Nearly 60 percent of Americans die from chronic diseases that are caused or influenced by the unhealthy standard American diet 鈥 yet most medical students receive only a few hours of training on nutrition.
In a refreshing show of unity Thursday, medical education leaders from across the nation, including David J. Skorton, MD, president and CEO of the ; federal health officials; and health policy leaders, including American Medical Association President Bobby Mukkamala, MD, .
The group announced that 53 medical schools in 31 states 鈥 including the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, Florida State University College of Medicine, the University of Florida College of Medicine, the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine 鈥 have committed to offering by this fall.
The has long been a national leader in this arena, we soon will offer close to 80 hours of nutrition instruction. But it was both moving and encouraging for me to see this level of bipartisan commitment and recognition of the scope of the problem. Unless the nation鈥檚 physicians put fixing Americans鈥 diet at the center of medical care, efforts to fight the nation鈥檚 epidemic of obesity-related chronic disease will fail.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the new initiative is transformative.
At the HHS meeting Thursday.
鈥淎merica鈥檚 academic institutions stand ready to lead,鈥 Kennedy said. 鈥淭hey want to bring the full weight of American science to this crisis and they want to move faster than anyone thought was possible. Our doctors are among the most dedicated professionals in this country. They chose this calling to heal. The leaders in this room are not the obstacles to reversing chronic disease. They are the solution.鈥
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and leaders from the AAMC, AMA, the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) were on hand as well.
This is the kind of broad cooperation and bold imagination we need if we are to make meaningful progress in improving American health and reducing national health care costs. It could also go a long way toward restoring trust in health care.