In a ceremony held during the 2026 Lifestyle Medicine Conference in Orlando, Florida, ECU Health was presented with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) Special Recognition Award for Health System Innovation. The distinction acknowledges a regional health network that has moved beyond treating symptoms to reshaping everyday clinical practice around the six pillars of lifestyle medicine: nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances, and social connection.
For patients across eastern North Carolina, the award signals a shift from isolated prescriptions to a holistic roadmap that tackles high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease at their roots. Dr. Dave Michael, medical director of ECU Health’s Lifestyle Medicine division, explained that the program “looks beyond a diagnosis to the factors that influence a person’s overall health, helping patients make meaningful, sustainable changes that improve their health and, in many cases, reduce the impact of chronic disease.”
Why the award matters: a model for health-system change
The ACLM accolade spotlights several concrete achievements. First, ECU Health helped pilot the Lifestyle Empowerment Approach for Diabetes Remission (LEADR), a scalable model that guides clinicians through a step-by-step protocol for achieving diabetes remission within routine visits. Second, the health system is a founding member of the ACLM Health Systems Council, a forum that gathers hospitals around the country to exchange best practices for embedding lifestyle-medicine strategies into daily workflows.
Brenda Leigh, director of Lifestyle Medicine at ECU Health, emphasized that the honor reflects “years of collaboration and a shared commitment to making lifestyle medicine practical, accessible and meaningful for the people we serve.” She added that the team’s daily focus on patient-centered goals is the core driver behind the recognition.
Core components of ECU Health’s lifestyle program
The program’s backbone rests on six evidence-based pillars, each addressed through personalized care plans. Healthy eating encourages whole, plant-based foods; physical activity promotes regular movement; restorative sleep targets consistent bedtime routines; stress management provides coping techniques; avoidance of risky substances tackles tobacco and excess alcohol; and social connection strengthens community ties. Every patient receives a tailored roadmap, co-created with dietitians, exercise physiologists and behavioral health specialists, ensuring that recommendations align with individual preferences and cultural contexts.
To translate these goals into measurable outcomes, ECU Health embedded lifestyle-medicine assessments directly into its Epic electronic health record (EHR). Clinicians can now capture nutrition scores, activity levels and sleep quality during a standard visit, generate progress notes that flag “food as medicine” prescriptions, and track changes in hemoglobin A1c, blood pressure and lipid panels over time. This seamless EHR integration reduces administrative friction and makes lifestyle counseling a routine part of the medical record.
Technology partnership expands the toolkit
Building on the Epic integration, ECU Health joined forces with eClinicalWorks and the ACLM to embed a full suite of lifestyle-medicine tools into the eClinicalWorks EHR platform (version 12.0.4). The package includes a Whole Person Health Assessment that evaluates all six pillars, a dedicated progress-note template for documenting interventions such as produce prescriptions or medically tailored meals, and dashboards that visualize population-level trends in A1c, blood pressure and patient-reported stress scores.
Practitioners at community health centers like Albany Area Primary Health Care in Georgia have reported that the new workflow eliminates manual coordination, allowing staff to monitor participation, schedule follow-ups and bill for lifestyle-medicine services without leaving the EHR. The collaboration also explores artificial-intelligence algorithms that predict which patients will benefit most from intensive lifestyle coaching, positioning the system at the forefront of preventive, value-based care.
