Integrative Approaches to Preventive Cardiology

I am a preventive cardiologist at Northwestern University and a graduate of the University of Arizona Fellowship in Integrative Medicine.  I am honored to have received a Weil Foundation grant in 2011 to develop a core curriculum for teaching integrative approaches to preventive cardiology directed at cardiology fellows and primary care residents.

Despite growing public interest in prevention, the focus of medical training remains on the treatment of established and, often advanced, disease. Even in medical schools that have improved curriculum in nutrition and lifestyle medicine, experience has proven that the knowledge gained is soon extinguished because it is not reinforced in later clinical years. This is especially true in cardiology, where training is typically focused on diagnostic testing and invasive procedures.

My goal as a university based academic cardiologist is to teach future physicians the value of prevention, and to expose them to the expanded toolbox of therapies made possible through integrative medicine.

The Weil grant will allow me to develop a curriculum in integrative approaches to preventive cardiology that includes these key principles:  

a.  review of the advantages of a patient centered model of specialty care where the patient’s philosophy of health care and treatment goals are actively identified and incorporated into the development of a prevention plan.

b.  emphasize the potency of nutrition as an interventional therapy to promote heart health including instruction in practical strategies to implement nutritional recommendations.

c.  learn the scientific principles and practice of motivational interviewing to promote heart healthy changes in nutrition and physical activity.

d.  evaluate the scientific basis for the use of botanicals/supplements in general, as well as review specific products useful to achieve cardiovascular prevention goals not otherwise possible.

e.  achieve a better understanding of the role of mind/body interactions on heart health,  and learn how to make recommendations for an expanded range of options to promote emotional well being  and improved heart health.

Heart disease is largely preventable and, therefore, much work needs to be done to ensure that training in the science of prevention is prioritized, and delivered with exposure to the most comprehensive set of effective strategies possible. I am grateful to the Weil Foundation for providing me the opportunity to pursue the development of this much needed curriculum in integrative approaches to preventive cardiology.

Stephen Devries, MD, FAHA, FACC
Graduate, University of Arizona Fellowship in Integrative Medicine (2005)
Preventive Cardiologist
Associate Professor of Medicine
Northwestern University