IFM and WMed Announce Collaboration

 

 
 

The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) and Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine (WMed) have announce their collaboration on a broad range of educational and training activities for residents in the WMed Family Medicine – Battle Creek residency program.

“From 2017-2020, interest amongst medical students and residents to learn about functional medicine more than doubled,” stated Robert Luby, MD, IFM director of medical education initiatives. “We have also seen increased demand from academic institutions to train and certify their faculty and to offer functional medicine education earlier in student and resident training programs to develop a more comprehensive approach to patient care.”

By learning functional medicine curriculum alongside academic programming, residents are better equipped to care for their patients with a functional medicine lens, increasing their overall confidence and competence as practitioners and improving patient outcomes.

“WMed prepares and equips family medicine residents to provide a lifetime of compassionate, comprehensive, culturally competent, and evidence-based clinical care to patients and their families,” said Ramona Wallace, DO, assistant professor, WMed Department of Family and Community Medicine. “Not only does this partnership support WMed residents in building their foundational approach to patient care, it also creates accessibility for patients within a variety of diverse settings.”

Functional medicine and conventional medicine both play important roles in patient care. By seeking out root causes and treating them with evidence-based, clinically verified methods, a functional medicine approach—paired with conventional medical care—results in improved health outcomes, reduced costs over time, and a greater overall patient experience.

“In stewardship with partners like WMed, IFM is bringing functional medicine into a greater number of health care systems, clinics, academic medicine sites, and vulnerable and underserved communities, ensuring access to this critically important approach to patient care,” added Amy R. Mack, MSES/MPA, IFM chief executive officer.

For more information, visit www.ifm.org or wmed.edu/FM-BC.