(Pinehurst, North Carolina; June 9, 2016) – The Medical Fitness Association (MFA) and American College of Preventive Medicine (ACPM) announced today a new strategic partnership to improve collaboration between their members and increase the use of exercise and fitness to prevent and combat chronic diseases.
The partnership will build awareness between local members regarding the value each can bring to the health of their respective patients and communities—centrally through exercise prescriptions and population-based health strategies. The venture comes at a critical moment as new value-based care models stress the importance of promoting health and necessitate collaboration between provider teams.
In this evolving landscape, medical fitness centers will play an increasing role administering fitness regimens and exercise-based therapies prescribed by local primary care physicians.
"Fitness professionals help people change their lives, but we absolutely need physicians to understand the value of medically integrated fitness if we ever hope to serve those in our community most at risk," said Bob Boone, MFA. “This partnership, rooted in the preventive medicine specialty, will help us reach more patients and partner with ACPM in using evidence based physical activity to reduce and treat chronic disease.
Preventive medicine physicians are uniquely trained in both clinical medicine and public health, and are equipped to understand and reduce the risks of disease, disability, and death in individuals as well as in population groups. As a professional society for preventive medicine physicians, ACPM provides leadership in research, professional education, development of public policy, and enhancement of standards.
“The medical fitness model exhibits everything our members care about—disease prevention, health promotion through fitness, and the local integration of interventions and behavior modification,” said Dani Pere, ACPM Associate Director. The partnership with MFA also ties in well with ACPM’s Lifestyle Medicine Initiative which educates physicians about utilizing lifestyle interventions to decrease disease risk and illness burden, Pere indicated.
MFA is a non-profit membership organization serving medically integrated fitness centers and advancing their program model, which coordinates with local primary care providers to design and administer comprehensive fitness regimens and exercise-based therapies. MFA provides the highest standards for fitness facility certification, education and outcomes resources for fitness professionals and helps its members learn how to be an important partner in providing prevention and intervention programs as evidence-based treatments in many chronic diseases.
