AJLM CME/CE Article Quiz Volume 16, Issue 1
AJLM CME/CE Article Quiz Volume 16, Issue 1 is organized by American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) and will be held from Feb 07, 2022 - Feb 07, 2025.
Description
Interdisciplinary solutions created from the collective knowledge and experiences of practitioners and experts from across multiple sectors are urgently needed to effectively address health disparities. With the belief that the power of diversity in ideas and voices can develop effective, innovative solutions, the inaugural Health Disparities Solutions Summit (HDSS), produced by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), was held virtually in late 2020. Organized by ACLM’s Health Equity Achieved through Lifestyle Medicine (HEAL) Initiative, the convening was designed to harness this collective power.
The Summit was born out of the vision of ACLM's Immediate Past president Dexter Shurney, MD, MBA, MPH, FACLM, DipABLM, to address lifestyle-related chronic, disease health disparities, with particular emphasis on inequities impacting dietary lifestyle and stress in historically marginalized communities. The Summit convened physicians, faith-based leaders, academics, and community organizers to identify expert consensus and recommended action steps specific to addressing health disparities through the lens of lifestyle medicine. Lifestyle medicine is the use of evidence-based lifestyle therapeutic intervention—including a whole food, plant-predominant eating pattern, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and positive social connection—as a primary modality, delivered by clinicians trained and certified in this specialty, to prevent, treat, and often reverse chronic disease.
Invited Summit participants engaged in roundtable discussions grounded in three vision statements for eliminating health disparities: (1) Healthcare providers effectively trained in evidence-based lifestyle medicine, equipped to partner with their patients in underserved communities to minimize stress in the medical setting, ensuring optimal health outcomes; (2) High levels of food and nutrition literacy among patients and providers in underserved communities; and (3) Food as medicine fully integrated into communities, their cultures and values—implemented in underserved communities in a culturally relevant way to achieve health equity.
This paper provides background on the realities of health disparities in the United States, introduces the entrance point of lifestyle medicine (LM) practice in the struggle for health equity, and summarizes Summit proceedings and recommended action steps.
Learning Objectives
• Define health equity
• Explain the vision and focus of the Health Disparities Solutions Summit (HDSS)
• Describe the rationale for using a Community Based Research approach
• Identify action steps recommended by the HDSS to help address health disparities
