Impacting Community Health with Lifestyle Medicine Centers [Podcast Series]

Dr. Brad Roy is Executive Director of Logan Health Medical Fitness Center.
He is also Editor-in-Chief of the American College of Sports Medicine Health & Fitness Journal.

“We're a 115,000 square foot medically integrated fitness center. So by that we have physical therapy, occupational therapy, cardiac and pulmonary rehab, and our physical medicine and rehabilitation clinic, all of those hospital based programs are in the facility. Along with clinical programs that we run through the fitness portion, our Journey to Wellness program, which is a health coaching based program…”

“S,o yes, we have that broad perspective that we feel as a medically integrated fitness center that's our role is to try to help people of all ages of all conditions, and to find strategies to reach out beyond our doors to people that are out there that would never join a facility or they can't. How can we get them moving?”

“But just looking at different opportunities to know your community, be out there speaking, be part of community groups, be active in the schools. We're very tight with our physician communities. We have a lot of referrals coming in that way as well. All those things help us to reach out beyond the doors of the facility, to our greater community.”

“That’s why we take a health coaching approach to everything. It's not about what we want them to do, but it's about meeting them where they're at, and then helping them to discover where they could go, and how to get there.”

“So it's a three month program. It is health and wellness coaching based. They have an initial visit where we do some basic biometric and questionnaire types of assessments that we repeat at the end of the 12 months. And we do have some 12 month data out of that. And then they all receive health coaching during that period of time.”

“I think the beginning is what's the story you're trying to tell? What's the message you're trying to put out there? It is easy to measure too much. And that's a caution that I, I throw out there, because the scientists in all of us, we want to collect just about everything. And then you end up with too much information. You can probably tell a story that's really not true. You can skew the data really easily. So I think you have to have a clear objective for what you're trying to accomplish with those measurements. And then that will lead into what you need to measure.”

“All of that is important so that you have good data to work with to tell your story.”

“So really a medically integrated fitness center is a lifestyle medicine center. And I really believe, I personally believe that that's where the focus needs to be. And that's where the industry needs to be moving.”

“So I think that type of an approach resonates with people and meets them where they're at. We're not telling them what to do. We're helping them to discover where they want to go.”

“And really that's what youth sports is all about. So often the focus is on winning, right? It really needs to be skill development. I want my grandkids playing every sport because then they just become a well rounded athlete. And maybe later in life, they apply that to hiking or other recreational types of things that they do.”

“The data is there. Liz Joy and Intermountain Health. Bob Sallis, with his whole program. There's tons of data out there that shows the benefit of that, and the lower cost of care of those that are physically active versus those that aren’t. So it's like a no brainer, we should be doing this.”

U.S. Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth [Podcast Series]