Lifestyle Medicine

This Lifestyle Medicine introductory course provides a foundation of theoretical and practical knowledge and skills, as well as an opportunity to plan strategies and practice techniques for assisting patients with positive health behavior changes. All parts of this training are free, including registration, learning, testing, and a certificate of completion. This course is intended for primary-care physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals in training and in practice.

This Lifestyle Medicine course was developed in partnership with Bar-Ilan University, the Brookfield Centre for Lifestyle Medicine, the European Lifestyle Medicine Organization, the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine at Harvard, the Israeli Society of Family Medicine – Lifestyle Medicine Section, the Lifestyle Medical Education Collaborative, and the USC School of Medicine Greenville. Like all NextGenU.org courses, the course is competency-based; this course utilizes competencies from the Lifestyle Medicine Program Curriculum Outline of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and the Israeli Society of Family Medicine – Lifestyle Medicine Section. In addition, the Lifestyle Medicine course uses resources from accredited world-class organizations, including the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, the American College of Preventive Medicine, the American College of Sports Medicine, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the World Health Organization. The course developer is Lilach Malatskey, MD, MHA, Chairman of the Israeli Society of Lifestyle Medicine of the Family Physicians Association, who received substantial input from the Executive Members of the Israeli Society of Family Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine Section. Significant feedback was also received from our Advisory Group members, Ioannis Arkadianos, MD; Erica Frank, MD, MPH; Ioan Hanes, MD; Jenny Lee, MD, PhD, MPH; Dr. Ifeoma Monye, MBBS, DCH, DFFP, DRCOG, FRCGP; Edward M. Phillips, MD; Verena Rossa-Roccor, MD; Mary Rudolf, MB, BS, BSc, FRCPCH, FAAP; Jennifer Trilk, PhD; and Stefania Ubaldi, MD, PhD.

For a publication on this course’s efficacy, see “NextGenU.org’s Free, Globally Available Online Training in Lifestyle Medicine,” (2017), American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, https://doi.org/10.1177/1559827616682444; see also “Building Public Health Capacity through Online Global Learning,” (2018), Open Praxis, https://openpraxis.org/index.php/OpenPraxis/article/view/746/427; to see more research related to NextGenU.org’s educational model, click on NextGenU.org’s publication page.

There are two components to this course.

The first component involves completing the modules and which provide:

An introduction to the principles of lifestyle medicine, and an understanding of the effects of physical activity, nutrition, sleep, stress, and sexuality on health;
Overviews of smoking cessation and alcohol use disorders;
Skills to develop and implement action plans for lifestyle medicine in both clinical and personal settings.

In order to receive a certificate of completion, you will need to also complete the second, skills-based component of the course, which requires you to identify a person (could be a patient or an acquaintance) who would like to make one or more lifestyle changes. During this course, you will meet with this person 3 times and practice strategies you have learned to help others make behavioral changes. You may meet in person or via video conferencing. You will also need to identify a mentor with professional health care training at least at the bachelor’s level (a college degree), and with a certificate or other specific training in Lifestyle Medicine, who can provide you with feedback on the assignments you submit about your relationship with your patient.

The results of your assessments will be provided to you, and we can report your testing information and share your work with anyone you request (school, employer, etc.). The evaluation you provide at the course’s conclusion will help us improve the training for future students. We hope you find this Lifestyle Medicine course a wonderful learning experience!

Approximate time for completion of this course is 49 hours at an average reading rate of 144 words/minute.

Before you begin the course, please take a moment to take the short knowledge Pre-test below. It allows us to assess various aspects of the course itself and is mandatory to receive your certificate upon completion of the course.

The course requires the completion of peer and mentored activities. At the end of each lesson, there is a practice quiz. At the end of the course, after you’ve completed each lesson, quiz, and activity, you’ll have access to a final exam, and a chance to assess the training. Once you’ve passed that last test, you will be able to download a certificate of completion from NextGenU.org and our course’s co-sponsoring organizations (listed above). We keep all of your personal information confidential, never sell any of your information, and only use anonymized data for research purposes, and we are also happy to report your testing information and share your work with anyone (your school, employer, etc.) at your request. We hope that you will find this a rewarding learning experience, and we count on your feedback to help us improve this training for future students.

Engaging with this Course

You may browse this course for free to learn for your personal enrichment; there are no requirements.

To obtain a certificate

Show in the registration fields that you have the appropriate prerequisites to be certified. This course requires the learner to have already obtained a college-level degree.
Take the brief pre-test.
Complete all the reading requirements.
Complete all quizzes and pass with a 70% with unlimited attempts.
Complete 1 peer activity and associated certification quizzes.
Find a mentor and complete the 8 required mentor activities.
Successfully complete the final exam with a minimum of 70% and a maximum of 3 attempts.
Complete the self and course evaluation forms.

To obtain credit

Complete all requirements listed above for the certificate.
Your learning institution or workplace should approve the partner-university-sponsored NextGenU.org course for educational credit, as they would for their learner taking a course anywhere.
NextGenU.org is happy to provide your institution with:
- a link to and description of the course training, so they can see all its components, including the cosponsoring universities and other professional organization cosponsors;
- your grade on the final exam;
- your work products (e.g. peer and mentored activities), and any other required or optional shared materials that you produce and authorize to share with them;
- your evaluations — course, self, peer, and mentor assessments;
- a copy of your certificate of completion, with the co-sponsoring universities and other organizations listed.

To obtain a degree co-sponsored with NextGenU.org, registrants must be enrolled in a degree program as a student of a NextGenU.org institutional partner. If you think that your institution might be interested in offering a degree with NextGenU.org contact us

We hope that you will find this a rewarding learning experience, and we count on your assessment and feedback to help us improve this training for future students.

Next Steps

Take the short knowledge pre-test below. It allows us to assess various aspects of the course itself.
Complete the registration form.
Complete the survey on your health practices, as this will allow us to study any personal behavioral changes that happened during the time you took this behavioral change course.
Begin the course with Module 1: Introduction to Lifestyle Medicine. In each lesson, read the description, complete all required readings and any required activity, and take the corresponding quizzes.