Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies Comprehensive Course

NOTE: This Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies (CME/CE) course expires on January 26, 2025. If you would like to claim any credit for the course—CME or CE— you must do so by January 26, 2025, at 11:59pm PST.

Lifestyle medicine is the evidence-based therapeutic approach to prevent, treat and reverse lifestyle-related chronic diseases.

This comprehensive program emphasizes the importance of lifestyle medicine, compares and contrasts lifestyle medicine to other fields of health and medicine, describes the unique role of lifestyle medicine.

Participants will also learn about each of the core competencies in lifestyle medicine: leadership, knowledge, assessment skills, management skills, use of office and community support, and demonstrates how they impact both healthcare practitioner learning and practice.

32 CME | CNE | CPE | CE CREDITS

Nonmember: $999

ACLM Member Tiered Price:

Physician/Doctor Member: $799

Non-Doctoral Health Professional Member: $599

Student/Trainee Member: $560

ACLM members receive an exclusive 20% discount and tiered pricing.

Each of the 10 core competency modules may also be purchased individually. Click here to explore the individual modules.

Learning Objectives

After viewing the module presentations, learners should be able to:

  • Understand the fifteen core competencies of lifestyle medicine as identified in “Physician Competencies for Prescribing Lifestyle Medicine” (JAMA.)
  • Incorporate competencies into clinical practice
  • Enhance efficacy in lifestyle assessments and evidence-based lifestyle prescriptions
  • Leverage community and team-based resources to support lifestyle change

Description

This is the second edition of this lifestyle medicine training program. It continues to provide basic grounding in the field of lifestyle medicine and focuses on improving the competence and skills of a variety of healthcare providers encouraging a team approach to behavior change. It is not intended to provide in-depth learning of each competency and modality but rather to provide a solid foundation and well-rounded training on the major topics in the field including research behind lifestyle medicine as well as its clinical application.

Core competencies for lifestyle medicine were developed by a national consensus panel to serve as a framework for training healthcare professionals. Following the development of these competencies, the first edition of the lifestyle medicine training program, Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies, was published in 2015 through a partnership between the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) and the American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM). It was built around the five domains and fifteen competencies recommended by the national consensus panel as the basis for providing quality lifestyle medicine services. In addition to the competencies, seven key modalities in lifestyle medicine were addressed. These modalities are nutrition, physical activity, sleep health, coaching behavior change, tobacco cessation, managing risky alcohol use, and emotional well-being.

COURSE PREVIEW

In support of patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by the Rush University Medical Center, American College of Preventive Medicine, and American College of Lifestyle Medicine. 

The American College of Preventive Medicine designates this enduring material for a maximum of 32 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. The American College of Preventive Medicine is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians. 

Rush University Medical Center is jointly accredited by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing education for the healthcare team. 

This activity is being presented without bias and without commercial support. 

ANCC Credit Designation – Nurses 

The maximum number of hours awarded for this CE activity is 32 contact hours. 

Rush University Medical Center designates this knowledge-based CPE activity for 32 contact hours for pharmacists. 

Rush University is an approved provider for physical therapy (216.000272), occupational therapy, respiratory therapy, social work (159.001203), nutrition, speech-audiology, and psychology by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation. 

Rush University designates this live activity for 32 Continuing Education credits. 

Rush University designated this internet enduring material for 32.00 CE credits in psychology 

This activity has been approved by the Commission on Dietic Registration for 32.00 CPEUs. 

Successful completion of this CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to 32.0 MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. Participants will earn MOC points equivalent to the amount of CME credits claimed for the activity. It is the CME activity provider’s responsibility to submit participation completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABIM MOC credit. 

This curriculum is applicable for Maintenance of Certification Credit (MOC) by the American Board of Preventive Medicine. Additional medical specialty boards are reviewing this new program for MOC credit. 

It is the policy of the Rush University Office of Interprofessional continuing Education to ensure that its CE activities are independent, free of commercial bias and beyond the control of persons or organizations with an economic interest in influencing the content of CE. The potential for conflicts of interest exists when an individual has the ability to control or influence the content of an educational activity and has a financial relationship with an ineligible entity and the products or services of that entity are pertinent to the content of the educational activity. 

Everyone who is in a position to control the content of an educational activity must disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies within the prior 24 months. All information disclosed must be shared with the participants/learners prior to the start of the educational activity. 

Unapproved Uses of Drugs/Devices: In accordance with requirements of the FDA, the audience is advised that information presented in this continuing medical education activity may contain references to unlabeled or unapproved uses of drugs or devices. Please refer to the FDA approved package insert for each drug/device for full prescribing/utilization information. 

