Adding wellness training to medical education

Just as large numbers of physicians in the 1970s quit smoking and counseled their patients to do the same, health care providers can help stem the tide of obesity and its related diseases by acting as role models and wellness counselors for their patients, according to a new commentary by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Adjunct Associate Professor David Eisenberg. But with primary care providers currently scoring poorly on knowledge about obesity risks and how to effectively counsel patients on nutrition, weight management, and physical activity, new approaches to training will be required.

In remarks published in the September 2015 issue of the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, Eisenberg imagines a future in which competency examinations test factual knowledge and communication skills around wellness issues.

“Many of today’s primary care residents have recognized that the current educational system has ill prepared them for the tsunami of obesity and lifestyle-related chronic disease they are about to confront in practice,” he writes. “With a collective shift in priorities and the engagement of a broader collective of stakeholders as partners, today’s medical educators can change the current state of affairs now, without further delay.”

Read commentary: Nutrition Education in 2040—An Imagined Retrospective

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Teaching nutrition in an era of obesity and diabetes (Harvard Chan School News)