Michelle Beidelschies, PhD, is assistant professor of medicine in the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and staff in the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, where she is the research and education director. As education director, Dr. Beidelschies is responsible for developing medical school and residency elective programming that offers online curricula to complement experiential learning for those interested in pursuing functional medicine. She also designs in-person and online curricula for the Center's Functioning for Life? Shared Medical Appointment program offerings. As research director, Dr. Beidelschies is responsible for developing the evidence base for the functional medicine model of care as well as other innovative delivery models developed at the center. Current research involves understanding the impact of the functional medicine model on value-based care-specifically, can it improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL) or biometrics while reducing cost? The center utilizes PROMIS-10, an NIH-validated questionnaire, to assess HRQoL. The center is participating in numerous research studies developed independently or in collaboration with other Cleveland Clinic institutes.

Dr. Beidelschies began her research career in the department of physiology and biophysics at Case Western Reserve University studying ischemia/reperfusion cardiac injury as an undergraduate in 2000. She then joined the department as a doctoral trainee and received her PhD in 2009. Her dissertation research was performed in the department of orthopedics on aseptic loosening of orthopedic implants. Following graduation, she held a post-doctoral fellowship in the department of nutrition at Case Western Reserve University. Shortly thereafter, in 2010, Dr. Beidelschies accepted a position at Cleveland HeartLab, Inc., a Cleveland Clinic start-up company focused on cardiovascular diagnostics, where she held the position of director of education and clinical affairs until 2016 before transitioning to her role at Cleveland Clinic. She has coauthored numerous peer-reviewed research publications in various journals.