Curriculum

Year 1

Summer Rotation / Introduction to Culinary Medicine

The summer before matriculation into medical school, students will begin learning about culinary medicine.

Requirements before matriculating into WVU:

One required reading
Completion of one online learning module, "Disease Implications of Diet: Introduction to Culinary Medicine"
Students will attend a several-day-long on-campus experience during the week directly before first-year orientation. This experience will include:
- Introductions and review of the goals, duties and timeline of the track
- Educational work, such as discussion of the required reading and online module
- Teaching Kitchen
- Meeting with faculty and participants

School year (August-May)

Clinical Learning Group (CLG)

Students enrolled in the track will be assigned to the same Clinical Learning Group (CLG). The clinical cases will be augmented with information and questions about the lifestyle medicine perspective while maintaining the core competencies already established for the traditional curriculum.

This group is led by a School of Medicine faculty physician with expertise in nutrition and lifestyle medicine and allows for enhanced educational information and discussion in these areas.

My first patient experience:

Students will do a personal assessment of their own health status and dietary habits, setting goals for the year to reap the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

Begin work towards Completion of Requirements for the Culinary Medicine Specialist Certificate

Students need to complete two online assignments from the Health Meets Food curriculum during their first year.
- Each assignment includes readings and a case study and will take approximately three hours to complete.
- Assignments will be discussed with faculty in a group setting.
Students will attend two separate 2-3 hour educational sessions in the teaching kitchen where they will prepare a meal to eat together while discussing the components of the modules assigned to the kitchen.
- The teaching kitchen is located in one of the buildings on the Evansdale Campus of the Davis College of Agriculture in Morgantown
- Dietician graduate students from the Davis College of Agriculture Natural Resources and Design often attend these sessions.
Students are encouraged to attend the monthly meetings for the Culinary Medicine Interest Group and show leadership by planning some of those activities

Summer semesters between Year 1 and Year 2

Summer Externship

CLMT students attend food prep class Rising second-year CLMT students are required to participate in an additional one-to-two-week education and clinical experience at a location where students can live together and develop a sense of community (time allotment depends on school calendar). One of those weeks, the students all come to the Eastern Campus to participate in educational sessions, teaching kitchens and clinical work in a physician's outpatient space.

This externship will focus on clinical skills and practical information regarding nutritional concepts and lifestyle medicine advice that can be given to patients. Housing will be provided, and a small stipend will be given to the participants.

During this period CLMT students will:

Continue to build on lifestyle education, with lectures and experiences from guest lecturers such as psychologists, obesity medicine physicians, sleep specialists and psychiatrists
Participate in hands-on food prep classes under the guidance of our CLMT faculty chef
Work with a community physician, local dietitians and exercise-trained specialists
See patients in clinic and/or hospital settings
Begin discussion about a research project
Employ their patient history-taking skills (including diet and lifestyle habits)
Complete two online modules

Year 2

School year August -May

Continue work towards Completion of Requirements for the Culinary Medicine Certificate

During this period CLMT students will:

Complete four online assignments from the Health Meets Food curriculum during the academic year
- One module during the first semester
- Two modules over Christmas break
- One module during the second semester
Meet with faculty to discuss the modules and complete the cases
Attend one teaching kitchen per semester

Year 3

MedCHEFS Educational Workshop(s) (2-3 hours food preparation session in kitchen setting)

All WVU MS3 medical students attend one MedCHEF workshop per year.
CLMT students must attend at least one additional teaching kitchen workshop during their third and fourth years.

Continue work towards Completion of Requirements for the Culinary Medicine Certificate

Students need to complete five additional online assignments from the Health Meets Food curriculum during this school year.
- The topics correspond to third-year clerkships, which include OBGYN, family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine and surgery.
Students will come together to discuss modules as a group with faculty at least once per semester

Student Activities

Participate actively in your third-year clinical rotations, talking with patients and teaching them about healthy lifestyle practices based on their medical conditions
Participate in a clinical research project
Create a poster abstract for display in a peer-reviewed poster session at a conference

Year 4

Electives - One of the students' fourth-year electives must be a Culinary and Lifestyle Medicine month

Two weeks of Lifestyle Solutions for Chronic Medical Diseases (online course through SOLE)
- During this time, in addition to at least eight teaching modules for the course, students will have dedicated time to complete any additional online modules necessary to sit for the optional Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist (CCMS) exam, as well as finish the research project started earlier in the curriculum.
- Approximately 50% or more of all fourth-year students take this elective, and it has proven to be educational and interesting to most everyone who has taken it.
Complete another two weeks in a clinical or hospital space with one of the approved faculty members. New faculty may be added, and offerings may be different each year.
- Current offerings:
  - Several clinics/specialties on the Morgantown Campus
  - Family Medicine, Metabolic Clinic and Psychiatric rotations on the Eastern Campus
  - Pediatrics and Cardiology on the Charleston Campus
Optional: Sit for the National Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist exam (chosen by several students per year)
- Offered three times per year (April, July and October)
  - Students typically sit for the exam in April between Match Day and Graduation when they have additional time to concentrate on this project.
  - As of Jan. 2025, every CLMT student who has taken this exam has passed.
- There is an additional fee to sit for the exam. The track will sponsor part of this cost and the student is responsible for the remaining amount.

MATTER Track Students

Since the MATTER track's inception, modifications have been made to the fourth-year schedule for MATTER track students who are also enrolled in CLMT. Because their fourth-year schedule is reduced to only the summer term and they have no elective time, we have asked those students to create an online module on a topic of their choice for the Lifestyle Solutions and Chronic Disease course in place of the required fourth-year CLMT elective.

This involves choosing a topic aligned with their interests that is also applicable to the course and will be included in the course once complete. For example, one former student created a module titled "Exercise is Medicine," and another created a module titled "Nutrition in Chronic Wound Healing."

The lessons include a PowerPoint presentation with the student narrating the slides, choosing two selected readings as resources, and creating two reflective questions. The student will record the PowerPoint presentation on SOLE with faculty oversight/assistance, then the completed module will be included in the course. The MATTER student schedule for the summer typically includes some downtime when this project can be completed.