American College of Lifestyle Medicine helps HHS name for pressing vitamin schooling reform in U.S. medical colleges

Since it was based in 2004, ACLM has
delivered greater than 1.2 million hours of vitamin and way of life drugs schooling to physicians and different well being professionals.

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) in the present day introduced its help of the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Aug. 27 call for complete vitamin schooling reforms in U.S. medical colleges. ACLM leaders emphasised the pressing want for physicians and different well being professionals to obtain evidence-based coaching in vitamin for the remedy, remission, and prevention of power ailments all through their undergraduate and graduate (residency and fellowship) medical college years.

“Despite the overwhelming evidence linking diet to health outcomes, many physicians receive too little formal education in this area,” stated ACLM President Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, CPE. “ACLM applauds this initiative and stands ready to continue to provide the expertise and evidence-based resources to help medical schools and residency programs integrate meaningful nutrition education into their curricula. It is essential that physicians be equipped to help patients make healthy, sustainable lifestyle changes if we are to reduce the U.S. burden of chronic disease.”

Since it was based in 2004, ACLM has delivered greater than 1.2 million hours of nutrition and lifestyle medicine education to physicians and different well being professionals. As the one medical skilled group advancing vitamin and way of life drugs in undergraduate medical colleges (UME), graduate residency and fellowship applications (GME) and persevering with medical schooling (CME), ACLM stands prepared to assist expedite the specified reforms with current curricula, applications and partnerships:

• ACLM and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville (SOMG) partnered in 2022 to offer LMEd, an open-access, competency-aligned medical college curricula that helps nationwide requirements and gives a pathway to attaining tiered ACLM curriculum certification to help and acknowledge the combination of efficient way of life drugs and vitamin schooling. To date, ACLM has granted nine medical schools certification in vitamin and way of life drugs.
• Student- and trainee-initiated Lifestyle Medicine Interest Groups have been established at 200 educational and well being establishments.
• The Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum (LMRC) fills the vitamin and way of life drugs hole in resident schooling. Since its launch in 2018, the LMRC has quickly expanded to greater than 450 residency applications nationwide.
• ACLM gives greater than 100 hours of accredited online courses that embody a multi-module Food as Medicine sequence and anannual conference, guaranteeing clinicians can acquire and preserve board certification and apply way of life drugs instruments supported by the most recent proof in affected person care.
• The Lifestyle Medicine 101 Curriculum may be tailor-made to quite a lot of settings to coach audiences in regards to the fundamentals of way of life drugs.
• A brand new providing is the open-source Culinary Medicine Program and Curriculum.
• ACLM additionally supplies an intensive library of nutrition-related patient-facing educational resources, in addition to scientific observe instruments—all designed to help seamless integration of vitamin into scientific observe.

“When it comes to incorporating nutrition and other lifestyle medicine principles, medical schools and residency programs often face barriers, such as curricular overload, limited faculty expertise, and misconceptions about accreditation and assessment,” stated ACLM Medical Director of Education Brenda Rea, MD, DrPH, PT, RD, DipABLM, Lifestyle Medicine Intensivist. “But by leveraging already available ACLM resources and collaborating strategically, schools can embed lifestyle medicine into existing structures without starting from scratch. This is a tremendous opportunity to prepare the next generation of physicians to treat the root cause of chronic disease and help patients restore their health.”

ACLM member and companion Jennifer Trilk, PhD, FACSM, DipACLM, professor and director of Lifestyle Medicine Programs on the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville (SOMG), has been instructing vitamin and way of life drugs on the college since its inception in 2012. SOMG is an ACLM Platinum Plus Certified Medical School for its inclusion of way of life drugs. 

“Our students receive over 100 hours of required nutrition and lifestyle medicine training across the four years of their medical education,” she stated. “They learn the biomedical science mechanisms and the behavior change skills in the classroom, which is reinforced in our Culinary Medicine classes and in clinic for experiential learning. We are encouraged to see HHS calling for nation-wide training for our doctors that food truly is medicine, and that lifestyle behaviors impact chronic disease risk. That’s why nutrition must be at the heart of healthcare.”

About ACLM®

The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the nation’s medical skilled society advancing the sector of way of life drugs as the muse of a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare supply system, important to attaining the Quintuple Aim and whole-person well being. ACLM represents, advocates for, trains, certifies, and equips its members to establish and eradicate the basis explanation for power illness by optimizing modifiable danger components. ACLM is filling the gaping void of way of life drugs in medical schooling, offering greater than 1.2 million hours of way of life drugs schooling to physicians and different well being professionals since 2004, whereas additionally advancing analysis, scientific observe and reimbursement methods.

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SOURCE American College of Lifestyle Medicine