Grant Abstract: Nutrition in Medicine

Grant Number: 5R25CA065474-09
PI Name: ZEISEL, STEVEN H.
Project Title: Nutrition in Medicine

Abstract: DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Consistent with the major aim of the Cancer Education Grant Program of the National Cancer Institute to develop unique educational approaches for teaching preventive nutrition that will impact cancer incidence, mortality and morbidity we have created a computer-assisted nutrition/prevention curriculum for medical schools. With previous funding we have introduced nutrition and cancer education content at many medical schools that had not provided such instruction previously. Eight titles have been distributed; 1 more titles will be distributed in 2002. Ninety-two U.S. and 22 international medical schools now use our comprehensive curriculum; more schools are evaluating them for use. Our efficacy evaluations have demonstrated these modules to be effective teaching tools. In response to user feedback we enhanced the interface to improve access and to navigate to instructor-tailored content via the lite version. When completed, 4 out of the 10 titles in the curriculum will contain extensive cancer-specific information; the remaining 6 titles contain cancer content also and we propose herein ways to include even more via updates. The common goal of all of the modules that is central to NCI's mission is to teach how nutrition and lifestyle are the foundation of chronic disease prevention: We ask for continued funding in order to: 1) develop Sports Nutrition: the role of nutrition and physical activity in health. We expect this topic to be eagerly received and plan to build on the interest in fitness to teach basic principles of nutrition and lifelong health habits for the purpose of health promotion and disease prevention. The free radicals section will present a great opportunity to teach nutrition-related carcinogenesis and the potential for cancer prevention. 2) improve and update content of existing modules, starting with Nutrition and Cancer, on a regular basis to keep content current in accordance with existing standards of practice and present cancer-related material at every opportunity. 3) Enhance utilization and efficacy of the modules by taking advantage of Internet capabilities: delivering online lesson content with consistent features available across modules (e.g. lite version, supplement index), and automate aspects of efficacy evaluation. 4) Provide ongoing technical support and materials via the web to maximize and maintain use of the full curriculum.

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