Lifewellness Institute CEO To Receive Prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award
SAN DIEGO, CA (PRWEB) May 04, 2015 -- The San Diego Business Journal will honor Dr. Rice for his dedication to revolutionizing health care with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Corporate Wellness, Thursday, May 7th at the Paradise Point Resort & Spa. The award will be presented at San Diego’s Healthiest Companies 2015 event, sponsored by Hub International.
For Dr. Rice, receiving recognition for work that he considers a vocation is an incredible milestone. “It’s been an incredible privilege to be able to play a meaningful role in enhancing the quality of our patients’ lives. To be able to apply the latest clinical science regarding wellness and preventative medicine on behalf of patients who want to be proactive in their own health care is a welcome blessing. It allows us to practice medicine at its highest level and to develop deeply committed partnerships with our patients.”
Making wellness his mission before it was mainstream, Dr. Rice’s impressive contributions span decades, including integrating wellness medicine into one of the first sports medicine fellowship training programs in the country and serving as appointed Medical Chairman by Gov. Pete Wilson for the California State Governor’s Physical Fitness program. The Council was chaired by Arnold Schwarzenegger and focused on educating the public about the role of physical activity in health and supported programs that enhanced the physical and mental health of all Californians, especially schoolchildren.
Dr. Rice first became interested in wellness medicine while moonlighting as the physician for Dr. Howard Hunt’s “Your Physical Fitness Profile” course at UCSD in 1975. This inspired him to include wellness as an integral function of the San Diego Sports Medicine and Family Health Center, which he founded in 1980. The Center’s wellness division offered health risk assessments, preventive medicine education and life-restyling programs for organizations such as SDG&E, Bell Telephone, the City of La Mesa City Council, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, and the San Diego Chargers coaching and executive staffs. Dr. Rice also initiated one of the first sports medicine fellowship training programs in the country for primary care physicians, an integral part of which was training them in wellness medicine.
In 2000, Dr. Rice founded the Lifewellness Institute, specializing in health risk evaluation, wellness and health promotion. Two innovative programs, Project L.I.F.E. (Lifestyle Interventions for Executives) and Chief Wellness Officer (CWO) helped the Lifewellness Institute win the national 2004 AstraZeneca Healthy Heart Award in recognition of initiating a “dramatic improvement in the health care environment focusing on the global fight against coronary heart disease”.
“After putting on a three day wellness retreat for a small group of CEOs, one of them remarked about how he had a CFO to advise him on finances, COO to advise him on operations and a CSO to keep him advised of the latest science. What he didn’t have was anyone to advise him about wellness for himself, his family or his employees. He wanted a 'Chief Wellness Officer' (CWO). What he was asking for was a trusted medical advisor, advocate, mentor, coach, and partner in all health and wellness issues,” says Rice. “At that moment, I decided I would open wellness a clinic so that I could be the CWO for individuals, families and corporations.”
Since its inception, Lifewellness Institute has helped patients manage their wellness with the support of a trusted mentor and ally. The practice is patient-focused, with staff trained in the latest medical technology and attuned to fulfilling patient needs and requests promptly.
Dr. Rice claims to have regained his medical soul. “I am able to practice the highest quality of medicine possible with people who value it, who have become intimate friends in the process and with whom I am able to carry out my professional dreams with the highest degree of integrity and caring.”
Dr. Rice’s community activities include serving as Chairman for San Diego Senior Olympics, medical director of the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon, past board member of the San Diego and Point Loma YMCAs and serving as a facilitator for groups building homes for the poor in Mexico with Youth with a Mission. In 2009, he was the medical organizer for a medical mission to Nepal. Currently, Dr. Rice serves on National University’s Board of Trustees, as well as being a board member for the American Heart Association and the San Diego Epilepsy Society.
To learn more about Lifewellness Institute and the services offered, visit http://www.mylwi.com.
Jackie Davidek, Lifewellness Institute, http://www.mylwi.com, +1 619-398-2960, [email protected]
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