Exercise Is Medicine Training For Healthcare Providers

The importance of physical activity and exercise to improve physical and mental health and to increase life expectancy is well known. The most significant people to deliver this message to the public are physicians and other health professionals. However, many of them lack the knowledge and confidence to prescribe exercise to both healthy people and those with chronic diseases. PURPOSE: To enrich the knowledge of physicians and other health professionals and give them practical tools to assess physical activity and fittness levels, motivate their patients to be active, and prescribe appropriate exercise plans. METHODS: A course of either 25 or 40 hours called “Exercise is Medicine” (EIM) was developed by a team of sports physicians, exercise physiologists & sports dietitians. The syllabus included basic exercise physiology and exercise prescription principals, sudden death and pre-participation screening, exercise prescription for special populations and for people with chronic diseases, motivational interview, and nutritional aspects. The highlight of each course was a practical workshop in an exercise physiology lab and in a fitness room, as we believe in “practice what you preach”. The length of the course, as well as the content, was adjusted according to time constraints and special interests of the audience. RESULTS: In the last decade we delivered EIM courses to more than 700 health professionals including physicians, physiotherapists, nurses and occupational therapists, and received extremely positive feedback. The courses increased the participants’ self-awareness of their own lifestyle and of their role in promoting physical activity and exercise to their families and patients. CONCLUSIONS: We believe EIM courses should be routinely taught in all medical and health professional schools and reinforced throughout their internship and life-long practice. Knowing that physicians have a major influence on their patients, we need to encourage them to be active themselves and to understand that exercise is the best medicine they can prescribe to their patients.