The UltraWellness Center > Healthy Living Shop > Help Change Medicine > Training Doctors in Functional Medicine
Training Doctors in Functional Medicine
For over 7 years I have been on the Faculty and the Board of Directors of Institute for Functional Medicine (www.functionalmedicine.org). It is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to educating physicians and health care practitioners in Functional Medicine.
During that time, we have created a textbook on Clinical Nutrition, and the first ever Textbook of Functional Medicine, to which I contributed two chapters. And we have created many training programs as well as sponsoring the annual international symposium in Functional Medicine.
However, we recognize the need to expand our efforts to train more practitioners. We need to extend and expand our educational offerings to include online learning, and to develop our curriculum for a certification or fellowship program. We need to provide tools that allow medical schools to bring this knowledge into their curriculum.
However, this requires support, and the entire budget for the Institute for Functional Medicine is slightly over $1 million. Compared to the behemoth educational budget to train doctors in the use of pharmaceuticals (which equals $30,000 per doctor for each and every of America’s 600,000 doctors or $18 billion annually), it is an uphill battle.
The hope lies in more and more practitioners discovering that they want to find a different way to practice medicine – one that focuses on prevention, lifestyle, and wellness, not just handing out medications. But they need access to training in this new model of health care.
So please be a part of this movement by supporting The Institute of Functional Medicine through purchasing your supplements through The UltraWellness Center. If you are inspired and want to give directly, go to www.functionalmedicine.org to make a tax-deductible donation.
The Institute of Functional Medicine also collaborates with The Center for Mind Body Medicine (www.cmbm.org), another non-profit educational organization that educates health practitioners in mind body medicine and nutritional medicine. I am on the advisory board and faculty of their Food as Medicine training program. The UltraWellness Center Nutrition Director, Kathie Swift, MS, RD is the Co-director of the program, and John Bagnulo Ph.D., one of our nutritionists is also on the faculty.