To educate physicians and other health care professionals on the fundamentals of nutrition, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has launched a new article series titled Nutrition for the Clinician. The effort supports the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and its directives to expand nutrition knowledge of health care providers, an effort long supported by the American Society for Nutrition. Nancy Krebs, MD, MS, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, is the Associate Editor for the series.
Through case-based learning, Nutrition for the Clinician provides continuing education that enhances clinical reasoning and use of the best nutrition evidence in practice. Each clinical case will feature a clearly identified nutrition problem and defined learning objectives. Cases will be published in the journal's regular issues periodically throughout the year.
"Nutrition plays a pivotal role in health and disease," stated Christopher Duggan, MD, MPH, Editor-in-Chief, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "By presenting nutritional challenges seen in hospital and outpatient care and describing evidence-based treatment approaches, we hope physicians will gain a deeper understanding of how nutrition significantly impacts patient outcomes, as well as see firsthand the clinical reasoning process of top clinicians."
Titled "A Perfect Storm in a Pandemic – A Child with Complex Medical History and Special Diet Encounters COVID," the inaugural case highlights a six-year-old child with undernutrition and acute COVID-19 infection.
Authors Nancy Krebs, MD and Stephanie Waldrop, MD (University of Colorado) provide medical history, laboratory results, and clinical findings and offer commentary and questions to guide readers through the case. The authors analyze the differential diagnosis and treatment considerations at the outset and reassess them as new data emerges over the course of care.
The case is freely accessible at the following link: https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)66234-3/fulltext. The American Society for Nutrition is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The ASN designates this activity for a maximum of 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. For details on claiming CME credit for reading Nutrition for the Clinician, click here.
"Having knowledge of nutrition is important for all medical specialists, yet studies have shown that nutrition education and training in medical schools and residency programs is lacking," expressed Kevin Schalinske, PhD, President, American Society for Nutrition. "We hope this new resource will pique the interest of physicians and advanced practice providers and inspire them to learn more about nutrition care in clinical practice." Dietitians also may find interest in the range of medical scenarios and accompanying nutritional diagnostics and therapies presented.
