Academic Medicine Partners and Professional Training Programs

The Partnerships

Numerous academic medicine, nutrition, and residency programs have participated in IFM’s education courses, including leading institutions such as Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale. These collaborations help to fulfill IFM’s mission by expanding exposure to functional medicine throughout academic medicine; early exposure ultimately increases the supply of functional medicine-trained clinicians. Collaborations include:

Experience has shown that functional medicine and functional nutrition educators can be successfully woven into medical and professional curricula and courses. IFM provides faculty training, curricular materials, and clinical tools to its partners. This creates a consistent, time-tested standard in functional medicine education, which is easier to teach and implement. Once established in the curriculum, functional medicine courses continue to be taught on a regular basis.

How Do These Partnerships Advance IFM's Mission?

There is a growing demand for functional medicine and functional nutrition education and training across the nation. Students and practitioners are seeking additional tools to improve patient outcomes and to treat the underlying causes of disease using an evidence-based model. Educational efforts at academic health centers and universities expose clinicians to functional medicine at an early stage in their careers so that they can build upon these teachings and incorporate them into practice. Professional training for nurses, nutritionists, and health coaches—not just physicians—makes it easier to implement the functional medicine model and to improve patient outcomes by giving all practitioners a comprehensive model and a common language.