Plantrician Education Series – April 2024
Plantrician Education Series #14 – Medical School Education: Filling In the Gaps
Hippocrates recognized the essential integration of nutrition in human health. However, as medical knowledge advanced concepts like logical positivism (data driven outcomes), reductionism, and the biomedical model, the focus shifted to compartmentalized diagnoses with specialized pharmaceutical treatment. The critical importance of nutrition and nutritional education were lost in the sea of cellular and biochemical research that promised new drugs to manage a growing list of diagnoses.
Today, the average medical school student receives only 23 hours of nutrition education, less than 1% of the total time during their four years of education. There is a critical gap in medical education between these stats and the growing body of research that highlights that the leading cause of death and disability globally is diet. Why isn’t medical education adjusting to this evidence by offering more nutrition and lifestyle education? What are the impediments preventing this from happening? What can we do to help bridge the gap and reach the next generation of healthcare providers? These questions, and many more, need answers.
Join us for the replay of Medical School Education: Filling in the Gaps with Dr. Scott Stoll, Plantrician Project co-founder and Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Stoll was joined by Michael Klaper, MD, Zach Burns, DO, MPH, and Matthew Landry, PhD, RDN to discuss the medical educational gap and how you can be a part of the solution.
How can I take action to help?
Download our free resource guide, mentioned in the discussion: Take Action: How You Can Influence Healthcare!
This resource is packed with actionable steps to make a real impact in the healthcare system. Whether you’re looking to inspire others by example, host community events, or enhance your professional practice and educational environment, this guide offers practical advice and resources.
Please let us know if you have any questions: [email protected]
Thank you for joining our Plantrician Education Series and Virtual Town Hall!
Scott Stoll, MD
Chief Medical Officer & Board Chairman, The Plantrician Project
Dr. Scott Stoll is recognized as an international leader in lifestyle medicine and whole food plant-based nutrition. He is the co-founder of the Plantrician Project, the International Plant-Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference, the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention, and the Regenerative Health Institute, a unique collaborative project with the Rodale Institute that integrates a regenerative vision of human health, agriculture, and the environment. He served as the chairman of the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Coordinated Health for 16 years, a team physician for Lehigh University and the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Team and was a member of the Whole Foods scientific and medical advisory board. Dr. Stoll is the Chairman of the board for The Plantrician Project.
Michael Klaper, MD
Moving Medicine Forward
Dr. Michael Klaper is a gifted clinician, internationally recognized teacher, and sought-after speaker on diet and health. He has practiced medicine for more than 40 years and is a leading educator in applied plant-based nutrition and integrative medicine.
Dr. Klaper graduated from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago (1972), served a medical internship at Vancouver General Hospital in British Columbia, Canada with additional training in internal medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, and orthopedics at the University of British Columbia Hospitals in Vancouver and in obstetrics at the University of California Hospitals in San Francisco. He practiced acute care medicine in New Zealand for three years and served for eight years on the staff of the TrueNorth Health Center in Santa Rosa, California, a nutrition-based medical clinic specializing in therapeutic fasting and health improvement through a whole-food, plant-based diet.
Dr. Michael Klaper teaches that, “Health comes from healthy living” and over his medical career, Dr. Klaper has seen a whole-food, plant-based diet and lifestyle improvement reverse clogged arteries (atherosclerosis), high blood pressure (hypertension), obesity, adult onset diabetes, and even some forms of arthritis, asthma, and autoimmune disease.
He is also the author of a successful book on cholesterol-free nutrition, as well as numerous DVDs and Videos on Demand and a series of “Healthy YOU Webinars,” available through his website.
Dr. Klaper served as an advisor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) project on nutrition for long-term space colonists on the moon and Mars. He was also a member of the Nutrition Task Force of the American Medical Student Association and served as the Director of the non-profit Institute of Nutrition Education and Research.
A source of inspiration advocating plant-based diets and the end of animal cruelty worldwide, Dr. Klaper contributed to the making of two PBS television programs Food for Thought and the award-winning Diet for a New America movie based on the book of the same name. He feels the most important work of his career is unfolding now in the Moving Medicine Forward Initiative wherein he travels to the nation’s medical schools and educates the students on using plant-predominant nutrition and positive lifestyle changes to truly heal their patients. He currently lives with his wife, Alese, in south Florida.
Zach Burns, DO, MPH
Zach Burns, DO, MPH is a third-year resident at Brown Family Medicine Residency. A plant-based nutrition advocate, he works to improve the lives of human and non-human beings.
After hosting Dr. Klaper to speak on campus in medical school, Zach got involved with the non-profit Moving Medicine Forward and now serves as Assistant Director. Zach finds that chronic disease benefits drug companies more than the converse, and his teaching highlights commercial influence on medical guidelines and education.
To view Zach’s writing or blog, visit www.herbivores.life
Matthew Landry, PhD, RDN
Matthew Landry is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention at the University of California, Irvine. He is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and a Certified Lifestyle Medicine.
He received his Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Food Sciences from Louisiana State University and completed his doctoral degree in Nutritional Sciences and dietetic internship from The University of Texas at Austin. He then completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in cardiovascular disease prevention at the Stanford University Prevention Research Center.
His current research focuses on identifying the optimal diet (or diets) for chronic disease prevention, addressing the methodological challenges of designing, implementing, and reporting clinical trials that test dietary patterns, and quantifying behavioral and environmental factors that influence what people are eating. His research has been published in top-tier, peer-reviewed journals in the fields of nutrition and public health and has been featured at conferences across the United States as well as internationally.
He has earned him numerous accolades including the California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year Award and the Obesity Society Ethan Sims Young Investigator Award. In 2023, he was featured in Today’s Dietitian Magazine’s 14th Annual Showcase of 10 Registered Dietitians Who Are Making a Difference. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the American Heart Association.
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