Curriculum Enhancement Plan

Nutrition Curriculum Inventory and Enhancement Plan

The WVU School of Medicine MD curriculum currently includes approximately 67.5 hours of nutrition education. Additionally, 225 hours of nutrition education are available through the optional Culinary Medicine Track. The curriculum reflects institutional strengths in rural health education and comprehensive, multidisciplinary obesity care.

Programs of Note

The Nutrition Immersion Trip for students registered in the Rural Medicine Track. This experience is funded by the WVU Institute for Community and Rural Health. The immersion exposes students to food access challenges in rural West Virginia, offering firsthand experience with food insecurity and rural food deserts that affect patients locally and nationally. 

WVU’s Medical Weight Management program, a highly utilized educational site for learners across the Health Sciences. The Medical Weight Management Clinic hosts learners, including fellows, residents, medical students across all four years, and trainees from nursing, pharmacy, and dietetics. The site also supports both an Obesity Medicine Track for internal medicine residents and a one-year Obesity Medicine Fellowship for post-residency physicians. 

While the existing curriculum and Culinary Lifestyle Medicine Track demonstrates a strong commitment to nutrition education, 46 of the 67.5 hours in the standard MD program are elective. As a result, some students may graduate without sufficient exposure to core nutrition competencies. To address this gap, WVU proposes targeted additions to required and elective coursework aligned with nationally recognized nutrition competencies.

Proposed Nutrition Curriculum Enhancements

With approval from the curriculum committee, the proposed enhancements will add 26 required hours and 14 elective hours to the curriculum, increasing the total nutrition education in the standard MD curriculum to 107.5 hours, including 47.5 required hours.

Estimated Nutrition Curriculum Hours (Non–Culinary Medicine Track)

  • Current: 21.5 required | 46 elective | 67.5 total

  • Proposed additions: 26 required | 14 elective | 40 total

  • Current plus proposed: 47.5 required | 60 elective | 107.5 total

The optional Culinary Medicine Track provides a minimum of 225 additional hours of nutrition-focused training.

The proposed additions span all four years of medical training and are designed to provide a more consistent, competency-based foundation in nutrition and obesity care.

First-year students will participate in a clinical encounter with a registered dietitian to strengthen nutrition knowledge, support interprofessional education, and clarify when referral for medical nutrition therapy is appropriate. Students will engage with dietitians practicing in specialty areas such as cystic fibrosis and medical weight management, reinforcing team-based care.

All students will complete the Nutrition Science for Health and Longevity course from the Gaples Institute. This required, self-paced course will provide a standardized, evidence-based foundation in clinical nutrition early in training, allowing later clinical experiences to focus on application and reinforcement.

Additional experiential opportunities will include a new obesity medicine and nutrition externship offered between the first and second years of medical school, allowing interested students to explore nutrition more deeply.

Medical students may also participate in the optional Obesity Care Microcredentialing Badge Program, developed by the WVU Medical Weight Management Clinic. This program provides structured, evidence-based training in obesity care and awards digital badges to document competency. Completion of all modules during the preclinical curriculum earns an Obesity Care Champion Badge.

Selected Health Meets Food modules will be formally integrated into required clerkships. In collaboration with clerkship directors, modules will be aligned with nationally recognized nutrition competencies to create a standardized, case-based learning experience that complements clinical training. This will convert an existing institutional resource into a standardized, required learning experience that directly complements clinical training.

With these enhancements, WVU will exceed national averages for nutrition education and further establish itself as a leader in medical training. Combined with the Culinary Medicine Track, students will have access to more than 300 hours of nutrition education, an essential investment for a state with a high burden of chronic disease and a strong need for prevention-focused care. Innovative offerings, including rural-focused experiences, a culinary student interest group, and expansion into graduate medical education, will prepare WVU trainees to effectively address metabolic disease and obesity in West Virginia and beyond.