Lifestyle Medicine Group Visits

Any patient of the Mass General Cancer Center who has concluded cancer treatments (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy) can participate in this program.

Lifestyle Medicine is the use of evidence-based lifestyle approaches including a primarily whole food and plant-based diet, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and behaviors, and positive social connections to prevent, treat and manage chronic disease.

Visits are virtual and will be conducted on Zoom. You need to be in the state of Massachusetts for the visits. The private meeting Zoom link for the visit will be sent via Patient Gateway message ahead of the visit. The program includes 4 visits. Visit dates and times for the upcoming session are posted on this webpage and will be updated for the calendar year. Please arrive 10 min early with audio and video on and plan to stay for the entire visit.

In each of the four group visits, our multidisciplinary team of cancer care specialists, who are also experts in lifestyle medicine, will meet with a group of up to 10 patients to share education, tools and resources on the topics of Lifestyle Medicine. During the visits, our experts will facilitate Q&A, goal setting, and group discussion about lifestyle medicine topics.

Group Visit Topics:

1. Introduction to Lifestyle Medicine: we will define lifestyle medicine and its role in cancer care as well as explore the six pillars (physical activity, nutrition, sleep, stress management, avoidance of risky substances and social connections).
2. Physical Activity and Goal Setting after a diagnosis of cancer: learn about the science that supports exercise to prevent, treat and help manage chronic disease, including cancer as well as to manage side effects of cancer and cancer treatments.
3. Nutrition in Cancer Survivorship: learn the evidenced-based nutrition recommendations for cancer survivors and for chronic disease risk reduction (led by Senior Oncology Dietitian Carol Sullivan, RD).
4. Sleep and Stress Management: learn tips for improving sleep with lifestyle and strategies for managing stress. We will review the science of sleep and stress management and provide practical tips for relaxation strategies.

Virtual group visits offer an informative, supportive and interactive environment to learn the skills that will help you to make lasting healthy behavior changes.

You are encouraged to schedule and attend all 4 program topic visits. Our scheduler will help you book into all available dates.

The schedule is available on our website. Should you need to cancel, please contact ccoyle@mgb.org.

Patients will need a referral from their oncology team to be booked into the program. The referral can also come from an individual lifestyle medicine consultation, if you have completed an individual visit.

Please email ccoyle@mgb.org with any questions about the program.

This clinical program will be billed to your insurance using the CPT codes 96164 and 96165 for group health behavior intervention. Please check with your insurance provider to determine your coverage and co-pay.