Programma
Putting everyone on the same path
The question is no longer whether but how lifestyle medicine will become an established part of general and specialty medical care within the next 5 to 10 years. To give this form and substance, a roadmap has been developed with input from partners and members of Lifestyle4Health, the Arts en Leefstijl association and other parties in the broader Dutch healthcare industry.
Lifestyle Program
Dr. Hanneke Molema is the leader of this project. She says: "The Routekaart that we have developed together with many parties gives structure to what needs to be done in order to make attention for lifestyle a 'normal' part of health. Whether that will literally save costs is hard to say; it depends on which health economist you ask. What we do know is that attention for a healthy lifestyle promotes overall health. And that obviously does patients good. We also know that we need to further convince healthcare professionals and provide them with information and concrete examples. The inclusion of lifestyle in reimbursements and guidelines is obviously important in this regard."
"In addition, developing the roadmap gave us the opportunity to gather ideas and knowledge from key stakeholders in a structured way. And, not unimportantly, to put all players within the healthcare system on the same path: patients (through the Patients Federation), medical professionals, researchers, etc."
It is gaining support. All collaborating organizations are pleased with the development and feel it is necessary to determine what we already know (scientifically) and identify what we do not know yet.
"On our website we collect examples of initiatives that are provided by the initiators themselves. In doing so, we can clearly see and know that people respond to what is posted."
"I am certain that, among other things, the roadmap has given impetus to the Coalitie Leefstijl in de Zorg (Coalition for Lifestyle in Healthcare) and that we have directly or indirectly laid the foundation for the decision in the Integraal Zorgakkord (Integral Care Agreement) that, as of January 1, 2023, made multi-year funds available for the implementation of a broad lifestyle coalition with the goal of directing nationally and regionally commitment to health within the Health Insurance Act domain (pillars: data and knowledge, education, guidelines, research, implementation and scaling up, monitoring and patients)."
This project identified the preconditions needed to implement lifestyle medicine into all relevant care pathways. In doing so, we identified impact on almost all elements that we agree with for this purpose: research, innovation, implementation, protocols and funding. Moreover, the project also contributed to a variety of other projects, programs and policies.
