Meet Junior Medical Officer and 2024 Lifestyle Medicine Rising Star Award Winner Dr Elise Ecker
ASLM Member Spotlights showcase the invaluable work that ASLM Fellows, ASLM Accredited Doctors and Practitioners, and member ambassadors are doing to establish Lifestyle Medicine as central to health, healthcare and health policy. ASLM members represent a broad range of medical and health practitioners as well as passionate professionals working in health and wellbeing who believe that and interdisciplinary and lifestyle-centric approach should be considered when it comes to the prevention and management of chronic and lifestyle-related disease.
What is your background?
I am a post graduate year 2 junior doctor in Western Australia. I have also worked numerous years in hospitality and have a keen interest in gut microbiome research and culinary medicine.How did you come to Lifestyle Medicine?
I assisted in the creation of the Lifestyle Medicine club at my medical school. I attended my first online ASLM event, the Mental Health Reimagined Online Summit during my final year of medical school and fell in love with the holistic health practices that were not only being discussed but put in practice. I’ve had the pleasure of attending every ASLM conference the last 3 years and meeting the most amazing people!
Why did you choose to join the ASLM?
ASLM offers holistic health practices and terrific education that helps me become a better practitioner and ultimately a more healthy person in general. I want to be able to look after myself and those I care most about, as well as expanding these practices to my community.How has, or how do you envisage this influencing your career/direction?
Lifestyle Medicine is the forefront of my clinical practice, especially in a hospital context. I feel that the fast paced environment and stress from staff shortages is sadly affecting both our patients and our healthcare professionals. Lifestyle Medicine should be practiced by everyone, not just our patients so I think it is a vital tool that we need to implement in every interaction we have with ourselves and those around us.
Any advice for health professionals who are interested in Lifestyle Medicine but not yet members?
I would recommend joining ASLM or some external body that focuses on Lifestyle Medicine as it helps to provide you with a perspective outside of exams and hospital rotations, especially if you are unsure of what career you are wanting to specialise in. As junior doctors it is very easy to forget about our own health or how we can best look after our patients as a whole. ASLM provides terrific education for juniors looking to broaden their skill sets and to become the best health practitioners that they can be.Please tell us a random fact about yourself
I am a proud hufflepuff that loves to cook and I am the only junior doctor from my medical school and intern group that doesn’t drink coffee/caffeine (even
on night shift).
2024 Lifestyle Medicine Rising Star Award Winner
Congratulations to Elise for winning the 2024 Lifestyle Medicine Rising Star Award!
To view the other 2024 winners and submit nominations for next year, visit Lifestyle Medicine Awards.