The course directors, planners and faculty of this activity have the following relevant financial relationships to disclose: 

  • Edward M. Phillips, MD, DipABLM  | Disclosures: Royalty, Wolters-Kluwer 

All other individuals in control of content have stated they have no relevant financial relationships to disclose. 

The Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies contains ten modules:

  • Lifestyle Medicine Core Competency Skills | Liana Lianov, MD, MPH, FACLM, FACPM, DipABLM | Marc Braman, MD, MPH, FACLM, FACPM
  • Nutrition Kayli Anderson, MS, RDN, ACSM-EP, DipACLM | Scott Stoll, MD, FABPMR | Wayne S. Dysinger, MD, MPH, FACLM, FACPM, DipABLM | Michael Greger, MD, FACLM, DipABLM
  • Physical Activity | Edward M. Phillips, MD, DipABLM
  • Health & Wellness Coaching Margaret Moore, MBA, NBC-HWC
  • Sleep Health Csilla Veress, ND, LAc
  • Mental Health & Emotional Well-Being | Liana Lianov, MD, MPH, FACLM, FACPM, DipABLM
  • Mindfulness Kaylan Baban, MD, MPH, DipABLM
  • Tobacco Cessation Shaylona Kirk, MD, MPH, MA
  • Alcohol Use Shaylona Kirk, MD, MPH, MA
  • Weight Management Ingrid Edshteyn, DO, MPH, DipABLM

Course Format

The Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies Online Program is presented in two parts covering basic and advanced material.
Part 1 — the Basic Training Curriculum outlined below — covers the 15 core competencies of lifestyle medicine endorsed by ACLM and ACPM, which was published in JAMA.
Part 2 — the Advanced Training Curriculum outlined below–provides in-depth study of the competencies, guidance on how to employ them in a lifestyle medicine–oriented practice, and approaches to facilitating behavior change interventions.

Basic Training Curriculum

Leadership

  • Promote healthy behaviors as foundational to medical care, disease prevention, and health promotion.
  • Seek to practice healthy behaviors and create environments that support healthy behaviors in school, at work and at home.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the evidence that specific lifestyle changes can have a positive effect on patients’ health outcomes.
  • Describe ways that physician engagement with patients and families can have a positive effect on patients’ health behaviors.

Assessment Skills

  • Assess the social, psychological, and biological predispositions of patients’ behaviors and the resulting health outcomes.
  • Assess patient and family readiness, willingness, and ability to make health behavior changes.
  • Perform a history and physical examination specific to lifestyle-related health status, including lifestyle “vital signs” such as tobacco use, alcohol consumption, diet, physical activity, body mass index, stress level, sleep, and emotional well-being.
  • Based on this assessment, obtain and interpret appropriate tests to screen, diagnose, and monitor lifestyle-related diseases.

Management Skills

  • Use nationally recognized practice guidelines (such as those for hypertension and smoking cessation) to assist patients in self-managing their health behaviors and lifestyles.
  • Establish effective relationships with patients and their families to effect and sustain behavioral change using evidence-based counseling methods, tools and follow-up.
  • Collaborate with patients and their families to develop evidence-based, achievable, specific and written action plans such as lifestyle prescriptions.
  • Help patients manage and sustain healthy lifestyle practices, and refer patients to other health care professionals as needed for lifestyle-related conditions.

Use of Office and Community Support

  • Have the ability to practice as an interdisciplinary team of health care professionals and support a team approach.
  • Develop and apply office systems and practices to support lifestyle medical care including decision-support technology.
  • Measure processes and outcomes to improve quality of lifestyle interventions in individuals and groups of patients.
  • Use appropriate community referral resources that support the implementation of healthy lifestyles.

Behavior Change Introduction Topics

  • Gain introductory knowledge of facilitating behavior change interventions in these and other lifestyle medicine areas. These will be covered in-depth in the second part of the program.

Advanced Training Curriculum

The second part of the program provides a more in-depth study of the above competencies and focuses on facilitating behavior change interventions in the following lifestyle medicine domains:

  • Nutrition
  • Physical Activity
  • Sleep Health
  • Emotional Wellness
  • Mindfulness
  • Tobacco Cessation
  • Alcohol use

In 2009, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) and American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) collaborated with funding from the Ardmore Institute and Procter and Gamble to convene a blue ribbon panel of representatives from several major physician/health professional organizations: the American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Medical Association, and the American Osteopathic Association. The resulting consensus statement outlined 15 competencies for physicians offering lifestyle medicine and was published in JAMA (July 14, 2010).

