Nineteen medical schools have agreed to require at least 40 hours of nutrition education or an equivalent by this fall, joining 54 others that have already made such commitments, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Monday.
Additionally, eight medical accrediting, assessment and board organizations have also “voluntarily committed to implementing reforms aimed at instilling measurable nutritional education across key medical training programs,” according to an HHS release.
These include the National Board of Medical Examiners, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, and the American Board of Medical Specialties, among others.
The medical schools do not necessarily have to follow the federal nutritional guidelines, but instead each school can make its own nutritional curriculum, Kennedy said at a press conference. “We did our best [in making the guidelines]. We could have made mistakes on that. We’re going to constantly revise it as the science evolves,” he said. The federal nutrition guidelines, released in January, were met with mixed reactions from producers.
HHS teamed up with the Department of Education for this initiative. “Making America Healthy Again begins with education, and we are encouraged to see accreditors and institutions of higher education working together to better prepare current and future physicians for success,” said Nicholas Kent, the undersecretary of education, in the release.
Sam Waters, a counselor at HHS, said that negotiations over the change began 11 months ago when Kennedy suggested 40 hours of nutrition education in medical programs. Since then, the department has held more than 100 meetings with medical schools, Waters said.
