Recognizing that obesity remains a primary health concern impacting an increasing number of Americans, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted policy that will equip more medical students and physicians to prevent, diagnose and manage obesity. The new policy aims to increase awareness of the numerous resources that have been developed by the health care education community to help guide health care professionals in the prevention and treatment of obesity. From 2011 to 2012, more than 34 percent of U.S. adults and nearly 17 percent of adolescents age 2 to 19 were obese, according to a 2014 study published in JAMA. The condition also contributed an estimated $147 billion in U.S. medical costs, and the annual medical costs for people who are obese were $1,429 higher than those of non-obese people.

Despite the number and quality of guidelines on obesity prevention and treatment, a recent study found that 53 percent of health professionals reported needing more training in obesity management, and 50 percent reported needing better tools to help patients recognize obesity risks. Recent studies have also shown that most medical schools do not provide nutrition education in the clinical portion of their curricula, leaving future physicians ill-prepared to effectively address obesity and understand how to recognize and treat the nutritional and roots causes of the condition. Two medical schools that are part of the AMA’s Accelerating Change in Medical Education Consortium – NYU School of Medicine and University of Chicago School of Medicine – have incorporated nutrition education into their curricula. Through these new courses, both schools are working to ensure that their medical students gain the knowledge they will need to help their patients make healthy food and beverage choices when in the clinical setting.