Jaclyn Albin, M.D., is a nationally recognized leader in the field of culinary medicine, which combines nutrition, education, and clinical care to treat and prevent disease. An Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Pediatric, and Public Health in the UT Southwestern School of Medicine and O’Donnell School of Public Health, Dr. Albin founded UT Southwestern’s Culinary Medicine Program and helps educate students, residents, and fellows on the importance of nutrition, especially in the management of chronic disease. Recently, Dr. Albin spoke with Lili Clark of the Learning from Leaders podcast, where she discussed sustainability, collaboration, and authenticity in leadership.
“There is room for what we call ‘nutrition by addition’ in every single person’s diet.”
Jaclyn Albin, M.D.
An Integrated Approach
To Dr. Albin, the strength of culinary medicine lies in its ability to integrate diet and medicine. As she highlights, “there is room for what we call ‘nutrition by addition’ in every single person’s diet.” Rather than tell patients what not to eat, “which just creates shame,” Dr. Albin emphasizes a holistic approach, which includes talking “about what’s missing from your plate” and teaching patients how to cook delicious foods that promote health and accommodate chronic conditions including heart disease and diabetes.
Dr. Albin has put this holistic approach into action at RedBird, a UT Southwestern regional medical center in southwest Dallas County. With her dietician partner Milette Siler, RDN, Dr. Albin has built a collaborative model that combines one-on-one clinical care with group cooking sessions. In clinical appointments with Dr. Albin, patients discuss health conditions, current treatment plans, and how food intersects with the two. Following this, patients participate in six group cooking classes with Ms. Siler over two months, learning new recipes and techniques that align with their conditions and goals, are affordable and accessible, and taste delicious. Aimed at improving health outcomes in the long term, the program is covered by health insurance. As Dr. Albin notes, “we’re monitoring their whole treatment plan [and] adding food—through a super practical lens—to the toolkit.”
Community-Forward, Sustainable Medicine
The RedBird program boasts high retention rates among patients and recently graduated its fourth cohort. Dr. Albin cites the community-forward approach as one reason for the model’s success. Sustainability is another. In large part, the program is possible because insurance covers patients’ participation. She highlights how the program is beneficial for insurance providers too, because it equips patients with real skills—ones with the potential to positively impact their health for decades to come. The program’s community focus and sustainable model make it both scalable and translatable to other settings. Currently, Dr. Albin is working with two UT Southwestern colleagues to adapt the program to their practice models in oncology and gastroenterology.
In addition to educating medical students, residents, and fellows across UT Southwestern, she is also in conversation with clinicians across the country who are working to adapt the model to their own communities. In the future, she hopes to create a team that can be “[deployed] across clinics and campuses” to help other physicians implement the model. Importantly, Dr. Albin will soon be sharing the concept more broadly following the publication of a case series discussing the program.
Listen to the Podcast
Collaborating with Community Partners
Dr. Albin describes how community partners have been key to the Culinary Medicine program’s success. Through leasing agreements, Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship and Concord Church have lent their kitchens to UT Southwestern for cooking sessions, allowing patients to attend sessions in proximity to where they live. Additionally, charitable food groups continue to fill nutrition gaps in the community, playing an important role in the state that currently ranks number one in food insecurity, according to Dr. Albin. She highlights the significant work that Crossroads Community Services has been doing with UT Southwestern for over a decade, including providing food for referred patients onsite at RedBird. Significantly, through this partnership, food-insecure patients are able to access needed nutrition and UT Southwestern researchers are able to study the effects of improved food security on health outcomes.
Dr. Jaclyn Albin on Authenticity in Leadership
One important lesson that Dr. Albin learned early in her career was how to adapt leadership advice to fit her own style. As she notes, every leader’s approach is different and what works for one person may not work for another. Rather, she continues, “we have to find authenticity in our leadership” and tap into those places where “we get a little tachycardic” because of excitement and passion.
While Dr. Albin has had many mentors in her life, including her grandfather and Ms. Siler, her dietitian partner, she stresses the way that books can fill mentorship gaps. Dr. Albin emphasizes how “really listening to [authors] who have gone through decades of learning—there’s always something there.” As she continues, “sometimes the people who have the most to teach us are not the traditional sources of mentorship.”
Learn more about recent updates from the Culinary Medicine program at UT Southwestern, here, including a recent study by UTSW researchers published in NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery evaluated the program’s first two-and-a-half years and found it is delivering measurable benefits, with 92% of participants reporting they were very satisfied or satisfied with their experience and 63% saying they had used its resources.
