Aflac provides scholarship funds for the USC School of Medicine Greenville
January 23, 2017
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 33 percent of American adults are considered obese. In addition, “obesity-related conditions include heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death. The estimated annual medical cost of obesity in the U.S. was $147 billion in 2008 U.S. dollars; the medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of normal weight,” says the CDC.
To combat this obesity epidemic, and in a continued effort to promote the health and wellness of Upstate communities, Aflac, the leader in voluntary insurance sales at the worksite in the United States, has partnered with the University of South Carolina (USC) School of Medicine Greenville to provide a full scholarship of $160,000 over the course of four years to one of our region’s future physicians.
“Aflac products help protect the lifestyles of our policyholders by providing financial security against unexpected illnesses or injuries,” Aflac senior vice president and chief administrative officer Virgil Miller said. “But we also want to help people live healthy, and the USC School of Medicine Greenville’s emphasis on total patient care and lifestyle medicine is something we believe will play a significant role in controlling the obesity rate in South Carolina and across our country.”
The USC School of Medicine Greenville implements lifestyle medicine into its curriculum to promote self-care among the student body as they persevere through school, and for students to impart this knowledge to their future patients. Additionally, the USC School of Medicine Greenville was the first medical school in the country to fully incorporate exercise as medicine into all four years of its curriculum.
