Experts Available about ENRICH Act, new bill promoting physical activity and nutrition in medical school courses
The recently introduced Expanding Nutrition’s Role in Curricula and Healthcare (ENRICH) Act is a bipartisan bill designed to incorporate more education about physical activity and nutrition in U.S. medical school curriculum. Currently, less than 30 percent of medical schools today require a dedicated nutrition course and only 13 percent offer a core course about physical activity and health. While most doctors recognize the growing need to address lifestyle-related disease, less than 25 percent of doctor office visits include counseling on nutrition, physical activity or referrals to a specialist.
The American College of Sports Medicine has two experts available to comment from its Exercise is Medicine® program. Exercise is Medicine is a global health initiative managed by the American College of Sports Medicine that is focused on encouraging primary care physicians and other health care providers to include physical activity when designing treatment plans for patients. EIM is committed to the belief that physical activity is integral in the prevention and treatments of diseases and should be regularly assessed and “treated” as part of all medical care.
Exercise Is Medicine Experts Available for Comment:
Robert E. Sallis, M.D., FACSM, serves as the chairman for the Exercise is Medicine initiative and previously served as president (2007-08) of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Dr. Sallis received his Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Air Force Academy and his medical degree from Texas A&M University. He completed his residency in family medicine at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana, Calif., where he served as chief resident. He has served as the head team physician at Pomona College since 1988, and holds a Certificate of Added Qualifications in sports medicine. Dr. Sallis lectures and publishes extensively in the area of sports medicine and served as chairman of the Science Advisory Committee to Governor Schwarzenegger’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
Adrian Hutber, Ph. D., is Vice President of Exercise is Medicine®. He joined the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) in 2008, after serving as the vice president of a fitness corporation and as the director of the distance education division of the world’s largest physical activity publisher, Human Kinetics. Dr. Hutber has helped to establish seven EIM Regional Centers and 39+ EIM national task forces, all with the goal of making physical activity assessment, prescription and referral part of health care systems globally.
Dr. Hutber has published numerous publications in physiology and sports medicine scientific journals, has authored the Pre-Exercise Health Screening course (Human Kinetics, 2001), is a board member of the National Advisory Council for Cancer and Exercise in the U.S., and continues to serve as a reviewer for scientific journals, including the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
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