AAMC Chief Public Policy Officer Karen Fisher, JD, Nov. 22 sent a letter to Representative Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) endorsing the “Expanding Nutrition’s Role in Curricula and Healthcare (ENRICH) Act (H.R. 1888). The legislation would establish a program to award grants to medical schools to “create new or expand existing integrated nutrition and physical activity curricula.”
In the letter, Ms. Fisher highlights the AAMC’s recent efforts in joining “over 20 health organizations to develop the first-ever competencies for the prevention and treatment of obesity to improve education in training programs for over 10 health professions related to chronic disease management and prevention.” She continues, “The ENRICH Act will allow institutions to learn from, and build on, these successes, and … will help the team of health care providers identify best practices needed to address and prevent nutrition-related conditions.”
The grant program established through the ENRICH Act would provide an award to selected medical schools of up to $500,000 over three years and would encourage collaboration amongst all health professionals. Ms. Fisher concludes, “Given the importance of this topic as part of a wide array of other pressing health challenges, we hope to work with you to ensure new funding for this program to avoid re-directing already scarce resources from other important educational priorities. We look forward to augmenting the important work already underway toward this goal.”