Lifestyle medicine is all the rage. The RCGP has approved the Prescribing Lifestyle Medicine course and Dr Panja had no small part to play. A number of GPs have set up their own wellbeing projects off the back of the course – which Dr Panja says is ‘humbling’.
He is now a visiting lecturer on the global health nutrition MSc at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he taught a module on lifestyle medicine, as well as writing his wellbeing tips for NHS England’s GP bulletin this year, including: make time to switch off; eat right; move when you can/get outdoors; get an early night; and connection and community.
He also teaches about the role of the media in public health – an area where he has a lot of personal knowledge. He was one of BBC1’s original ‘Street doctors’ – where four GPs went out to the streets to offer advice to passers by – and he is a regular contributor to the BBC and health podcasts.
As one nominator put it, he is ‘bringing lifestyle medicine to the mainstream with a growing number of followers from general practice with an RCGP endorsed course’.
Why influential: A flagbearer for lifestyle medicine
Random fact: Was offered a record deal while at medical school
