The American College of Lifestyle Medicine has released a new position statement outlining a standardized approach for collecting lifestyle medicine data within electronic health records.
Key facts
- •The ACLM position statement was published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine in 2026.
- •The framework aims to provide the foundation for capturing data needed to influence policy and payment models.
- •Development of the framework involved over six years of collaboration among various health and informatics experts.
- •Standardized data is intended to help health systems demonstrate the clinical and economic impact of lifestyle medicine.
- •Lead author David Michael stated that consistent data collection could transform health care by building a stronger evidence base.
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has published a new position statement aimed at standardizing how lifestyle medicine data is collected and measured at the point of care. The framework seeks to address inconsistencies in documentation across clinical settings and electronic health record (EHR) systems to better demonstrate the clinical and economic value of lifestyle interventions in treating chronic disease.
Addressing Data Inconsistencies
The paper identifies inconsistent documentation of health behaviors and interventions as a primary barrier to the scalability and reimbursement of lifestyle medicine. To resolve this, the authors call for the implementation of standardized assessments, interoperable coding systems, and common data elements that allow information to be analyzed and shared across different health care organizations.
Development and Implementation
The framework is the result of over six years of development, involving input from clinicians, researchers, informatics experts, and health system leaders. It builds upon a previous collaboration between the ACLM and Epic, which integrated lifestyle medicine assessment tools directly into the Epic EHR platform. The authors suggest that consistent data collection will support quality improvement, benchmarking, and public health surveillance.
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This article was independently rewritten by ManyPress editorial AI from reporting originally published by Medical Xpress.
