At the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (Katz), we believe nutrition is fundamental to health and an essential component of how future physicians prevent disease, promote wellness, and care for patients and communities.
At Katz, nutrition education is being advanced as an essential component of physician training and lifelong clinical practice. Guided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Advancing Nutrition Education initiative and the 2024 JAMA Consensus Statement on nutrition competencies for medical students and physician trainees, Katz is working to expand longitudinal, competency-based nutrition education across the continuum of undergraduate medical education. These efforts support the preparation of future physicians to address chronic disease prevention and management, metabolic health, preventive care, and community wellness, while aligning with the school’s mission to improve health through education, research, training, and community partnership.
As part of this work, Katz has completed an initial curriculum mapping process to identify nutrition-related content embedded throughout the medical education program. Nutrition concepts are integrated across foundational science, systems-based curricula, clinical reasoning, population health, and community-engaged learning experiences in Phase 1, with ongoing efforts to further strengthen nutrition competencies throughout clinical training experiences. The school’s approach emphasizes both foundational scientific knowledge and practical clinical application, preparing students to incorporate evidence-based nutrition principles into patient care across diverse settings and populations.
Katz’s nutrition education initiatives are strengthened through interdisciplinary collaboration across the Temple University enterprise, including partnerships with the Temple University Barnett College of Public Health and the Center for Obesity Research and Education. These collaborations support innovative educational opportunities, including teaching kitchen initiatives, community-engaged programming, and cross-disciplinary learning experiences. As these efforts continue to evolve, additional information regarding curricular initiatives, partnerships, and competency development activities will be shared.
Areas of Emphasis
- Foundational nutrition science and clinical nutrition knowledge
- Nutrition assessment and counseling skills
- Evidence-based nutrition care in clinical practice
- Lifestyle medicine and behavioral counseling
- Nutrition-related social drivers of health
- Community and population health approaches
- Interprofessional collaboration and team-based care
- Integration of nutrition competencies across the medical education continuum