HSS Lifestyle Medicine Program

Our interprofessional healthcare team provides evidence-based methods to help you achieve your healthy lifestyle goals. Your personal coordinated plan may include virtual and in person visits for the following:

• Health coach
• Physical therapy
• Nutritional counseling
• Care coordinator
• Smoking cessation assistance
• Individualized weight loss program
• Physical activity
• Medical massage or dry needling for pain control

We also offer a wealth of virtual and in-person programming in the form of group classes and events:

• Exercise classes
• Shared medical appointments/classes

Meet Our Team

Our healthcare team is comprised of lifestyle medicine certified–professionals with specialty in obesity medicine, physical medicine and rehabilitation, physical therapists, an exercise kinesiologist, dietitian, health coach and smoking cessation specialist. 

Medical Providers

Prather Heidi, DO is a board certified physician in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine and a Diplomat of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. She serves as the founder and Medical Director of the HSS Lifestyle Medicine Program. She has practiced non-operative musculoskeletal medicine for nearly 3 decades and enjoys clinical work, teaching, and research. Frustrated with the healthcare system’s limitations in healthcare provider collaboration and patient access to services needed to improve their musculoskeletal health, she developed the HSS Lifestyle Medicine program to enable a focus on whole-person health. Practicing lifestyle medicine has given her hope and energy to be involved in healthcare—not sick care.

Karen Griffin, NP, Diplomate ACLM is a nurse practitioner who has worked at HSS for over 13 years. Prior to HSS, she was a travel nurse and had the opportunity to work in several different areas of the country, primarily in cardiology and oncology.  The unifying factor of her varied work experiences has been witnessing the impact of lifestyle choices on health outcomes. Karen is excited to be part of the Lifestyle Medicine team and empower patients to make holistic lifestyle changes that can optimize their health. She is particularly interested in shifting the focus to give individuals the option to be active participants in their well care.

Care Support and Navigation

Cara Suter, PT, DPT, NCPT is a physical therapist and the care coordinator and program facilitator of the Lifestyle Medicine Program. As a PT, she evaluates and treats patients as a whole in order to get to the root cause of an issue. This mirrors the goal of Lifestyle Medicine, which is seeing a person as a whole in order to optimize their health.

Mark Pagba has served in many roles in his many years of work at HSS and now coordinates scheduling for patients across the disciplines and group programs. His work as a member of the Lifestyle Medicine team has made him realize how important it is to take care of the whole body, physically but most importantly mentally. He views the lifestyle medicine program to help patients adapt their lives and achieve wellness.

Interprofessional Lifestyle Medicine Team

Kate Cohen, ACLM Diplomate is a registered dietitian nutritionist and is the Clinical Nutritionist for the HSS Lifestyle Medicine Program. Prior to HSS, she was the dietitian for the Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC where she counseled patients on using diet & lifestyle strategies for chronic disease management and prevention. In her role at HSS, she strives to provide patients the knowledge, tools & inspiration they need to be proactive about their own health journey.

Jane Belkin, LMSW is the Care Navigator/Health Coach for the HSS Lifestyle Medicine Program. With extensive experience in interdisciplinary behavioral health, medical social work, and individual psychotherapy, Jane is committed to providing compassionate, collaborative care and support to her patients. Jane is passionate about empowering individuals to navigate their healthcare journeys, advocating for holistic approaches that address both mental and physical well-being to achieve lifestyle goals.

Kelyssa Hall, CSCS, CEAS is an exercise physiologist. She has a passion for helping people do the things they love to do and strives to empower people to live their best lives by working with them to initiate physical activity habits into their daily routines while focusing on functional movement, balance, mobility, strength, posture and endurance. She enjoys sharing her 30 years of experience educating people and motivating them to live and be healthier.

Dana Rose, PT, DPT, OCS, SFMA is a physical therapist at Hospital for Special Surgery Rehabilitation and Performance and the Director at HSS Midtown and HSS Brooklyn. She has experience with and enjoys treating a variety of surgical and nonsurgical conditions. As a PT, she evaluates and treats patients as a whole in order to get to the root cause of an issue. 

