This proposal seeks to establish a comprehensive nutrition education program for a community based medical school. Specifically, it will provide resources to: 1) complete and improve the development of a 4 year nutrition curriculum for medical studies; 2) implement nutrition knowledge and development of skills are integrated into basic science curriculum followed by direct application in the clinical clerkships); and 3) evaluate the various components independently (as they progressively build on each other) by pre- and post-test designs, a cumulative examination and computerized case studies upon completion of required clerkships, performance on national exams and/or exams administered by other nutrition programs and follow-up questionnaires after one- year of residency. The effectiveness of the teaching faculty and courses will also be evaluated by the studies and monitored by the evaluation's office. The curriculum will emphasize nutrition concepts in chronic disease prevention with a focus on cancer, nutrition assessments in health, health maintenance, self-assessments and integration of research project. Required components of the basic science years will include a 15 hour in Physical Diagnosis I and II (27 hours total); nutrition will also be integrated into the clinicopathology conferences in pathology. This will be reinforced in clerkship years by 2-4 hours of applied clinical nutrition, specifically developed for an integrated into each of the 6 required clerkships (12-24 hours total). The IM and PEDS clerkships will additionally require a general nutrition assessment in each history and PE, written case studies, nutrition problem solving with computer assisted patient simulations and attendance in 1/2 day nutrition outpatient nutrition and health maintenance assessments, diagnosis and treatment. Electives will include both clinical and research experiences. A monthly seminar series and an annual major continuing medical education conference will also be developed. Nutrition experiences will be integrated into the student electives and will include 10 outpatient clinics, 2 oncology clinics, adult and adolescent group weight management programs, hospital consultants and oncology rounds, a telephone hotline, and poster """"""""tidbit"""""""" displays. The educational model, with developed, tested and improved teaching materials, will be made available for application at other institutions. Emphasis will be placed on computer assisted case simulations for development of nutrition problem solving skills.
