Inter-professional Care: Integration with Exercise Physiologists

Abstract

The US healthcare system has evolved and now assigns greater value to early and sustainable lifestyle and behavioral changes that are associated with better health for the individual and society as a whole. Strategies are being employed to change healthcare systems to focus on primary prevention - a philosophy that is not only cost-effective but also, more importantly, decreases the burden of disease, increases the quality of life, and saves lives (Benjamin, Public Health Rep 126:774-776, 2011). This paradigm shift, from an overwhelming dependence on tertiary prevention that essentially waits for disease to become symptomatic to primordial, primary, and secondary prevention that is oriented to averting disease development and progression, has fomented a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration and patient care. To support this trajectory and fruition of healthcare, the discipline of exercise science figures as an essential and fundamental component in comprehensive care and lifestyle medicine.