Since this first publication, members of the Lifestyle Medicine Task Force of ACLM and the ACPM leadership have been working to promote awareness of the lifestyle medicine competencies among physicians and other clinicians. Their efforts include publications in Medscape and Military Medicine as well as presentations to a variety of clinical audiences. As awareness of lifestyle medicine grew, many expressed interest in a curriculum to train physicians in this knowledge and practice. In February 2013, a follow-up group called the Lifestyle Medicine Competencies Steering Committee was convened, again with funds from the Ardmore Institute, to discuss next steps.

The group recommended the development of a broad plan for developing lifestyle medicine training and implementing the lifestyle medicine competencies within the current health care environment through collaborative strategies, partnerships and a recognition process. The aim of the plan is to assure the demand for and integration of lifestyle medicine competence by the health care system and consumers/patients. The plan and identification of funding sources was completed by a newly constituted Lifestyle Medicine Competencies Working Group (LMCWG).

Cummins, Inc. is one of the first funders to spearhead curriculum development. The goal of Cummins, Inc.’s involvement is to promote lifestyle medicine competence among physicians working in the Cummins clinics — direct care providers, as well as physicians in an external provider network. Cummins has provided generous funding to ACPM to work in coordination with ACLM in developing a lifestyle medicine curriculum.

Kayli Anderson, MS, RD, ACSM-EP, DipACLM

Director of Nutrition & Healthcare | Lighter, Inc.

As a registered dietitian, Kayli has devoted her career to helping people transition to a healthier lifestyle. She is the chief author of The Plantrician Project’s Plant-Based Nutrition Quick Start Guide and has experience as a personal chef, culinary educator, and health coach in one-on-one and group settings. Currently, Kayli is Director of Nutrition & Healthcare at Lighter, Inc., a powerful meal planning platform that connects people with deeply personalized meal plans and grocery delivery to make changing eating habits easier. Lighter partners with experts, including Rip Esselstyn’s Engine 2, John Mackey’s The Whole Foods Diet, The Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP), and many more to help transform their eating recommendations into an actionable bag of groceries for the people they inspire.

Kayli is also an active member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, serving as chair of the dietitians’ outreach committee and on faculty for the Lifestyle Medicine Core Competencies Program. Kayli earned her B.S. in Nutrition & Dietetics and her M.S. in Nutrition and Physical Performance from Saint Louis University in St. Louis, MO.

Kaylan Baban, MD, MPH, DipABLM

Chief Wellness Officer and Assistant Professor of Medicine | George Washington University

Dr. Baban is Chief Wellness Officer and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Director of the Lifestyle Medicine program at the GW Medical Faculty Associates. She is board-certified in Preventive Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine with a focus on holistic care and patient empowerment.

Dr. Baban earned her bachelor’s degree from Columbia University as an I. I. Rabi Science Scholar. She received her MD and MPH from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as a George James Epidemiology awardee with Distinction in Research. She completed residency and a chief year in Preventive Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as a Delta Omega Public Health Honor Society inductee, Harvard Macy Future Academic Clinician Educator, and Mount Sinai Beth Israel Integrative Medicine interdisciplinary fellow.

As a clinician and educator, Dr. Baban believes that a holistic approach personalized to the individual is the key to success, and she enjoys working with her patients and students to find the path right for them. Dr. Baban’s research and curricular efforts address mindful provision of healthcare and digital health for prevention, patient empowerment, and optimized health outcomes. She currently leads a mixed-methods evaluation of individualized lifestyle management for dysautonomic conditions.

Dr. Baban is an active member of both the American College of Preventive Medicine and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, serving as core faculty for the colleges’ joint Lifestyle Medicine Core Curriculum course, advisor and lead faculty of the ACLM Physician and Health Provider Well-Being course, and member of the ACLM 2020 planning committee.

Marc Braman, MD, MPH, FACLM, FACPM

Innovator | Lifestyle Medicine Pro, LLC

Dr. Braman spent the better part of seven years building the national professional association the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (second President, first Executive Director). Under his leadership, ACLM put lifestyle medicine (LM) on the professional map with national conferences, collaborations with other professional organizations, and education and professional development for physicians and other practitioners. Initial efforts toward establishing professional standards led to collaboration with ACPM, culminating in the first ever publication in JAMA on LM with recommended competencies for all physicians in prescribing LM (Lianov, Johnson, JAMA, July 14, 2010).

Dr. Braman continues to innovate professionally: 1) as President of the Lifestyle Medicine Foundation, creating the practical resources and systems for LM in the next generation of health care; 2) as Founder and Lead Doc of Lifestyle Medicine Pro, LLC – a LM practice management consultancy and practice network; 3) developing patient voice and advocacy in health care and system design, and; 4) working toward a functioning health care system that works as it could and should for patients and society. He has directed departments for hospitals and clinics, and continues to practice LM, working with patients to find “the joy of living well”.

