ACLM achieves joint accreditation status to independently accredit interprofessional continuing education

Previously, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine partnered with accredited institutions to offer CME/CE credit for its courses. Joint accreditation allows the organization to accredit its own interprofessional continuing education (IPCE) activities, enhancing its ability to deliver high-quality, team-based training that improves care and patient outcomes.

ST. LOUIS, July 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) announced today it has earned Joint Accreditation for Interprofessional Continuing Education®, a significant milestone that allows the medical professional society to independently accredit continuing education activities for healthcare teams across disciplines.

Joint accreditation provides a streamlined framework for educating the entire healthcare team together rather than one profession at a time. It also affirms ACLM's ability to develop high-quality educational experiences that strengthen collaboration, enhance clinical performance, and improve patient outcomes.

"Achieving independent accreditation comes at a defining moment in ACLM's history," said ACLM CEO John Findley, MD, CPE. "The evidence supporting lifestyle medicine has never been stronger, yet it still takes far too long for proven interventions to become routine clinical practice. Independent accreditation expands our ability to deliver rigorous, interprofessional education that accelerates adoption of whole-person, evidence-based care and empowers healthcare teams to make lifestyle medicine a first-line therapy for every patient, every time. As chronic disease continues to overwhelm our nation's health system, modernizing the healthcare workforce is one of our greatest opportunities—and responsibilities—to improve health outcomes at scale."

Supporting healthcare professionals across the continuum

ACLM's education program is designed to deliver meaningful, outcomes-driven learning experiences that support healthcare professionals across a career-long continuum. Joint Accreditation ensures that accredited education:

• Supports interprofessional collaboration, role clarity, and teamwork
• Is evidence‑based, scientifically valid, balanced, and independent
• Addresses changes in knowledge, skills/strategy, performance, and patient outcomes
• Fosters interprofessional education where healthcare professionals learn with, from, and about each other to improve collaboration and care
• Includes rigorous processes for identifying practice gaps, determining educational needs, planning activities, measuring outcomes, and improving care delivery

Leadership in lifestyle medicine education

"With joint accreditation, ACLM strengthens its leadership in lifestyle medicine education and enhances its ability to scale innovative learning opportunities," said ACLM Medical Director of Education Brenda Rea, MD, DrPH, PT, RD, DipABLM, FACLM.  "This also streamlines the accreditation process, enabling ACLM to more efficiently design and deliver integrated education for physicians, nurses, dietitians, health coaches, and other healthcare professionals."

Initially, ACLM will focus on accrediting its own IPCE activities as it continues to build and refine internal accreditation processes, with the potential to explore accrediting external educational activities in the future. To learn more about ACLM's accredited education programs, visit ACLM's website.

About ACLM^®
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the nation's medical professional society building the infrastructure to scale lifestyle medicine as the new standard of care. ACLM translates evidence-based lifestyle interventions into education, certification, and implementation, equipping physicians, healthcare professionals, and systems of care to treat the root causes of chronic disease. Since 2004, ACLM has trained more than 100,000 health professionals and made more than 1.75 million hours of accredited continuing education available through courses and conferences for physicians and health professionals. With hundreds of institutional partners worldwide, ACLM is helping healthcare move from a system designed to manage disease to one capable of restoring health.

SOURCE American College of Lifestyle Medicine