Lifestyle Medicine Scholarly Concentration
Mission:
Lifestyle medicine uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity by applying evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions. The six pillars of lifestyle medicine are—a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connections. Students will immerse themselves in these 6 pillars not only through current and past literature related to these topics, but also through interactive experiences to get an understanding of the multidisciplinary nature of medicine as well as be ready to discuss making changes to health behaviors with patients. They will be trained to consider these essential pillars of health when practicing medicine and help reduce the burden of diseases by integrating prescriptive lifestyle changes with conventional medical practice.
Co-directors:
Puja Gandhi, MD, MPH DipABLM
Elena Zamora, MD, MHA
Administrative coordinator: TBD
Maximum number of students/year: 5
Student selection process: Students will apply (with CV and answering a few prompts on lifestyle medicine: 1) Why do you want to be a part of LM concentration? 2) What do you want to get out of the concentration?) and be reviewed by the directors to get into concentration
Timeline for student completion of concentration requirements
Concentration requirements (didactic and experiential):
- Total 15 hours in intensive lifestyle program involvement, shadowing, or volunteering (shadow at least 2 different disciplines):
- Community health worker (Rosalia Guerrero)
- Community health education specialist, social worker (reach out to Puja Gandhi/Elena Zamora to get in touch with CHES at UTP)
- Nutritionists
- Diana Guevara
- Sarah Wagner (part of pulm/cards rehab program at MH and OP)
- Christine Taylor and Lucy Lengfelder (part of Ertan Digestive/GI nutrition)
- Melisa Danho-director of dietetic internship will put students in touch with nutrition students to shadow
- Psychologist (Amanda Zold, Andrea Taylor)
- Physical therapist (Christopher Gallina)
- Sleep specialist (Sudha Tallavajhula)
- Obesity clinic (Deborah Horn, Thuyvan (Vanessa) Hoang)
- HEROES program (substance abuse clinic-Tiffany Champagne Langabeer)
- Culinary med classes
- Nourish program/ Teaching Kitchen Trial (contact Diana Guevara)
- LBJ cancer survivor culinary medicine program (contact Victoriano Valdez)
- *not an exhaustive list, students can reach out to other health professionals
- 10 individual submissions of lifestyle medicine prescription discussed with patient (prescription template to be uploaded on canvas site for students to print out and discuss with patient)(10 clinical hours)
- Canvas online component: go through all readings, videos and complete 10 modules on Lifestyle medicine disciplines (within 4 years)- (16 hours)
- In addition: Submit brief paper on what lifestyle change you made in your life and how it has affected you OR Submit brief paper discussing how you addressed a lifestyle factor with a patient or your family member (including forming the lifestyle prescription with them and what you learned from the experience moving forward)
- Be a part of the Lifestyle in Medicine blue book and attend lecture series, events (6/10 lectures)
- 10 hours of volunteering/self-improvement *not an exhaustive list:
- Houston Food Bank
- Brighter Bites
- LBJ farmer’s market
- LBJ farm
- Another lifestyle medicine focused nonprofit org of your choosing
- Walk with a Doc
- Meditation session (with Dr. Alejandro Chaoul) (at least 1 hr has to be his session*)
- Mindfulness/meditation/yoga (at a meditation center/yoga center)
- Participate in biannual meeting with director
- Meet with mentor 2-3x/semester to develop project
- MS4 Lifestyle medicine Elective (REQURED) *many of the above requirements will be satisfied during this elective
MS 1
Required
- Attend Mandatory orientation after acceptance into the concentration
- Choose between advocacy, research focus, or project focus:
- Find mentor and develop project with mentor. Can develop a project related to the following:
- Development of a new clinical protocol
- Original basic or clinical research, implementation research
- Development of a new curriculum component or module
- Evaluation of an outreach program or educational component
- Creation of a bioengineering tool
- Creative medical writing
Optional
- Apply for Summer Research Program or participate in Healthcare Innovation Collaborative
- Partake in nutrition in medicine elective, obesity in medicine elective, cultural food club, McGovern climbing club, McGovern run club
- Become a member of the American College of Lifestyle medicine
MS 2
Required
- Students are responsible for ensuring mentorship agreement form is signed by student and mentor by September 30th of MS2 year; and submitted to administrative coordinator
- Develop project with mentor
Optional
- Partake in nutrition in medicine elective, obesity in medicine elective, cultural food club, McGovern climbing club, McGovern run club
- Become a member of the American College of Lifestyle medicine
MS 3
Required
- Attend 4 grand rounds during MS3-MS4 year-related to lifestyle medicine (can be counted even if a required grand rounds attended during clerkship).
