Purpose
Many physicians and other healthcare professionals report that they lack the knowledge base regarding the role of nutrition in health and the skill development that would prepare them to provide patient-centered nutrition counseling.  The amount of nutrition education that medical students receive continues to be far less than the minimum of twenty-five hours recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. Overall, efforts to introduce nutrition education have been reported to be hindered by an already crowded medical school curriculum. Proposed strategies to navigate this barrier include establishing nutrition modules that can be integrated throughout the medical school curriculum.    

Methods
Faculty from six medical schools in Michigan collaborated to develop nutrition education curricula using the ScholarRx Bricks innovative digital learning system which allowed for accessible online integration of nutrition topics across each of the respective medical schools' curricula. 

Results
We developed 3 open access ‘bricks’ spanning, (1) food labels, (2) social determinants of health, and (3) eating patterns and healthy eating.  We chose these topic themes with the aim to improve medical students' preparedness for board examinations and clinical practice. 

The ScholarRx Brick “Understanding Food Labels and Portion Sizes” covers the basics of food labels including food label information, serving sizes, and health claims. The ScholarRx Brick “Social Determinants of Health: Food Access” covers how access to nutritious food is a critical social determinant of health, how food security risks are associated with poorer health outcomes and higher odds of chronic illness, and use of a validated screening tool for identifying individuals or households at risk for food insecurity.  The ScholarRx Brick “Eating Patterns and Healthy Eating” covers recommended healthy dietary patterns, nutrient-density food choice concepts, basic nutrition assessment methods, and lifestyle-based approaches to patient-centered nutrition counseling.

Conclusion
These innovative, open access, online ScholarRx Bricks are easily accessible and can help institutions to address the gap in nutrition education currently identified in medical school curricula. Using this online format may also help students to appreciate the relevance of learning about nutrition and support the importance of integrating nutrition counseling skills in their future clinical practice.