Last month Evolt Health CEO Ed Zouroudis and Corporate Sales Partner Clirissa Le Feuvre attended the prestigious AUSactive Leaders’ Summit at Parliament House in Canberra, an exclusive forum uniting more than 100 of Australia’s most influential voices in health, fitness, and medicine. 

This wasn’t just another networking event. It was a call-to-arms for CEOs, medical experts, MPs, and policymakers to tackle one of the nation’s biggest health challenges: physical inactivity. 

 Why the Gap Between Fitness and Medicine Matters 

One of the strongest themes to emerge was the disconnect between general practitioners (GPs) and the fitness/nutrition sector. While research consistently proves the benefits of structured exercise for preventing and managing chronic disease, there are still no consistent, scalable referral pathways between the medical system and evidence-based fitness providers.

As a result, patients who could benefit from strength training, nutrition coaching, and structured activity often leave their doctor’s office with little more than generic advice to “be more active” without the tools, accountability, or monitoring to make real progress. 

This gap has real-world consequences: 

  • Muscle loss goes unnoticed until it affects mobility or quality of life.
  • Preventable conditions progress until they require costly medical intervention. 
  • Fitness professionals (a critical piece of the preventative health puzzle) are left out of the care continuum. 

Where Data Can Close the Loop 

Evolt Health sees a clear opportunity to bridge this gap. 

By providing clinically relevant body composition data (skeletal muscle mass, visceral fat, metabolic rate, biological age) the Evolt Health ecosystem creates a shared language for GPs, allied health providers, and fitness professionals.

When everyone works from the same, objective data, it becomes easier to: 

  • Identify early risk factors 
  • Track changes over time 
  • Design interventions that preserve and build muscle while improving metabolic health 

Even in emerging areas like GLP-1 medication use for obesity, this data is critical, helping monitor and manage potential muscle loss alongside fat reduction. 

Canberra in Action: Viva Leisure HQ 

During their time in Canberra, Ed and Clirissa visited Viva Leisure’s national headquarters, hosted by CEO Harry Konstantinou. Viva’s integrated model, combining gyms, allied health, and wellness services under one roof, is a glimpse of how the future could look when fitness and medicine truly align.

From Club Lime’s flagship gym facilities to GroundUp’s boutique reformer Pilates and the expansive CISAC centre with 16,000+ members, allied health services, and Australia’s largest spin room, the visit highlighted how forward-thinking operators are already making integration a reality.

The Takeaway 

The AUSactive Leaders’ Summit underscored a simple truth: we cannot improve Australia’s health without closing the gap between fitness and medicine.

That means: 

  • Establishing referral pathways from GPs to qualified fitness professionals 
  • Using measurable data to track and prove health outcomes 
  • Prioritizing muscle health as a key indicator of long-term wellbeing 

With the right collaboration, the line between the gym floor and the doctor’s office could become a seamless continuum of care. One that’s preventative, measurable, and designed to keep Australians healthier for longer.