- In place of a grand rounds, you may attend a community-based meeting on a lifestyle medicine topic. For example, you may watch a webinar on any of the lifestyle concentration areas from other UT schools (can follow UT School of Public Health for webinars or Dell center for healthy living for conferences). Please submit a list of the 4 grand rounds/community based-meetings attended.
- (proof will be required by writing a reflection (250 words max) on how the conference will change/enhance the way you practice a component of lifestyle medicine) (4 hours)
- Continue to develop project with mentor
Optional
- Partake in nutrition in medicine elective, obesity in medicine elective, cultural food club, McGovern climbing club, McGovern run club
- Become a member of the American College of Lifestyle medicine
MS 4
Required
- Complete Lifestyle medicine clinical elective (Motivational Interviewing training by Rosalia Guerrero will be done during this time along with fulfilling other parts of the concentration)
- Submit proof of final completion of research project to directors by Fall of MS4 year.
- In addition, students will be required to submit their project as an abstract or poster (as appropriate, with guidance from their faculty mentor) to local, state, or national professional meetings-ex: ACLM annual conference or primary care track meeting presentation, public health conference, or UTMcGovern Annual symposium/poster day. Possible grand rounds presentation.
- Exit interview with director and complete evaluation of concentration
Optional
- Complete 1 elective course related to lifestyle medicine: preventative medicine, ambulatory family medicine, humanistic elements of medicine, certificate in healthcare management, MD approach to LGBTQ+ healthcare, Ambulatory HIV/AIDS, ambulatory Internal Medicine
- Partake in nutrition in medicine elective, obesity in medicine elective, cultural food club, McGovern climbing club, McGovern run club
- Become a member of the American College of Lifestyle medicine
Scholarly Concentration Faculty
This is not an exclusive list. Please approach potential mentors from our institution as well as other institutions and if help is needed reach out to the director of the concentration for assistance.
| Faculty Name | Contribution(s) to Concentration | Department |
|---|---|---|
| Puja Gandhi MD, MPH | Director, Project Mentor | Internal Medicine, Lifestyle medicine |
| Tiffany Langabeer Champagne PhD, MBA, RD, LD | Director, Project Mentor | Nutrition, Meditation, Substance abuse, Biomedical Informatics |
| Rajashree Nambron MD | Project Mentor* | Internal Medicine, Endocrinology, Lifestyle medicine |
| Pritesh Mutha MD | Project mentor* | Internal Medicine, GI, Lifestyle medicine |
| Elena Zamora MD | Project Mentor | Family Medicine, Obesity Medicine |
| Victoriano Valdez MD | Project Mentor | Internal Medicine, Culinary Medicine |
| Amanda Zold PhD | Project Mentor | Substance abuse, MI, CBT |
| Micaela Karlsen Phd, MsPH | ACLM Senior director of research | Lifestyle medicine (have to be a member of ACLM to participate) |
| Kevin Hwang MD, MPH | Project Mentor | Internal medicine, Obesity medicine |
| Sudha Tallavajhula MD | Project Mentor | Clinical Neurophysiology, Sleep medicine |
| Andrea Taylor PhD | Project Mentor* | Stress, CBT, Mental health |
| Alejandro Chaoul PhD | Project Mentor | Stress, Positive psychology, meditation |
References:
- lifestylemedicine.org
- lifestylemedicineeduction.org
- Bansal S, Sandefur K, Alexander M, Teshon A. Foundations of Lifestyle Medicine for Medical Students: An introductory curriculum. 2022. Pp. 58