The Cornell Executive MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership program partnered with Digital Health New York (DHNY) to host a “Food as Medicine” event. DHNY is a membership organization that brings together senior-level professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders across New York’s health care ecosystem. DHNY curates experiences that unite and inspire the digital health community. This event featured a panel and networking opportunity for health care leaders, including alumni and current students, to explore the growing interest in food as medicine.
The panel featured Dr. Regina Druz, (MBA, MS ’21) founder and CEO of Holistic Heart Centers, David Gruppo, chief strategy and revenue officer at Epicured, and Dr. David L. Katz, chief medical officer at Tangelo and past president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Bunny Ellerin, co-founder and CEO of DHNY, served as the moderator.
Dr. Druz, Dr. Katz, and Gruppo are leading efforts to demonstrate how food can improve lifestyle and prevent chronic disease. “I tell my patients food is first,” explained Dr. Druz. “We grow up with food being integral to who we are and where we come from. It is one of our primary needs, and yet patients tend not to think of food as influencing health and disease.”
The panel discussed how “food treating” can halt the potential rise of non-communicable chronic diseases, serving as a means of prevention and treatment. Per Dr. Druz, making incremental modifications to a person’s lifestyle can lead to meaningful, sustainable change over time. As entrepreneurs, however, they recognize the challenges of integrating this method. “Because of the emphasis on drugs to eventually cure,” said Gruppo, “there’s often the concern that food isn’t fast acting. It’s important to address how we can make this work in a society that doesn’t typically look to slow-acting processes.”
Nonetheless, as evidenced by the range of entrepreneurs and health care professionals at the event, innovation in the field is ongoing. "Across a broad spectrum of intervention intensity in populations, food as medicine is highly cost-effective and cost-beneficial,” emphasized Dr. Katz. “It should always be part of the solution.”
Interested in being a part of the dialogue? Prospective students can learn more about the benefits of the program by attending one of our upcoming events with faculty, staff, alumni, and current students.
The Cornell Executive MBA/MS in Healthcare Leadership Program is a dual-degree program created by two powerhouses in graduate education—the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences— delivering both an MBA and an MS in Healthcare Leadership in an NYC-based weekend format. Learn more about the program here.
- Highlights