Wayne S. Dysinger, MD, MPH, FACLM, FACPM, DipABLM

Medical Director and Chair | Lifestyle Medical

Dr. Dysinger is a lifestyle and primary care physician who currently serves as Medical Director of Lifestyle Medical, a set of new model primary care clinics in southern California that are built around the principals of Lifestyle Medicine. He is also Chair of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine and the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine. He is an active faculty at Loma Linda University and consults, teaches and participates in research on Lifestyle Medicine issues around the world.

Dr. Dysinger was previously Chair, Department of Preventive Medicine, Loma Linda University as well as the Medical Director of the Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP). He is a past President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and has been on the board of the American College of Preventive Medicine and the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research. He has worked in various capacities with the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Dr. Dysinger earned his M.D. degree from Loma Linda University School of Medicine (1986), and his MPH from Loma Linda University School of Public Health (1990). He has previously worked in Guam, Atlanta and Dartmouth. His board certification is in Family Medicine and Preventive Medicine.

Ingrid Edshteyn, DO, MPH, DipABLM

Founder, Board-Certified Preventive & Obesity Medicine Physician | Valia Lifestyle

Dr. Ingrid Edshteyn is a Board Certified Preventive Medicine physician treating the causes of preventable disease. Her work in preventive and lifestyle medicine brings a unique integration that encompasses disease prevention and health promotion for both individual patients and populations.

Dr. Edshteyn has been a passionate advocate for the central importance of healthy lifestyle choices as the foundation for medicine since the start of clinical training, when she joined both ACPM and ACLM. Since then, she served on the board of directors and as the Associate Executive Director for Membership and Education at ACLM. She is contributing to the mission of healthier and happier lives for patients by developing a primary care practice that is rooted in prevention and lifestyle counseling and informed by her board certifications from the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine and American Board of Obesity Medicine.

Michael Greger, MD, FACLM, DipABLM

President | NutritionFacts.org

A founding member and Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Michael Greger, MD, is a physician, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition.  He has videos on more than 2,000 health topics freely available at NutritionFacts.org, with new videos and articles uploaded almost every day.

Dr. Greger has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, testified before Congress, and was invited as an expert witness in the defense of Oprah Winfrey in the infamous “meat defamation” trial. He is a graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University School of Medicine. His latest books— How Not to Die, the How Not to Die Cookbook, and How Not to Diet all became instant New York Times Best Sellers. His latest book, How to Survive a Pandemic, was just released in May. All proceeds he receives from the sales of his books go to charity.

Liana Lianov, MD, MPH, FACLM, FACPM, DipABLM

Chair, Happiness Science and Positive Health Committee | American College of Lifestyle Medicine
President, Positive Health and Wellness Division | International Positive Psychology Association
Vice Chair | American Board of Lifestyle Medicine
Founder and Principal | HealthType LLC

As an innovative leader in lifestyle medicine, Dr. Lianov has advanced the movement in the US and internationally. She currently serves as the Chair of the Happiness Science and Positive Health Committee of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), lead faculty for the ACLM Physician and Health Professional Well-Being Program, vice-chair of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine, and President of the Positive Health and Wellness Division of the International Positive Psychology Association. She is also the lead faculty for the first of its kind intensive lifestyle medicine physician curriculum sponsored by American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) and ACLM.

Dr. Lianov is the lead author for the 2010 publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association unveiling the lifestyle medicine core competencies for the physicians developed by a national blue-ribbon panel of health professional organizations, which she chaired.

Dr. Lianov is a past president of the ACLM, a past board regent of ACPM, and the former Healthy Lifestyles Division Director of the American Medical Association. She previously directed a number of heart disease and stroke prevention, cancer detection, and other chronic diseases and mental health services programs at the California Department of Health Services. Her leadership of the inaugural national Summit on Happiness Science in Health Care, her publications, including the groundbreaking book Roots of Positive Change: Optimizing Health Care in Positive Psychology, and presentations are spearheading the integration of positive psychology interventions in health care.

Margaret Moore, aka Coach Meg, MBA, NBC-HWC

Founder/CEO | Wellcoaches Corporation

Margaret Moore/Coach Meg, MBA, is an executive coach, Co-founder (2009) and Chair of the Institute of Coaching at McLean, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, and co-director of the Coaching in Leadership & Healthcare conference offered by Harvard Medical School since 2008. Moore teaches transformational leadership at Harvard Medical School’s Office of Global Education, and coaching psychology at Harvard University Extension School.

