Abstract
“Leveraging our free resources through the Connect platform and encouraging members to share their educational resources there will provide many options for ACLM members.”
Since 2020, ACLM leadership and staff have worked collaboratively to develop three-year strategic plans for the organization. The process is undertaken to ensure we are all working toward the same outcomes for the organization on behalf of our 11,000 members, both now and into the short-term future. It also allows us to measure our progress.
Those participating in the 2024-2026 plan process included the Board of Directors and all ACLM staff at multiple points of development. The building of the new plan started last fall, and was approved by the Board of Directors in January.
The plan confirmed the organization’s • Evidence-based lifestyle medicine: We claim results and outcomes supported by documented, verifiable evidence. • High standards: We hold ourselves to the highest levels of competency, professionalism, and ethics. • Integrity: We act fairly, in good faith and honestly. • Financial transparency: We undergo an annual audit of financials and take seriously our fiduciary responsibility to our members. • Health equity: We recognize the impact of social drivers of health and strive to make lifestyle medicine accessible and effective for all.
The 2024-2026 plan has 5 priority strategies identified by the Board: 1. Advance the scalable implementation of lifestyle medicine 2. Build long-term partnerships to bridge identified gaps in the field 3. Equip the healthcare workforce with lifestyle medicine education 4. Continue building the research base and defining the field 5. Deepen member and stakeholder engagement
With a strategic planning cycle of 3 years, ACLM is able to set tangible goals, check in on progress, and then re-evaluate. Depending on the needs of the members, the healthcare landscape, education gaps, research progress, and the state of lifestyle medicine clinical practice, the priorities shift and change.
Advancing the Scalable Implementation of Lifestyle Medicine
Early in the development of the field, ACLM was defining the pillars and explaining the “what” of lifestyle medicine. Physicians and healthcare professionals were just being introduced to the term lifestyle medicine and understanding the evidence base. Then, there was a focus on the “why”—why we need lifestyle medicine to be the foundation of whole person, high-value care. And, at this point, the planning focus has shifted now on the “how.” How do physicians and healthcare professionals practice lifestyle medicine and how can this be sustainable and scalable?
Tactics in the Strategic Plan to support scalability include such things as developing pilot demonstration projects in various types of environments, increasing implementation of lifestyle medicine shared medical appointments, and working toward removal of barriers to reimbursement and implementation.
Building Long-Term Partnerships to Bridge Identified Gaps in the Field
Partnerships have been important throughout the history of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and today we have many types.
We have developed strong partnerships with health systems, now counting over 107 members of our Health Systems Council. Partnering with medical and other health professions schools is critical and we have 140 total Lifestyle Medicine Interest Groups (LMIGs)—90 at medical schools, 19 at health systems, and 31 at other health professional campuses (i.e., bachelor, master, doctoral). At this writing our Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum is being used in some 302 residency programs across 135 sites, with 6900+ enrollees. We also partner with many other medical and industry associations to share resources, co-create new ones, and join forces in advocacy efforts on shared priorities.
ACLM is always open to partnering with other healthcare organizations who are also working to advance evidenced-based lifestyle medicine to treat, reverse and prevent non-communicable, chronic disease. The Strategic Plan includes tactics to evaluate existing partnerships, prioritize those crucial to our immediate goals, and cultivate new relationships to bridge gaps.
Equipping the Healthcare Workforce with Lifestyle Medicine Education
ACLM has championed food as medicine and lifestyle medicine education since its inception in 2004, and is the nation’s premier evidence-based resource across the spectrum of medical and health education in this growing field. We provide accredited educational courses and resources to fill the gaping void in lifestyle and nutrition education across the medical and health educational spectrum—undergraduate medical education, graduate medical education and continuing medical education. Each year, the Education Department and the Education Committee work strategically to provide educational materials that will be most useful to members.
Strategic Plan tactics for this priority area included optimizing our education and certification resources, as well as customer experience and support. Leveraging our free resources through the Connect platform and encouraging members to share their educational resources there will provide many options for ACLM members. There are many educational resources that will be highlighted such as the Virtual Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group (LMIG) recorded lectures from world renowned professors such as a lecture on nutrition by Dr Walter Willett from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. LMIGs from around the nation can sign into Connect and play this nutrition lecture at their medical school at any time.
Continuing to Build the Research Base and Defining the Field
The work of our Research Department and Research Committee has been growing. We continue to create expert consensus statements and clinical practice guidelines as well as seek funding for research projects. In addition, we began our first clinical practice guideline, titled Lifestyle Interventions for Diabetes and Prediabetes in Adults. The guideline will take approximately 18 months to complete, so targeted for the end of 2024/beginning of 2025. We were fortunate to have acceptance from 13 other health professional societies to nominate a representative to the guideline development group. We can look forward to a high-quality product created with rigorous methodology that will help further define and advance the field of lifestyle medicine, as well as support primary research on interventions.
At the Annual Meeting, LM 2024, in Orlando, Florida, we will be unveiling an entire edition devoted to lifestyle medicine in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality, and Outcomes in 2024 with many of our ACLM leaders co-authoring those articles.
Strategic Plan tactics for this priority include conducting original research on the cost savings and efficacy of lifestyle treatments/intervention vs pharmacologic-only treatment, as well as on other components of the Quintuple Aim.
Deepening Member and Stakeholder Engagement
Our main priority is always meeting the educational and practice needs of our 10,000+ members.
Today we have some 30 Member Interest Groups (MIGs) with a range of 20 to 1000 members each. The work of these MIGs is inspiring.
This year we added 3 Member Mixers for March, June, and September. This will be a time to join your fellow members by Zoom and hold conversations with me and my guests. My Member Mixer guests include Dr Ned Hallowell, Dr Bob Brooks, and Dr Darshan Mehta. We are hoping these events bring people together for discussion, sharing, and some laughter too.
Coming together in person at our annual meeting continues to spark friendships and collaborations among members and is a major source of joy and satisfaction.
In the next 3 years, we want to deepen member engagement even further. Some of the Strategic Plan tactics involve continuously improving and promoting engagement opportunities and optimizing communications.
This year we will be celebrating our 20th Anniversary at LM 2024, and it is going to be spectacular. We hope to see you all there.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.