Welcome to the Harvard Medical School

Division of Nutrition

Harvard Medical School developed the Division of Nutrition in 1996 in order to establish nutrition as a discipline. The purpose of this Division was to coordinate nutrition activities between the medical school and the Harvard teaching hospitals, including research, teaching, postgraduate education and patient care.

The Division was also urged to provide the lay public with updated medical information about what constitutes a healthy diet, the importance of dietary supplements, and the use of nutritional support in the management of clinical disease.To help accomplish these goals, and to support the Department of Nutrition, a NIH-funded clinical nutrition research center was founded.

In conjunction with the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, two postgraduate training programs have been established and funded by the National Institutes of Health to train physicians and graduate students in nutrition research.

A nutrition subcommittee of the medical school curriculum committee advises the Dean of Education on modifications in the curriculum to enhance nutrition education for medical students. Monthly seminars and a yearly postgraduate symposium provide physicians and nutritionists with updated nutrition information. In addition, links to the latest nutrition information are available for practicing physicians and the public to directly obtain the most recent views on nutrition in health and disease.