Networks for medical nutrition education--a review of the US experience and future prospects

Nutrition education for physicians in the United State and Canada, remains an orphan discipline with no improvement or changes in the past decade. This status has led to the creation of regional nutrition centers and networks to develop nutrition education programs in health professional schools. The expanded network concept now covers geographic areas in the northeastern, southeastern, and middle United States, with plans to extend to the far West and to establish a national coordinating center or "network of networks." The barriers to progress in nutrition education must be overcome, and their conquest could form the basis for initiating new regional networks or a coordinating center. Strategies for nutrition networking are applicable to other disciplines and provide guidance for creating consortia to deal with the diminished need for medical and surgical subspecialties and play an important role in the training of generalist physicians.