Dr. Patel is a pioneer in developing innovative care delivery models that use lifestyle medicine to treat, in some cases reverse and prevent chronic diseases. She has led the highly successful delivery of Intensive Therapeutic Lifestyle Change (ITLC) programs based on lifestyle medicine, both in person and in virtual environments, and has passionately advocated for the integration of medicine lifestyle in health systems. Its efforts to integrate lifestyle medicine with employee health have resulted in significant savings.
She assumes the presidency during the 20th anniversary of the ACLM, a period of rapid growth and momentum for the organization and the field of lifestyle medicine.
“The traditional health care delivery model has failed to address the chronic disease crisis in the United States and its associated costs,” said Dr. Patel. “As a result, policymakers, health leaders and health systems recognize the exceptional value of the comprehensive patient-centered approach, which places lifestyle medicine at the foundation of health and health care , with the clinical goal of restoring health rather than simply managing symptoms. Lifestyle medicine is a viable and sustainable solution to the problems of today’s “patient care” system. I am honored. to lead an organization whose members restore the health of their patients.
The ACLM is the nation’s only professional medical association representing the interdisciplinary field of lifestyle medicine. Lifestyle medicine uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as the primary modality to treat chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. Certified lifestyle medicine clinicians are trained to apply prescriptive, evidence-based, whole-person lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse these terms. Applying the six pillars of lifestyle medicine – a whole-food, predominantly plant-based diet, physical activity, restful sleep, stress management, positive social connections and avoidance of risky substances – allows also effective prevention of these conditions.
During her 20-year career as an internal medicine physician, Dr. Patel served as Medical Director of the Lifestyle Medicine System and Southwest Regional Medical Director at Wellvana Health. She also served as medical director of the Lifestyle Medicine Center at Midland Health, where she led the Ornish Program for Heart Disease Reversal and Pritikin Cardiac Rehabilitation, and created an intensive office-based cardiac rehabilitation program.
In addition to her role as president of the ACLM, Dr. Patel serves as vice president of the World Lifestyle Medicine Organization; vice president of Midland Quality Alliance, a clinically integrated physician network; chair of the ACLM Clinical Practice and Quality Committee; and member of the Quality Measurement Partnership Approval and Maintenance Committee. She serves on the National Quality Forum (NQF) Health Professional Advisory Council and was a member of the 2021-2023 NQF Leadership Consortium. She is a consultant to the Texas Medical Board Committee on Alternative Payment Models and also co-founder of Healthy City, a non-profit organization aimed at raising awareness of the benefits of plant-based nutrition within her community.
About ACLM®
As a catalyst for transformation, disruptor of the status quo, and galvanized force for change, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine is the nation’s medical professional society advancing the field of lifestyle medicine as a foundation of a redesigned health system, based on values and equitable. health care delivery system, essential to the achievement of the Quintuple Aim and the overall health of the person. ACLM represents, advocates, trains, certifies and equips its members to identify and eradicate the root cause of chronic disease by optimizing modifiable risk factors. The ACLM fills the gaping void of lifestyle medicine – including diet as medicine – in medical education across the medical education continuum, while making advance research, clinical practice and reimbursement strategies. Adding years to life and life to years, while controlling the alarming and unsustainable trajectory of health care costs, is what lifestyle medicine offers.
Media contact
Alex Branchdirector of communications, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, 9719835383, (email protected)American College of Lifestyle Medicine
SOURCE American College of Lifestyle Medicine
