Tailored implementation plans for launching and scaling

lifestyle medicine shared medical appointments

Shared Medical Appointments (SMAs) are the reimbursable & scalable solution for implementing lifestyle medicine.

But figuring out all of the necessary clinical, operational, and administrative steps necessary to start SMAs can feel overwhelming. To make matters worse, many don’t have the time or resources that are needed to do so.

Don’t reinvent the wheel!

Jacob Mirsky, MD, MA, DipABLM, FACLM can create a tailored SMA implementation plan for you.

Dr. Jacob Mirsky has led 300+ lifestyle medicine SMAs and spent thousands of hours over the past 6+ years building and scaling the largest lifestyle medicine SMA program in the country at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School.

Since starting Lifestyle Medicine Consulting LLC in 2023, Dr. Mirsky has supported Lifestyle Medicine clinical program development at 15+ organizations:

  • Large regional healthcare systems

  • Academic medical centers

  • Community-based primary care and specialty clinics

  • Lifestyle Medicine foundations

  • Health tech startups

You can read client testimonials here.

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Clients

Areas of Expertise

Shared Medical Appointments (Group Medical Visits)

Since the 1990s, health systems have slowly been incorporating SMAs, also called group medical visits, into clinical care. In an SMA, multiple patients with the same medical condition join a group with a clinician. As a result, providers can spend one to two hours with patients, resulting in a better experience for patients and providers alike. The research is clear: SMAs improve patient health, access to medical care, and provider joy. Importantly, SMAs can also be reimbursed by insurance, providing a financially sustainable path to incorporating lifestyle medicine into routine clinical care.

Lifestyle Medicine

Decades of scientific research and national guidelines tell the same story: healthy changes in behavior prevent and treat chronic diseases. In fact, almost every chronic condition in medicine is impacted by the six pillars of lifestyle medicine: diet and nutrition, physical activity and exercise, stress, sleep, social connections, and substances such as tobacco and alcohol. Clinical programs that inspire and support patients to make evidence-based behavior changes are necessary to address the overwhelming burden of chronic diseases.

Culinary Medicine & Food Is Medicine

The most rapidly expanding sector in the lifestyle medicine community relates to food. Although Hippocrates is credited with saying, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” the United States healthcare system has been built on supporting pharmaceuticals and not farms. Because nutrition is one of the essential contributors to health and disease, the lifestyle medicine community has been rallying around the idea that “Food Is Medicine.” Programs are popping up all over the country that not only provide patients with healthy foods, but are also using teaching kitchens to educate patients in the art and science of culinary medicine.

Health and Wellness Coaching

The rise of health and wellness coaching in recent years has been one of the most exciting developments in Lifestyle Medicine. As critical members of the healthcare team, health and wellness coaches use evidence-based strategies to motivate and inspire patients and to work through barriers and frustrations that come up during the lifestyle change journey.