Dr. Michelle L Thompson, DO, AOBFP, ABOIM, DipABLM, FACLM

Medical Director, UPMC Well-being and Lifestyle Medicine Center

Dr Michelle Thompson DO, AOBFP, ABOIM, DipABLM, FACLM triple board certified in lifestyle, integrative, and osteopathic family medicine incorporating culinary medicine and mind-body skills into her patient care along with teaching medical students, interns, residents, and attendings at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center where she has been employed since 2006. She has served as Chair of Medicine and is currently Vice Chief of Staff for UPMC Horizon and Jameson. Dr Thompson created a “Doctors in the Kitchen-Food as Medicine and Physician Wellness” program offering CME for her colleagues to learn about self-care and lifestyle medicine. As an avid educator and faculty for Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, she has taken traditional journal clubs for the residents into the teaching kitchen collaborating with all specialties. She designed lifestyle medicine grand rounds virtually system wide which improved access for the 8 family medicine residency programs which now offers a lifestyle medicine residency track offered at UPMC. Dr Thompson was recently announced as the medical director of UPMC Well-being and Lifestyle Medicine Center.

Dr Thompson has transformed the way health care is offered in her primary care practice and community offering free classes in nutrition, whole food plant based teaching kitchens, mindfulness workshops, yoga, tai chi, qigong, meditation, sound therapy, art therapy, forest bathing, shop with a doc, aromatherapy, dancing mindfulness, Ayurveda, mind-body medicine, and many other integrative tools empowering people to take control of their health. She has created virtual shared medical appointments to innovatively advance the way primary care is delivered at UPMC.

As a Champion for UPMC Physician Thrive, she is a fierce advocate for physician wellness and stopping burnout. Dr Thompson created full-day programs for physicians and nurses to learn tools for resilience and self-care. Dr Thompson was featured in the New York Times for her work in physician burnout, the workshops she has created, and mind-body skills groups for physicians. She was featured in the recent documentary Going Om discussing the health benefits of sound therapy as a tool in healing.

Dr Thompson is a graduate of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and Youngstown State University. She completed her family medicine residency at UPMC Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA. She is an advocate for system change and has been a pioneer in changing the way health care is delivered encouraging treating the root cause of illness and moving medicine forward through nutrition, implementing free dietitian access for all patients at UPMC. All of her programs have been transformed into virtual and are now offered internationally. She believes that no disease that can be treated with diet, exercise, and lifestyle should be given a pill and that education should be offered so that people have awareness and can choose to prevent or reverse disease.