Dr. Edington, who has published more than 800 articles on health, was the keynote speaker at Intermountain’s latest Healthy Dialogues lecture, which was held last week in Salt Lake City. His work focuses on the relationships between healthy lifestyles, vitality, and quality of life and the benefits that result for both individuals and organizations.
In addition to managing disease — diabetes and heart disease, for example — healthcare organizations should work together with their communities to promote and reward lifestyles that reduce it. “We need to integrate the whole person into a culture and environment focused on health, and engage in population health,” he said. “Instead of playing defense, we need to fi x the system that leads to the defects.”
The Healthy Dialogues lecture series brings national healthcare leaders to Utah to talk about health policy with local business, healthcare,and community leaders. Past speakers include Donald Berwick, MD, Michael Leavitt, Elliott Fisher, MD, Clayton Christensen, Atul Gawande, MD, and Shannon Brownlee.