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T o improve health care outcomes, physicians must spend more time with patients. Th e teaching physician’s interaction with the patient must be enthusiastic, motivated, and responsive to the individual patient’s needs. For individual members of our society to realize the benefi ts of physician health education, there is a need for a robust, hearty engagement between patients and physicians. Interventions to improve self-care have led to documented improvements in self-effi cacy. Self-effi cacy is defi ned as one’s belief in one’s ability to succeed in specifi c situations, or accomplish certain tasks. One’s sense of self-effi cacy plays a major role in how one approaches goals, tasks, and challenges regarding one’s health. Clinical benefi ts have been seen in trials of lifestyle intervention within a wide range of conditions such as diabetes, coronary heart disease, heart failure, and rheumatoid arthritis ( 1 ). In the context of escalating health care costs and shocking future cost projections, the potential for improved health outcomes through patient education and self-management programs is immense. In the early 1990s, it was estimated that 50% of the annual mortality toll in the US was premature. Tobacco use, poor diet, a lack of physical exercise, alcohol consumption, exposure to microbial agents, use of fi rearms, risky sexual behavior, motor vehicle accidents, and illicit drug use were the culprits causing premature death. Approximately 80% of premature deaths were due to tobacco use, dietary patterns, and a low physical activity level ( 1 ). Clearly, these are all behaviors we could modify to reverse the trends. For those individuals who do not smoke, eat healthy food, and participate in regular exercise programs, the hazard ratio for diabetes, myocardial infarction, stroke or cancer was 0.22 ( 2 ). Th ere is a belief in the medical community that physical activity and diet can reduce the risk of developing coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome. A comprehensive systematic review reinforced this notion by revealing that there is irrefutable, convincing evidence for the benefi t of exercise in improving clinical outcomes in metabolic disorders, coronary heart disease, and heart failure ( 3 ). Physicians must promote patient education and engagement through improvement in patients’ health literacy. Health From the Division of Cardiology, Methodist Hospital, Dallas, Texas (Paterick) ; Division of Cardiology, University of Florida College of Medicine, Jacksonville, Florida (Patel) ; Division of Cardiology, Aurora Medical Group, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Tajik) ; Division of Cardiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota (Chandrasekaran).