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Medical Board of California Misses an Opportunity to Protect Healthcare Consumers

Updated February 28, 2014

The Medical Board of California approved their much-awaited Action Plan on February 6, 2014 to fulfill the requirements of SB 380.  Unfortunately, the Medical Board’s actions may amount to nothing more than a couple of insignificant newsletter articles published biannually.

On September 6, 2011, after the unanimous passage by both houses of the California State Assembly, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill (SB) 380. The sole purpose of this directive is to remedy the widespread lack of basic knowledge of California physicians about human nutrition. Simply put, medical doctors do not know what their patients should eat to prevent, treat, and often cure common diseases, including obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.

I have made the following suggestions be taken by the Medical Board of California in support of this law:

  1. Require continuing medical education (CME) on meaningful diet-therapy* for all newly licensed and relicensed physicians,
  2. Require California’s 11 medical schools to teach diet-therapy,
  3. Require the 393 general acute care hospitals in California to dedicate significant time to diet-therapy at ongoing educational meetings held for their doctors,
  4. Audit medical practices for the appropriate use of diet-therapy (similar to what is now performed with drug and surgery therapies), and
  5. Send nutritional education materials to physicians on diet-therapy.

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