History

Nutrition is a key determinant of health, particularly in West Virginia, where diet-related chronic disease is highly prevalent. The WVU School of Medicine has made nutrition education a long-standing priority.

2015 – MedCHEFS is formed

In 2015, primary care faculty members on the Eastern Campus started a program called MedCHEFS – Medical Student Curriculum in Healthy Eating, Exercise and Food Science. This program continues today where the students on Eastern Campus attend four teaching kitchens during their third year of medical school, as well as participate in demonstrations of food preparation and teaching healthy nutrition publicly at occasional University lecture programs and local grade schools. 

2018 – Expanding on success: Culinary Lifestyle Medicine Track is formed.

Building on this success, three years later, the Culinary Lifestyle Medicine Track was approved by LCME. The goal of CLMT was to increase the number of physicians trained to educate patients in nutrition, food science and preparation, and lifestyle behaviors to reduce the risk of chronic diseases. The first class was accepted in Spring 2018 via an application and interview process. 

2020 – Growing electives focused on Food as Medicine

In 2020, a 4th year on-line elective was designed by the Faculty of CLMT to increase more of WVU’s medical students to receive education of Food as Medicine. It so happened that COVID-19 hit that year as well, and nearly a third of the class took this 2-week on-line elective that spring. This elective continues today has consistent enrollment of nearly half of senior class each year to learn about Culinary Medicine and role of nutrition in prevention and treatment of common chronic diseases.

2024 – Curriculum Thread Director added

In 2024, the curriculum committee formally designated nutrition as a curriculum thread and appointed a thread director to inventory nutrition content across all four years, develop a strategic plan for improvement, and ensure that graduates are prepared to address the impact of nutrition on patient health.  

2026 – WVU is identified nationally as a leader in nutrition education

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recognized the WVU School of Medicine as an early leader in nutrition education. WVU is providing medical students with a minimum of 40 hours of required nutrition education across all four years of undergraduate medical education.