Old Dominion University is launching a new institute focused on nutrition science and lifestyle medicine — an effort university leaders said could change how future doctors and nurses are trained.
Chronic disease weighs heavily on Hampton Roads, where about 13% of adults have diabetes and nearly 38% are obese, both above the state average.
University leaders said the initiative is designed to shift medical education toward prevention.
Officials said curriculum changes are already underway, with a national search for staff expected to conclude this spring and additional program components rolling out over the next year.
The institute is funded by a $15 million gift from philanthropist Joan P. Brock, who battled serious and life-threatening medical illnesses in her life and credits sound nutrition and lifestyle habits, along with medical treatments, for her recovery.
WHRO health reporter Yiqing Wang sat down with university President Brian Hemphill and Dr. Alfred Abuhamad, the university’s executive vice president for health sciences, to talk about what that means for students and the Hampton Roads community.
WHRO: President Hemphill and Dr. Abuhamd, thanks for sitting down with us. Dr. Abuhamd, let's start with you — what is the “metabolic kitchen” and what is this lifestyle-medicine approach?
ALFRED ABUHAMAD: So, the concept of the metabolic kitchen is a kitchen where not only food could be prepared by a chef with expertise and how to assemble food for special research activities, but also how to do demonstrations for the community and the campus on how to prepare food that is healthy for individuals.
The lifestyle medicine is a concept in medicine that is evolving very rapidly, and the concept is to focus not only on the symptom that the patient is coming with, but also what is causing the symptom and what's causing the disease.
WHRO: Dr. Abuhamd, we know chronic diseases account for 90% of U.S. healthcare spending. How do you anticipate better nutrition training affecting patient care and healthcare costs?
AA: So, chronic diseases are at the core of the expenses in healthcare, and the healthcare system in the United States is designed to treat the disease with less than a minimal amount, maybe 5% of the expenditure on prevention.
There is abundant evidence today to suggest that lifestyle medicine is at the core of a lot of the chronic illnesses that we have, and a lot of the chronic illnesses are tied together as part of a metabolic dysfunction within the body, or metabolic syndromes.
So, the ability to really address those lifestyle issues with our patients and our healthy population, really to reduce the incidence of chronic illnesses will be one of our main targets within this institute.
WHRO: And President Hemphill, how is this going to impact the Hampton Roads community?
BRIAN HEMPHILL: When you consider the health disparities that we have within this particular region of Hampton Roads, specifically in Norfolk and Portsmouth, if you look at the data, it is very, very clear so much of those challenges and diseases that we're dealing with, nutrition could be a very important part, and that's importance of connecting with some of the community members at younger ages, because there are things that we can begin to work with them on and change and getting them on a different trajectory in life, especially when you're thinking about their own personal health.
WHRO: Dr. Abuhamd, who is this program really for?
AA: We want to embed this in the education for our medical students and nursing students, so they will not be optional. It will be for all students. So, they will be part of their curriculums.
In addition to this, we are launching a master's in nutrition science within Old Dominion University. It's an online master's with nutrition science. Medical Students have the option now of doing an extra year of work and graduate both licensed in medical education – M.D. degree and master's in nutrition science – so they become leaders in the future in the community in this aspect.
WHRO: Gentlemen, thank you for speaking with us.
AA: Thank you for the opportunity you have given us to really share this very exciting initiative that we have. We truly believe that's going to have a significant impact on health care education and going to impact a lot of the communities around us.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
