Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Fellowship

The Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Fellowship is a one-year fellowship that accepts one fellow each year. The program’s mission is to help individuals and families improve health and nutrition, lose weight, and make permanent lifestyle changes using a scientific approach. To support this mission, the selected fellow is assigned to 50 percent clinical care duties in nutrition and metabolic disease with an emphasis on obesity medicine. Trainees gain exposure to culinary medicine, endocrinology, bariatric surgery, and a diverse population that includes both pediatric and adult patients. Fellows engage in academic research, attend one sponsored national conference, and give a series of lectures to medical care providers and community stakeholders.

The fellow will plan and carry out a scholarly project (such as publication in a peer-reviewed journal, oral presentation, or poster at a national or regional conference). Along with mandatory attendance at scheduled team meetings, case conferences, journal clubs, and quality meetings, the fellow will be encouraged to participate in local or national advocacy efforts to enhance the treatment of patients with metabolic diseases, and to improve the culture of health and wellness.

The Nutrition and Metabolic Disease Fellowship provides the majority of its training through direct clinical care provided in WVU Medicine’s Medical and Surgical Weight Loss Center’s Medical Weight Management clinic. Our program’s mission is helping individuals and families improve health, nutrition, lose weight, and make permanent lifestyle changes using scientific approach. Our vision is to prevent and treat metabolic diseases, with an emphasis on obesity medicine, and to improve the culture of health and wellness throughout West Virginia.

Educational Objectives of Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases Fellowship:

• Acquire practical knowledge in nutrition.
• Develop skills in behavior change counseling.
• Develop skills in prescribing pharmacotherapy for treatment of metabolic diseases, with an emphasis on obesity medicine.
• Gain experience in outpatient treatment of metabolic diseases.
• Develop skills for pre-op and post-op management of bariatric surgery patients.
• Develop confidence in prescribing diabetes medications in patients with metabolic diseases.
• Develop skills in managing weight regain in bariatric surgery patients.
• Gain experience managing metabolic diseases in the pediatric population.
• Gain experience in lifestyle and culinary medicine.
• Develop skills in determining body composition through various methodologies.
• Develop skills in prescribing an individualized exercise prescription.
• Gain experience in metabolic disease-related comorbid conditions.
• Gain experience in treating metabolic diseases in a rural population.