The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has been honored with the 2026 American Association of Medical Society Executives (AAMSE) Profiles of Excellence Award in the Education Category, Large Organization Division, for its Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum (LMRC). The award spotlights medical professional societies that strengthen organized medicine and measurably improve outcomes for both physicians and patients.
The LMRC was designed to close a persistent training gap in how clinicians are prepared to address chronic disease. Rather than relying on a medication-first paradigm, the curriculum builds competency-based medical education centered on evidence-based lifestyle interventions that can treat, reverse, and help prevent chronic conditions.
At the core of the program is an approach that embeds lifestyle medicine into day-to-day residency workflows. Residents learn behavior-change counseling strategies, apply practical clinical tools, and translate guidance into real-world patient plans—creating a repeatable method for turning clinical encounters into measurable health improvements.
Since its debut, the LMRC has scaled rapidly into a national graduate medical education initiative. It now reaches more than 480 residency programs across over 230 clinical sites, extending access to standardized lifestyle-medicine training across diverse patient populations and care settings.
Program reporting indicates that participating residents gain increased knowledge of lifestyle medicine and achieve deeper integration into routine clinical practice. Beyond training metrics, residents also report improvements in professional satisfaction, suggesting that structured competency pathways may improve the sustainability of prevention-focused care.
Reported patient-level outcomes include improvements in key health indicators and quality of life. The curriculum is also associated with enhanced chronic disease management and reductions in medication use, aligning educational objectives with clinically relevant endpoints.
Notably, LMRC is described as the only nationally available residency pathway explicitly aligned with board certification in lifestyle medicine. This alignment creates a direct continuum between graduate training, board-validated competency, and professional advancement.
ACLM Medical Director of Education Brenda Rea, MD, DrPH, PT, RD, DipABLM, FACLM, accepted the award at the AAMSE Annual Conference held July 15–17 in Louisville, Kentucky. Rea framed the recognition as validation of coordinated educator and clinician efforts to accelerate lifestyle medicine within graduate medical education.
Subject of Research: Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum (LMRC); chronic disease prevention and management through evidence-based lifestyle interventions
Article Title: ACLM Receives AAMSE Profiles of Excellence Award for Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum
News Publication Date: 2026
Web References: https://lifestylemedicine.org/academic-integration/residency-curriculum/ ; https://lifestylemedicine.org
References: AAMSE Profiles of Excellence Award (Education Category, Large Organization Division)
Image Credits: Not provided
Keywords: lifestyle medicine, graduate medical education, chronic disease, behavior change counseling, board certification, preventive healthcare, clinical competency, medical education awards
