Dozens of medical schools meet RFK Jr.'s call for greater nutrition education - Fierce Healthcare

Trump administration officials today unveiled a long-teased collaboration with dozens of medical schools that updates their curricula with nutrition training.

Beginning with the fall semester, 53 medical schools across 31 states will be providing a minimum of 40 hours of nutrition education, or a 40-hour competency equivalent, across four years of undergraduate medical training, secretaries of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Education announced.

“Today’s announcement strengthens the doctor-patient relationship,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a speech at the event. “It equips physicians to work hand-in-hand with dietitians and other health professionals, and it shifts our system to prevention instead of perpetual prescriptions—with the promise to lower healthcare costs in the process, and give us higher quality and better health.”

In contrast to some of the administration’s more controversial health efforts, Thursday’s news was an area of agreement between major medical organizations and the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement championed by Kennedy.

On stage or in attendance at an event announcing the agreements were the current presidents of the American Medical Association (AMA), the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and the president of one participant, the University of Nebraska system.

Researchers have also called for increased focus on nutrition during education. A 2024 consensus statement published in JAMA by 43 nutrition experts recommended 36 nutrition-related competencies for various levels of medical education.

"For too long, nutrition has been treated as an elective in medical education—a few hours here and there," Bobby Mukkamala, M.D., president of the AMA, said during the event. "Considering how important what we eat is for our health, it should be a basic foundational training because it impacts every one of our patients. At the AMA, we know that improving the health of our country means more than breakthrough drugs and new technology. It means giving physicians the tools to prevent disease in the first place."

HHS, in its announcement, highlighted a 2022 survey in which medical students reported an average of 1.2 hours of formal nutrition education per year reported by medical students.

“To be clear, today’s announcement is not the Trump administration dictating medical curricula,” Kennedy said. “Today represents the mutual recognition that HHS and leaders in American medicine can come together to advance shared goals and interests.”

Kennedy said the departments and schools with competency-based programs collaboratively built a framework of 71 evidence-based competencies across 10 major domains that was informed by the 2024 consensus statement.

According to a fact sheet, these included “identifying nutrient-deficient states, interpreting metabolic biomarkers, the micronutrient contents of foods, pathological states affecting nutrient absorption, forming healthy lifelong dietary patterns for chronic disease patients, and the principles of a balanced diet according to the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Additional competencies encourage medical students to utilize the expertise of nutritionists, dieticians, and other professionals in the field.”

During a Q&A session at the announcement event, officials declined to comment on prior statements from Kennedy suggesting the administration could punish schools that do not include sufficient nutritional content in their curricula by withholding funding. Rather, they said the door is open for more institutions to voluntarily match the 40-hour minimum commitment.

“We respect the independence of medical schools and accrediting bodies, and the Department of Education will never mandate curriculum—that’s not our job,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said earlier in the event. “But we can and will spotlight promising, evidence-based models; convene leaders who are improving health outcomes; and celebrate institution-driven curricular reforms.”

Interest in greater nutrition education also spans the political aisle, as evidenced by a bipartisan 2022 resolution from the House of Representatives and a 2022 strategy report from the Biden White House. Media reports have suggested that the White House is pushing Kennedy to pursue broadly palatable reforms such as these and others related to the food supply over more contentious MAHA priorities like vaccines ahead of this year’s midterms.

Alongside the agreements with the medical schools, HHS announced Thursday it would be committing $5 million in support to nutrition education programs via a multi-phase National Institutes of Health challenge. The department also said it will soon implement a minimum continuing education requirement for U.S. Public Health Service Officers.