Laura Jasphy,  EdD,  LCSW,  REBT is a senior clinical social worker and advisor for the HSS Lifestyle Medicine program. Years of observing unhealthy habits within the healthcare setting inspired her to pursue a doctorate in health education at Columbia University, giving her greater insights into challenges of behavior, as well as the skills to support it. She enjoys helping others to make and sustain lifestyle changes, improve their quality of life, and return to activities that bring them joy.

Jennifer Cheng, PhD is the Research Manager for the Department of Physiatry and the HSS Lifestyle Medicine program. She has had an interest in many aspects of lifestyle medicine throughout the years. In her role, she helps investigate how lifestyle medicine can improve outcomes for patients with musculoskeletal conditions and lifestyle-related chronic diseases.

Lifestyle Medicine Consultants

Nartana Mehta, RD is a registered dietitian specializing in disease prevention, management and reversal, and weight management through whole-food, plant-based nutrition and improved gut health. She is the dietician for the Washington University Living Well Center, in St. Louis, Missouri. She serves as a consultant to the HSS lifestyle medicine program, with a specific focus on nutrition and gut health as they relate to arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions and lifestyle changes including a whole food plant-predominant lifestyle to prevent, treat and reverse lifestyle-related chronic disease and improve pain and function in people.

Lifestyle Medicine Overview

• What is Lifestyle Medicine (Video) with Heidi Prather, DO
  
• Beyond Resolutions: Behavior Change for Your Health (Video) with Heidi Prather, DO, Karen Griffin NP, Kathryn Cohen MS, RDN, Cara Suter PT, DPT
• Lifestyle Medicine - A Prescription for Good Health by Robin Frank
• What Is Lifestyle Medicine? by Heidi Prather, DO

Pillars Of Lifestyle Medicine

Healthy Eating

• Eating for Life: Unleashing the Power of Lifestyle Medicine and Nutrition (Video) with Heidi Prather, DO and Sue Xiao Yu (Nutritionist)
• Food as Medicine Jumpstart by American College of Lifestyle Medicine
• Good Nutrition: A Central Pillar of Lifestyle Medicine by Heidi Prather, DO
• Lifestyle Medicine Culinary Class with Caryn Dugan from Center for Plant-Based Living.

Sleep

• How to Improve Sleep Quality by Heidi Prather, DO
• Lifestyle Medicine: Strategies for Better Sleep (Video) with Heidi Prather, DO and Rebecca Niitzel, MS, RDN, CDN

Physical Activity

• Lifestyle Medicine: Is Movement Medicine? (Video) with Elizabeth Nguyen, MD and Kelyssa Hall, CSCS, CEAS
• Lifestyle Medicine and the Benefits of Physical Activity by Heidi Prather, DO

Avoidance of Risky Substances

• Lifestyle Medicine Can Help You Quit Smoking or Drinking by Heidi Prather, DO

Managing Stress and Social Connections

• The Lifestyle Medicine Approach to Emotional Wellbeing (Video) with Heidi Prather, DO, Laura Jasphy, EdD, LCSW, REBT, and Linda Roberts (Greenburg Academy for Successful Aging)
• The Lifestyle Medicine Approach to Emotional Well-Being by Heidi Prather, DO

Lifestyle Medicine and Joint Health

• What to Know About Weight-Loss Drugs and Joint Pain by Heidi Prather, DO
• Lifestyle Medicine: The Surgeon's Perspective with Fred D. Cushner, MD and Heidi Prather, DO. Listen on Apple Podcast or Spotify

When it comes to optimizing health and recovery, the expertise of our specialists in lifestyle medicine is in high demand. We're proud to feature their professional talks, grants, publications and ongoing research on how their approach benefits patients seeking to not just manage their conditions, but truly improve their quality of life and get back to moving freely.

