Midland Health Cardiothoracic Surgeon Staton Awtrey and his wife, RN Blythe Awtrey, watched the documentary Forks Over Knives in 2012. This ignited the initial lifestyle medicine spark. Flash forward, at the invitation of Dr. Awtrey, ACLM Member and Co-Founder of The Plantrician Project Scott Stoll, MD was showcased as a lifestyle medicine / food as medicine grand rounds speaker in April 2015. His presentation served as a catalyst within the health system that has now resulted in transformational change—injecting the ethos of lifestyle medicine into every area of the organization. They started by adding plant based options to inpatient meals and cafeteria offerings in March of 2016, built and opened a community garden later that year, started offering CHIP nutrition classes to employees and opened a new Lifestyle Medicine Center in October 2017. Holding true to its mission of being a source of health, hope and healing for the community, Midland Health now helps host an annual Food as Medicine conference as well as played a key role in establishing a local non-profit called Healthy City. The nonprofit has worked with the hospital to stretch the message of lifestyle medicine and plant based nutrition far beyond the hospital walls, reaching into every area of the community including restaurants, schools and businesses. With an online following of over 600 people, west Texans have a unique support system growing in the area as they use food as their medicine to prevent, treat and reverse disease.
