BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER SELECTS NRI-DEVELOPED ONLINE CURRICULUM
Nutrition in Medicine (NIM), an online curriculum for medical students developed by NRI faculty member Martin Kohlmeier, M.D., Ph.D., and NRI Director Steven Zeisel, M.D., Ph.D., has been recommended by the nonprofit Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, and the American College of Sports Medicine.
The BPC’s recently published white paper, “Teaching Nutrition and Physical Activity in Medical School: Training Doctors for Prevention-Oriented Care,” focuses on ways to improve medical education with the goal of preventing and treating obesity and chronic diseases. The white paper highlights UNC’s NIM online curriculum in a case study as a good example of nutrition curricula for this purpose.
Dr. Kohlmeier and Dr. Zeisel created the NIM and Nutrition Education for Practicing Physicians (NEPP) modules, the first core nutrition curriculum available online that includes preventive and therapeutic aspects of medical nutrition care for both pre-clinical and clinical education. The free NIM curriculum includes more than 50 interactive modules – each 15 to 60 minutes long – and is used by more than 100 medical schools in the United States and approximately 150 medical schools throughout the world.
The BPC white paper recommends that a standard nutrition and physical activity curriculum be integrated into existing medical school curricula and points to the NIM curriculum as a good “starting point.”
“When physicians provide nutrition guidance, their patients have fewer pregnancy complications and give birth to healthier children,” said Dr. Kohlmeier. “Best nutrition practices often shorten hospital stays and save everybody a lot of money.”
The Bipartisan Policy Center was founded in 2007 by former U.S. Senate Majority Leaders Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, Bob Dole and George Mitchell. Based in Washington, D.C., the BPC promotes bipartisan efforts to address issues of national importance.
Learn more about Dr. Kohlmeier’s work at UNC NRI at www.uncnri.org. Access the NIM curriculum at www.nutritioninmedicine.org.