National Presentations

• Podiums Presentation  November ACLM 2024

Grand Rounds

• AAPM&R International Fellows, Africa
• Shirley Ryan Ability Lab
• Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
• University of Washington

Internal Grants

• Feinberg Grant 2024, Impact nutritional supplement prior to total knee revision surgery
• HSS Physiatry Multicenter Grant, University of Washington, Implementation of Wearable Tracking and Patient Communication Regarding Physical Activity and Sleep.

Abstracts

• Comparison of Immediate Surgical Outcomes Following Participation in an Intensive vs. Selective Lifestyle Medicine Program. Heidi Prather, Olivia Leupold, Karen Griffin, Cara Suter, Brendan Pier, Jennifer Cheng. American College of Lifestyle Medicine Annual Meeting , Orlando Florida, October, 2024.
• Comparison of Immediate Surgical Outcomes Following Participation in an Intensive vs. Selective Lifestyle Medicine Program. Heidi Prather, Olivia Leupold, Karen Griffin, Cara Suter, Brendan Pier, Jennifer Cheng. Weill Cornell, Columbia University Physiatry Research Symposium, New York , New York, September, 2024

Ongoing Publications

• Prather, H., Creighton, A., Sorenson, C., Simpson, S., Reese, M., Hunt, D. and Rho, M., 2018. Anxiety and Insomnia in Young and Middle‐Aged Adult Hip Pain Patients With and Without Femoroacetabular Impingement and Developmental Hip Dysplasia. PM&R, 10(5), pp.455-461.
• Cheng, A.L., Schwabe, M., Doering, M.M., Colditz, G.A. and Prather, H., 2020. The effect of psychological impairment on outcomes in patients with prearthritic hip disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The American journal of sports medicine, 48(10), pp.2563-2571.
• Cheng, A.L., Downs, D.L., Brady, B.K., Hong, B.A., Park, P., Prather, H. and Hunt, D.M., 2023. Interpretation of PROMIS depression and anxiety measures compared with DSM-5 diagnostic criteria in musculoskeletal patients. JBJS Open Access, 8(1), p.e22.
• Prather, H., Fogarty, A.E., Cheng, A.L., Wahl, G., Hong, B. and Hunt, D., 2023. Feasibility of an intensive interprofessional lifestyle medicine program for patients with musculoskeletal conditions in the setting of lifestyle‐related chronic disease. PM&R, 15(1), pp.41-50.
• Prather, H. and Cheng, J., 2023. Relationship of chronic systemic inflammation to both chronic lifestyle-related diseases and osteoarthritis: the case for lifestyle medicine for osteoarthritis. HSS Journal®, 19(4), pp.459-466.
• Cheng, A.L., Carbonell, K.V., Prather, H., Hong, B.A., Downs, D.L., Metzler, J.P. and Hunt, D.M., 2023. Unique characteristics of patients who choose an intensive lifestyle medicine program to address chronic musculoskeletal pain. PM&R, 15(6), pp.761-771.
• Deo, P., Leupold, O., Rau, O., Cheng, J. and Prather, H., 2024. Evaluation of sleep health documentation and sleep‐related intervention by physiatrists treating musculoskeletal disorders: A retrospective investigation. PM&R.
• Cheng, A.L., Snider, E.M., Prather, H., Dougherty, N.L., Wilcher-Roberts, M. and Hunt, D.M., 2024. Provider-perceived value of interprofessional team meetings as a core element of a lifestyle medicine program: a mixed-methods analysis of one center’s experience. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 18(1), pp.95-107.
• Prather, H., Leupold, O., Suter, C., Mehta, N., Griffin, K., Pagba, M., Hall, K., Taverna-Trani, A., Rose, D., Jasphy, L. and Yu, S.X., 2024. Early Outcomes of Orthopedic Pre-surgical Patients Enrolled in an Intensive, Interprofessional Lifestyle Medicine Program to Optimize Health. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, p.15598276241252799.