The content of this book can be used to help residency programs of all sizes incorporate the goals, objectives, and activities related to the prevention and management of pediatric obesity into current residency training experiences.

To illustrate how to use this book for residents, we discuss the Fit for Residents (FFR) curriculum and the Health and Obesity: Prevention and Education (HOPE) curriculum as successful examples of how teaching materials can be tailored to and successfully integrated into residency training programs. Materials provided from both these curricula are meant as models and resources for planning, implementing, and evaluating curriculum enhancements into your individual residency curriculum.

Many of the implementation, teaching, and evaluation resources presented in this book will be housed on the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight Web site for easy access and also timely updates (https://ihcw.aap.org). These materials are provided to help residency programs across the country graduate the next generation of pediatricians to be able to practice health promotion and engage in treatment of obesity through supporting healthy eating, physical activity, and emotional well-being among their patients, families, and communities.

In addition to presenting the FFR and HOPE curricula, we will briefly review and provide resources for innovative models in residency education utilizing social media and other technological advances.

Fit for Residents curriculum

The ideas and content of the FFR curriculum were developed based on a 3-year project funded by the Anthem Blue Cross Foundation and led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), in collaboration with the AAP and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). The project’s aim was to develop and pilot a residency training curriculum for the prevention and management of pediatric obesity. In the first year of the project, 15 selected national experts representing academic and professional institutions from across the United States, the AAP, and the AAFP developed the curriculum guide, building on their significant experience and background in teaching obesity prevention, management, and advocacy skills to pediatric and family physician residents.

The curriculum had 2 unique features: (1) it was “adaptable”—it could be tailored to be implemented into specific sites and resources of each pediatric, family practice, or medicine/pediatric residency program; and (2) it was written with particular attention to cultural and socioeconomic issues to provide specific information to physicians-in-training working with racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse populations.

In the second year (2009-2010) of the project, 5 pediatric and family medicine residency programs in California were selected through a competitive application process to pilot the curriculum into their residency programs and carry out ongoing quality improvement and evaluation activities.

The final year of the FFR 3-year project analyzed data from the pilot programs and disseminated results. Pilot study data demonstrated that formal pediatric and family physician residency training in obesity prevention and management significantly improved residents’ knowledge and clinical practice, and contributed to the existing body of research about the effectiveness of curriculum and quality improvement interventions for improving pediatric education and practice.¹

The Health and Obesity: Prevention and Education curriculum

The multidisciplinary, healthy living-counseling HOPE curriculum was initially developed to educate pediatric clinicians-in-training on how to recognize children at risk for obesity and its comorbidities and how to promote healthy weight among children and their families. The curriculum was developed to be delivered via the web and to take advantage of technologies that enabled individualized, at one’s own pace learning, without adding to scheduling conflicts commonly present in training programs.

Curriculum topics were selected by a panel of experts in nutrition, medicine, dentistry, behavioral counseling, and education, and incorporated the 2007 Expert Committee recommendations² regarding the prevention, assessment, and treatment of childhood and adolescent obesity. Input was also obtained from practicing clinicians in order to develop relevant clinical tools that could translate the Expert Committee recommendations into clinical practice and workflow. The approach and methods utilized for curriculum development have been published.³

The HOPE curriculum instructed medical and dental clinicians on the health consequences of childhood obesity and screening techniques to identify children and families at risk, reviewed the current evidence for health intervention recommendations, and taught trainees the theoretical rationale and art of constructive and culturally sensitive counseling for behavioral change. While designed and tailored specifically for medical and dental trainees, the web-based HOPE curriculum was also made available to practicing medical and dental clinicians across the United States beginning in 2009.