The AMA Has a New Online Course on Eating Disorders

The American Medical Association (AMA) now offers a new online course designed to help educate physicians about eating disorders. The goal is to promote earlier detection and intervention. The course, “Screening and Managing Eating Disorders in Primary Practice,” is part of the organization’s Educating Physicians on Controversies and Challenges in Health (EPoCH) program.

According to officials of the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), the online program provides a basic diagnostic overview of all eating disorders. The program reviews the screening and referral process and briefly describes the role of the primary care physician plays in treating patients with eating disorders. Both NEDA and AMA officials feel the eating disorders curriculum fills a much-needed void, helping more patients receive care and perhaps preventing severe chronic eating disorders.

The program includes presentations by two eating disorders experts from the University of Colorado, Denver: Ovidio Bermudez, MD, Medical Director of Child & Adolescent Services, Eating Recovery Center, and Jennifer L. Gaudiani, MD, Assistant Medical Director, ACUTE Center for Eating Disorders, and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado.

NEDA officials approached the AMA last year about creating the course and commended their goal of drawing attention to the need for a greater understanding of eating disorders in the medical community and proactively working to educate physicians. The AMA has also made a commitment to aggressively promote the course’s availability to the medical community. (Information about the AMA course can be found here.