Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute, Cleveland, Ohio

February 13, 2009 -- Cleveland Clinic's Wellness Institute is dedicated to making preventive care the driving force in medicine, minimizing the physical, emotional and economic costs of illness through health and wellness services and education. From designating its campuses as trans fat-free zones to giving employees free gym memberships, yoga classes and weight-loss services, Cleveland Clinic is committed to reducing the barriers to healthy living through innovative wellness programs. As a top-ranked academic medical center, we see first hand the consequences of preventable conditions and their effects on the health-care system. We're committed to developing tools to help reverse this trend.

Michael Roizen, M.D. serves as chairman of Cleveland Clinic's Wellness Institute and in 2007 was named the clinic's chief wellness officer – the first such position at a major U.S. health-care institution. Dr. Roizen is responsible for developing and implementing a variety of proactive wellness programs at Cleveland Clinic, including a weekly farmers market for employees, patients, visitors and the community. He is the best-selling author of RealAge: Are You As Young As You Can Be? and YOU: The Owner's Manual. He has given more than 1,400 lectures to professional medical groups and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Tanya Edwards, M.D. is the medical director for Cleveland Clinic's Center for Integrative Medicine. The center is dedicated to addressing the increasing demand for integrative health care by researching and providing access to practices that address the physical as well as lifestyle, emotional and spiritual needs of patients. Dr. Edwards oversees a staff of professionals who offer acupuncture, massotherapy, nutritional counseling, mind/body coaching, interactive guided imagery, therapeutic yoga, reiki and other alternative therapies for common conditions like infertility, chronic pain and irritable bowel syndrome.

Elizabeth Ricanati, M.D. is the medical director of Cleveland Clinic's Lifestyle 180 program, which seeks to reverse the effects of common chronic diseases. Research shows that many chronic conditions are largely the result of lifestyle decisions. Lifestyle 180 teaches people how to make better choices to reduce the incidence of diabetes, hypertension and obesity. Dr. Ricanati oversees the clinical care of participants in Lifestyle 180 and helps each patient set and track their goals. The six-week program includes nearly 50 hours of hands-on guidance from a team of wellness experts, including registered dietitians, exercise physiologists and yoga instructors.