Dr. John Findley, a lifestyle medicine innovator and physician executive with more than 20 years of experience advancing value-based and whole-person care, assumed leadership of ACLM on June 1. In this Q & A, he shares his insights on how he will lead ACLM into its next phase of growth and impact.
New ACLM CEO John Findley, MD, CPE, brings to his leadership position a unique combination of clinical experience, health system leadership, value-based care expertise, and an unwavering belief that lifestyle medicine should be the standard of care for every patient, every time, everywhere.
In this Q & A, Dr. Findley reflects on his journey to lifestyle medicine, the opportunities ahead, and his vision for the ACLM of the future.
What drew you to lifestyle medicine and ACLM?
My path to lifestyle medicine and ACLM really started long before I became a physician. As a college student, I was fascinated by the body’s capacity to heal and by the pioneers–Dean Ornish, Norman Cousins and T. Colin Campbell–who were exploring the connections between lifestyle, health, and human potential, and whose ideas were drawing attention.
Then I entered medical practice and met reality. I quickly realized something was missing. I found myself treating symptoms without consistently addressing root causes. That disconnect led me to start incorporating fitness testing, nutrition counseling, and health coaching into my practice. Seeing patients improve when we focused on lifestyle reinforced what I had believed all along: that medicine should center on the whole person, not just the disease.
ACLM represented the professional home for those beliefs. Over the years, I watched the College grow from a relatively small gathering of passionate clinicians into a national force for innovation and change. When the opportunity to lead ACLM emerged, it felt like a natural culmination of a journey I had been on for decades.
You’ve worked across health systems, employers, payers, and government to redesign care delivery at scale. What lessons from that experience will you bring to ACLM?
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that great ideas alone don’t transform healthcare. You have to understand how the entire system works—from hospitals and payers to policymakers and employers. Over the last decade, I’ve had the opportunity to serve in leadership roles across many parts of healthcare, including as a chief medical officer, health system executive, consultant, and advocate for value-based care.
That experience taught me that healthcare transformation requires more than evidence. It requires implementation. We already know lifestyle medicine works. The challenge now is figuring out how to make it operational, scalable, sustainable, and financially viable.
What I bring to ACLM is a focus on moving from proving lifestyle medicine works to ensuring it becomes embedded in medical and health professional education, practice, payment models, and policy frameworks.
ACLM has grown significantly in recent years. What made this opportunity especially compelling to you at this particular time?
The timing could not be better. For years, many of us in lifestyle medicine felt we were pushing against the tide. Today, the national conversation has changed. Policymakers, health systems, payers, and major medical societies are talking about chronic disease, prevention, root-cause care, and whole-person health in ways they simply weren’t before.
From the outside, I could see ACLM becoming an increasingly influential voice in those conversations. What impressed me most was the organization’s growth. ACLM had less than 400 members in 2014 and today we have more than 16,000 physicians and health professionals in membership. ACLM has earned a seat at the table with major healthcare stakeholders and professional societies. I believe we’re at a moment when we can help shape the future of healthcare itself.
You’ve described lifestyle medicine as central to addressing chronic disease. What needs to happen for it to become the standard of care?
Healthcare leaders increasingly recognize the value of lifestyle interventions, but recognition alone won’t drive widespread adoption. We need sustainable reimbursement, quality measures that reward lifestyle-based care, and practical models that make lifestyle medicine feasible in everyday practice across delivery models.
Ultimately, my goal is to help create the conditions where lifestyle medicine becomes the default approach—not the alternative approach—for chronic disease care.
What are some misconceptions that still exist about lifestyle medicine?
One misconception is that lifestyle medicine threatens traditional healthcare revenue streams by reducing the need for services. In reality, the opposite may be true.
Hospitals and health systems have an opportunity to differentiate themselves by incorporating lifestyle medicine into both primary and specialty care. For example, lifestyle interventions can help patients become healthier before surgery, potentially reducing complications, infections, readmissions, and poor outcomes. Rather than cannibalizing service lines, lifestyle medicine can help hospitals excel on quality metrics and succeed in value-based care.
I also think healthcare leaders need to think beyond prevention alone. We absolutely need to prevent chronic disease upstream, but we also need to “reverse engineer” care for patients with advanced illness. Whether we’re talking about cardiovascular disease, cancer, or other complex conditions, lifestyle medicine should be integrated throughout the continuum of care.
How important is collaboration to advancing the field? Where do you see the greatest opportunities for ACLM partnerships?
Collaboration is absolutely essential. One of the biggest opportunities ahead lies in deeper engagement with other major medical societies. I’ve already begun conversations with organizations such as the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
What’s exciting is that we no longer have to convince many of these organizations that lifestyle medicine matters. If you look at today’s clinical guidelines, lifestyle-based interventions are increasingly being recognized and recommended. The evidence is no longer the point of debate. We need to work alongside partner organizations to build the evidence base for implementation, advance practice transformation, and shape the policies and payment models needed to bring lifestyle medicine into everyday care.
If you look ahead 5–10 years, what would meaningful progress in lifestyle medicine look like to you?
Success means lifestyle medicine is no longer viewed as an add‑on but is a core expectation of healthcare delivery. Clinicians are supported and reimbursed for delivering lifestyle‑focused care, health systems invest in implementation, and policymakers create programs that reward prevention and disease reversal.
My hope in 5 to 10 years is that every clinician embraces lifestyle medicine as the gold‑standard first‑line therapy and is empowered to engage patients in a healthcare model where it is the default approach. The goal is simple: lifestyle medicine for every patient, every time, with every clinician, everywhere.
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