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ST. LOUIS, Dec. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) and Humana have announced a new partnership to provide lifestyle medicine training for healthcare professionals contracted by Humana. The commitment by Humana to encourage its clinicians to take advantage of the complimentary education courses will support ACLM's $22 million pledge highlighted at the recent White House Conference on Hunger, Health, and Nutrition to provide continuing medical education courses to up to 100,000 healthcare professionals.
The commitment from ACLM, which is covered in detail here, has generated substantial engagement from organizations interested in taking part in the training and helping ACLM to achieve its training goal. The partnership with Humana represents the largest organizational commitment to promote lifestyle medicine training to date.
ACLM's "Lifestyle Medicine and Food as Medicine Essentials" course bundle provided to Humana health care professionals is a foundational, evidence-based introduction to the field, plus focused nutrition education for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. This course bundle consists of three modules and four presentations, providing 5.5 hours of continuing medical education content.
Interest in lifestyle change as an essential treatment intervention to address chronic disease is increasing among physicians and health professionals internationally. Lifestyle, once recognized as an essential prevention strategy, is now acknowledged as a foundational and efficacious treatment approach to improve outcomes, lower costs, and improve patient and provider satisfaction. In the first course module, 2020-2022 ACLM President Cate Collings, MD, MS, FACC, DipABLM, defines lifestyle medicine, discusses the evidence base, explains six key interventions, and demonstrates how lifestyle medicine has the power to treat and often reverse disease and provide a solution for real health-care reform.
The second training module explores nutrition for prevention and longevity. Diet has been identified as the single most important risk factor for morbidity and mortality in the United States, yet most health care providers spend relatively few hours learning about nutrition during their formal training. In 1985, the National Academy of Sciences recommended 25 hours minimum of nutrition education, but only 27 percent of medical schools in the U.S. meet that minimum. The limited nutrition education that is offered in medical and health professional programs is often primarily didactic and focused on the biochemistry of nutrients and health consequences of deficiency states—content that is of limited use in a clinical setting where the majority of the population faces over-nutrition due to high intake of ultra-processed, calorie-dense, high saturated fat-laden foods.
The third training module provides an overview of the scientific evidence on food groups and dietary patterns for treatment and risk reduction of common lifestyle-related conditions, with a focus on cardiovascular disease, insulin resistance, cancer prevention, and obesity. The session also includes a brief review of carbohydrates, fats, and protein in relation to chronic disease, as well as a discussion of practical approaches to nutrition counseling.
Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Lifestyle medicine certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine—a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and positive social connections— also provides effective prevention for these conditions.
"We are committed to supporting access to high-quality care and improving the health for all of our members and patients. Motivating lifestyle change is critical in preventing and treating chronic diseases, like diabetes." said Humana Chief Medical Officer, Kate Goodrich, MD, MHS. "Our partnership with the ACLM will ensure our clinicians receive evidence-based lifestyle change and behavioral motivation training to treat chronic disease more effectively."
"The American College of Medicine is dedicated to empowering health care providers with the evidence-based information and the essential tools they need to help patients adopt and sustain the healthy habits that can add years to their life and life to their years. These include routine physical activity, a whole food plant-predominant eating pattern, sound sleep, stress resilience, positive social connections and avoidance of risky substances," said ACLM President Beth Frates, MD, FACLM, DipABLM. "We are thrilled to partner with Humana to promote our Essentials training to all of their clinical network members for free."
ABOUT ACLM -- The American College of Lifestyle Medicine is the nation's medical professional society advancing lifestyle medicine as the foundation for a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, leading to whole person health. ACLM educates, equips, empowers and supports its members through quality, evidence- based education, certification and research to identify and eradicate the root cause of chronic disease, with a clinical outcome goal of health restoration as opposed to disease management. www.lifestylemedicine.org
ABOUT HUMANA -- Humana Inc. is committed to helping our millions of medical and specialty members achieve their best health. Our successful history in care delivery and health plan administration is helping us create a new kind of integrated care with the power to improve health and well-being and lower costs. Our efforts are leading to a better quality of life for people with Medicare, families, individuals, military service personnel, and communities at large.
To accomplish that, we support physicians and other health care professionals as they work to deliver the right care in the right place for their patients, our members. Our range of clinical capabilities, resources and tools – such as in-home care, behavioral health, pharmacy services, data analytics and wellness solutions – combine to produce a simplified experience that makes health care easier to navigate and more effective.
More information regarding Humana is available to investors via the Investor Relations page of the company's website at humana.com, including copies of:
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SOURCE American College of Lifestyle Medicine