Loma Linda School of Medicine Earns Top Honors in Lifestyle Medicine

Loma Linda University School of Medicine (LLUSM) in Loma Linda, California, United States, has been recognized by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) as one of the first two medical schools in the U.S. to earn the highest recognition of a “Platinum Plus” certification. The designation recognizes the school for the significant level of undergraduate lifestyle medicine curricula within its programs.

Platinum Plus is the highest tier of certification that a medical school can receive from ACLM and indicates the incorporation of at least 100 hours of evidence-based lifestyle medicine content within the four-year curriculum for all medical students. Additionally, LLUSM offers a Lifestyle Medicine Certificate track for students who desire advanced knowledge and skills in lifestyle medicine. 

Sylvia Cramer and Kelsey Cherepuschak, the co-thread directors for the Lifestyle and Preventive Medicine thread at LLUSM, said they are excited to accept the ACLM lifestyle medicine Platinum Plus certification and are grateful to be one of the first two medical schools certified at the highest level, along with colleagues from the University of South Carolina Greenville. The co-thread directors believe that the increased amount of lifestyle medicine education that students receive will not only benefit students’ future patients but will also be beneficial as they apply lifestyle medicine principles in their own lives, creating more resilient “whole person” physicians.

The Platinum Plus level of lifestyle medicine curricula within medical schools supports graduates in achieving part of the prerequisites to become certified in lifestyle medicine by the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine, following successful completion of the remaining prerequisites during residency training. In addition, Loma Linda University Health, in collaboration with ACLM, currently offers the Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum to any resident or fellow trainee within the LLUH system with a specific focus in family, internal, and preventive medicine residency programs. The institution also offers the only Lifestyle Medicine Intensivist Fellowship program in the nation.

“For more than 100 years, Loma Linda University School of Medicine has had a legacy of continuing the teaching and healing ministry of Christ through lifestyle medicine-oriented medical education,” Brenda Rea, Lifestyle Medicine Intensivist and program director of the Lifestyle Medicine Intensivist Fellowship at LLUSM, said, “and this certification represents the culmination of a renewed effort to weave lifestyle medicine more extensively throughout our four-year curriculum.”

Lifestyle medicine is an approach to health care that focuses on preventing, treating, and often reversing chronic diseases through lifestyle interventions. Lifestyle medicine-certified clinicians are trained to apply evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change to treat and, when used intensively, often reverse such conditions.

Loma Linda University has been a pioneer in integrating lifestyle medicine into health-care education, research, and dietary habits, which aligns with its mission to promote wholeness and wellness. The university is located in a so-called lifestyle Blue Zone and is a Seventh-day Adventist institution known for its emphasis on whole-person care of the mind, body, and spirit.

The original version of this story was posted on the Loma Linda University Health news site.