Design and Implementation of a Lifestyle Medicine Curriculum inUndergraduate Medical Education

摘要

While scientific evidence demonstrates conclusive associations between unhealthylifestyle behaviors and increased morbidity and mortality related tononcommunicable chronic diseases (NCDs), most physicians are not formally taughtthe root causes of NCDs nor how to counsel patients regarding their lifestylebehaviors for disease prevention and treatment. Since its inception in 2012, theUniversity of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville has designed,developed, and implemented an innovative, formalized lifestyle medicinecurriculum to provide required undergraduate medical student training with agraduating program-level goal to “Deliver total health care using lifestylemedicine to prevent and treat morbidity and mortality related to chronicdiseases.” The process was guided by the Association of American MedicalColleges’ Core Entrustable Professional Activities (required for graduatesentering residency) and aimed to satisfy the Quadruple Aim components of betteroutcomes, lower cost, improved patient experience, and improved physicianexperience. Four essential instructional design phases, Analysis, Design,Development, and Evaluation, were used as systematic steps to create and deploythe curriculum. This article describes the evidence-based approach used andoffers guidance to other undergraduate medical schools that may wish toimplement lifestyle medicine training to improve physicians’ medical knowledgeand clinical skills for optimum health care.