health and wellness of our communities. We live our mission every day with 31,000 compassionate professionals, 4,600 medical staff experts, 3,300 committed volunteers and a health plan serving one million members. Our talented physicians and caregivers are privileged to offer a full continuum of care and wellness services to our communities through 14 hospitals, including Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, 150 ambulatory sites and telehealth offerings. We pursue health care solutions for today and tomorrow that diversify our offerings. Locally-governed and based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, our health system provided $585 million in community benefit in fiscal year 2019. Thanks to the generosity of our communities, we received $30 million in philanthropy in the most recent fiscal year to support research, academics, innovation and clinical care. Spectrum Health has been recognized as one of the nation’s 15 Top Health Systems by Truven Health Analytics®, part of IBM Watson HealthTM. Learn more at http://www.spectrumhealth.org.

ABOUT THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF LIFESTYLE MEDICINE: ACLM is the medical professional society for those dedicated to the advancement and clinical practice of lifestyle medicine as the foundation of a transformed and sustainable health care system. Lifestyle medicine is the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic intervention—including a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connection—as a primary modality, delivered by clinicians trained and certified in this specialty, to prevent, treat, and often reverse chronic disease.

More than a professional association, ACLM is a galvanized force for change. ACLM addresses the need for quality education and certification, supporting its members in their individual practices and in their collective mission to domestically and globally promote lifestyle medicine as the first treatment option, as opposed to a first option of treating symptoms and consequences with expensive, ever-increasing quantities of pills and procedures. ACLM members are united in their desire to identify and eradicate the root cause of disease. Learn more at http://www.LifestyleMedicine.org.