WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Vern Buchanan, Vice Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and Chairman of the Health Subcommittee, and Congressman James P. McGovern (D-MA) led a bipartisan group of seven lawmakers in sending a letter to the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) to ask the Council to take additional steps to better prepare physicians to screen and treat diet-related disease, a pressing need that is highlighted in the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
Following a bipartisan resolution that was adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022, which led the ACGME to host a Summit on Medical Education in Nutrition in March, 2023, this letter asks the ACGME to better incorporate nutrition education into graduate medical education. The letter also seeks to gain a better understanding as to why the new program requirements for training in Pediatrics do not include training in nutrition, and how the ACGME plans to address this as it updates its Common Program Requirements for graduate medical education.
“As we work together to combat the rising obesity epidemic, increased nutrition education is critically important for professionals working in the medical field,” said Congressman Buchanan. “We need to ensure that medical practitioners provide patients with the knowledge and resources necessary to help them lead longer, happier and healthier lives.
This renewed effort underscores the strong bipartisan interest this issue has on Capitol Hill and encourages the ACGME to continue engaging with Members of Congress to ensure better access to nutrition education for medical professionals.
“For years, I have met with medical students, physicians, and other medical professionals who tell me they aren’t given the right tools to properly screen and refer patients who are food insecure and suffering with diet-related disease,” said Rep. James P. McGovern. “I’m proud to join with a bipartisan group of colleagues and stakeholders with expertise in the field to further the efforts launched in the National Strategy to improve nutrition education. I look forward to continuing to engage with ACGME to help train our medical professionals to better screen for and treat patients with food insecurity and diet-related disease. Doing so will improve lives, help make people healthier, and save our health care system a lot of money.”
“We have long known that food and nutrition play a vital role in health and wellness, affecting both individuals and society as a whole, yet these topics continue to be underrepresented in the training of health professionals. I’m delighted to see Representatives McGovern and Buchanan and their colleagues supporting change on this topic of national concern, and working with the ACGME and other partners to ensure that next generation of physicians and other health providers are educated with the vital foundational knowledge to offer patients accurate information about food and nutrition, promote health and wellness, and address diet-related health conditions for society,” said Emily Broad Leib, Director of the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation.
In addition to being the Vice Chairman and most senior Republican on the powerful U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, Buchanan is also the Chairman of the Health Subcommittee, which has broad jurisdiction over traditional Medicare, the Medicare prescription drug benefit program, and Medicare Advantage.
Read the letter HERE or below:
April 25, 2024
Dr. Thomas Nasca
President and Chief Executive Officer
Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
401 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 2000
Chicago, IL 60611
Dear Dr. Nasca,
Thank you for convening a gathering of medical and health professional stakeholders to discuss nutrition education in March 2023. That summit helped to provide further evidence of the need for expanded access to nutrition education. As Members of Congress with a deep interest in expanding access to nutrition education in medical training, we write to follow-up on that gathering and to learn more about ACGME’s plans for implementing the lessons learned.
As you are aware, the bipartisan House Resolution 1118, which calls for meaningful nutrition education in all phases of medical training, was adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives in May 2022. That same need was highlighted by the White House in their 2022 National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, & Health that cast a spotlight on the inadequacy of nutrition education in medicine and the resulting lack of preparedness of physicians to address the growing burden of diet-related disease. In November 2023, the Bipartisan Policy Center issued a similar finding, with the recommendation that metrics of nutrition preparedness in both undergraduate and graduate medical education be publicly reported by 2025.
Given the lessons learned at the summit and subsequent conversations on this topic, we were surprised to learn that ACGME recently issued new program requirements for training in Pediatrics that include no requirements for training in nutrition. We are interested to learn why the ACGME did not take this opportunity to meaningfully expand access to nutrition education.
Additionally, we would like to inquire about future updates to the Common Program Requirements that the ACGME establishes for graduate medical education. Given the fact that poor quality diet is the leading risk factor for death in this United States, we respectfully ask that you consider adding a requirement for nutrition education to the Common Program Requirements.
We would also like to begin a discussion on how the medical preparedness of physicians in training to address diet-related disease could be measured and publicly reported, in line with the Bipartisan Policy Center’s findings referenced above. We welcome your response to this letter and would like to invite you for another meeting to continue this important conversation.
Sincerely,
