Getting nutrition education into medical schools: a computer-based approach

Despite awareness of the importance of nutrition as part of medical student's education, numerous barriers exist to incorporating nutrition education into the medical school curriculum. Chief among such barriers is that most medical schools do not have faculty trained specifically in nutrition. A curriculum is needed that can deliver comprehensive nutrition information that is consistent across medical schools. One way to deliver this information is to use computer-assisted instruction (CAI). To meet the different needs of medical schools and provide a consistent base of nutrition information, we developed a series of interactive, multimedia educational programs (Nutrition in Medicine) that teach the basic principles of nutritional science and apply those principles in a case-oriented approach. Curriculum content is derived from the American Society for Clinical Nutrition consensus guidelines. These modules offer the advantages of accessibility, self-paced study, interactivity, immediate feedback, and tracking of student performance. Modules are distributed free to all US medical schools. Preliminary data from surveys gathered by our team at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicate that 73 US medical schools use, or are planning to use, these modules; more schools are currently evaluating the programs. Successful implementation of CAI requires easy program access, faculty training, adequate technical support, and faculty commitment to the programs as a valuable resource. CAI fails when the program is just placed in the library and students are told to use it when they can find the time.