Environmental Medicine Module for 100 Million Healthier Lives Campaign

The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine is developing an online program on lifestyle education that will be part of the recently launched 100 Million Healthier Lives Campaign. Blackstone Ranch Institute has provided the center with a grant to develop an environmental medicine component for the campaign. The global initiative is a combined effort of individuals and more than 500 organizations that include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation.

The 12 week program will use an interactive online format to educate individuals around the world on the health benefits of getting adequate sleep, regular physical exercise, good nutrition, protection against stress, healthy relationships with others, development of a spiritual practice, and maintaining a balance with the surrounding environment. It is based on the premise that more and more people will be taking health care into their own hands in the years to come, and that educational information can be offered to citizens around the world through the internet. It will shift the focus of personal health care from doctors to patients, and places the emphasis on prevention of illness rather than its treatment.

Blackstone Ranch Institute provided an earlier grant in 2009 to help the center develop an online environmental medicine module as part of their integrative medicine curriculum. Since then the module has reached thousands of health care providers.