UT-Houston Medical School Receives Nutrition Award

The University of Texas Medical School at Houston is one of seven medical schools, including Columbia, Harvard, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Colorado, Mercer, and the University of Arkansas, to receive the Nutrition Academic Award, a five-year grant funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in the amount of $750,000.

The grant will allow the universities to develop curricula that provide medical students with the most up-to-date nutrition knowledge and clinical skills possible, so they will incorporate nutrition into their clinical practice and patient care. The program's organizers say if students understand the relationship between diet, physical activity, and the development of chronic diseases, they will be better equipped to help their patients prevent and treat chronic diseases.

Dr. Marilyn Edwards, associate professor in the UT-Houston Medical School's Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, is the principal investigator. Co-investigators include Drs. Francisco Fuentes, Cardiology; K. Lance Gould, Cardiology; Philip Orlander, Endocrinology; Donald Molony, Renal Diseases; Joe Bedford, Family Practice; Gary Rosenfeld, Integrative Biology and Pharmacology; and Linda Perkowski, director of the Office of Educational Programs. Student focus groups will evaluate the nutrition curriculum as it develops first in the basic science courses and problem-based learning, and eventually for third- and fourth-year medical students.

"Setting standards for nutrition training in medical school curricula is what is needed," Dr. Edwards said. "Our first task will be to assess the nutrition content in the existing curriculum and then work with course directors to integrate essential nutrition topics into the appropriate courses. We know that 12 percent of the test items on the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination are nutrition-related, which means we need to not only provide a solid foundation in basic nutrition principles but also train the students in clinically relevant areas of nutrition."

The grant recipients are collaborating on a host of different aspects of nutrition education. Development of a standardized curriculum is under way, including key topics that have been identified by the Nutrition and Preventive Medicine Task Force of the American Medical Student Association and the American Society for Clinical Nutrition. This curriculum is essential to understanding and implementing nutritional care. A committee is developing specific competencies, including both nutrition knowledge and clinical skills. In areas where it is feasible, Dr. Edwards and her collaborators hope to coordinate and standardize the nutrition content and teaching strategies with the other medical schools that have also been funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Currently under development is a web site that will contain resources for medical nutrition education including a student page that provides access to the nutrition content in the curriculum and tools for patient assessment. Web sites from the UT-Houston Medical School and the other six schools that received the Nutrition Academic Award will be linked to provide accurate, credible nutrition information.

Finally, UT-Houston Medical School plans to implement a Physician Nutrition Specialist program in the future.

"The Nutrition Academic Award is the first step toward the development of this program," Dr. Edwards said.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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