Following 17 years as an executive in the biotech industry, in the UK, Canada, France, and the US, Margaret founded Wellcoaches Corporation, a coaching school for health professionals. Wellcoaches has trained more than 12,000 coaches in 50 countries since 2000. In 2010 Margaret co-founded the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching, a nonprofit subsidiary of the National Board of Medical Examiners, establishing coaching standards, coach certification, and healthcare reimbursement of health and well-being coaching services.

She is co-author of 18 peer-reviewed articles and 7 book chapters on coaching, the peer-reviewed Coaching Psychology Manual published by Wolters Kluwer, and Harvard Health Books Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life and Organize Your Emotions, Optimize Your Life.

Edward M. Phillips, MD, DipABLM

Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation | Harvard Medical School
Founder and Director | Institute of Lifestyle Medicine (ILM)

Edward Phillips, MD, is Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, Director of the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine (ILM) at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (www.instituteoflifestylemedicine.org) and Chief of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Services at the VA Boston Healthcare System. Additionally, Dr. Phillips is a Fellow of American College of Sports Medicine (FACSM) and serves on the executive council that developed and leads the Exercise is Medicine™ global initiative. He is co-author of ACSM’s Exercise is Medicine™, A Clinician’s Guide to Exercise Prescription (Wolters-Kluwer, 2009) and is past chair of the Exercise is Medicine Education Committee. The President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition has recognized both Dr. Phillips and the ILM with its Community Leadership Award.

Scott Stoll, MD, FABPMR

Co-founder | The Plantrician Project

Scott Stoll, MD, is the co-founder of The Plantrician Project, The International Plant Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference, The International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention as well as the Regenerative Health Institute – a unique collaborative project with The Rodale Institute that integrates a regenerative vision for human health, agriculture, and the environment.

He is a member of the Google FoodLab, serves on the advisory board at Whole Foods for their health care clinics and has served as a member of the Whole Foods Scientific and Medical Advisory Board. Dr. Stoll is the Chairman of the Board for The Plantrician Project.

Every year, Dr. Stoll hosts the very popular one-week health immersion — Dr. Stoll’s Total Health Immersion — in Naples, Florida. The immersion helps attendees restore and optimize their health, suspend and reverse common lifestyle diseases and develop a sustainable, regenerative lifestyle. Dr. Still has authored several books, including Your Next Bite and Alive!, as he has published numerous scientific articles.
In addition to authoring several books including Your Next Bite, Alive!, and numerous scientific articles.

Dr. Stoll has appeared on national programs including The Dr. Oz Show. He has hosted a 2018 PBS special, Food As Medicine, and numerous documentaries including Eating You Alive, Wait Till Its Free, and The Game Changers. In addition to these many accomplishments, Dr. Stoll was a member of the 1994 Olympic Bobsled Team, and he is a highly sought-after international speaker. Dr. Stoll and his family live in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Csilla Veress ND, LAc

Naturopathic Doctor and Licensed Acupuncturist | TrueNorth Health Center

Csilla Veress, ND, LAc, is a primary care doctor at TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, CA. Dr. Veress is a graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in Biology, and she obtained her medical degree from Bastyr University, where she also finished her master’s degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. The focus of her practice and outreach is to educate and inspire individuals to achieve optimal health through nutrition and lifestyle medicine.

Csilla lectures at TrueNorth Health and in the community on the impact of whole food, plant based nutrition, water fasting and lifestyle modification in preventing and treating chronic illness. She is a contributing writer for NPLEX, helping elevate excellence within ND board examinations. She has also written several articles for Health Science Magazine and has been featured on various podcasts in the whole food, plant-based nutrition communities.

Lifestyle medicine is the evidence-based therapeutic approach to prevent, treat and reverse lifestyle-related chronic diseases. Comprehensive lifestyle interventions (including nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep, social support and environmental exposures) address underlying disease risks, thereby decreasing illness burden and improving clinical outcomes within value-based medicine. Lifestyle medicine should be seen as a core competency for preventive and primary care medicine.

Important examples of where these competencies have already been employed include:

Three Reasons Why This Program Is Needed

  • Current medical education includes inadequate lifestyle medicine training.
  • Doctors cited inadequate confidence and lack of knowledge and skill as major barriers to counseling patients about lifestyle interventions
    (JAMA. 2010;304(2):202-203).
  • Engaging patients to take responsibility for their care via an effective physician-patient collaboration can have a substantial impact on health outcomes.

This online program addresses these issues and more!

Explore the Individual Core Competencies

Each of the following core competency modules may be purchased individually depending on your needs or interests.