This year’s OMED Joint Specialty Session will bring together physicians from across the osteopathic profession for a half-day, deep dive into one of medicine’s most universal—and most underutilized—clinical tools: nutrition.
The session is organized into four, 35-minute panels, each pairing a presentation with direct Q&A and built around a different stage or application of nutritional care. Rather than approaching nutrition as a single specialty, the program draws on perspectives from more than a dozen specialties, reflecting the osteopathic principle that the body functions as an interconnected whole.
Panel 1: Lifestyle – Nutrition Through the Life Cycle
Featuring voices from obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, family medicine, and dermatology, this opening panel will trace nutrition’s role across the human lifespan, from prenatal care through pediatric growth, adult prevention and skin health. Speakers will highlight common gaps and misconceptions clinicians encounter in practice, along with practical, evidence-informed counseling points physicians can put to use right away.
Panel 2: Specific Dietary Indications
Allergy and immunology, emergency medicine, occupational and preventive medicine, and anesthesiology will examine conditions where nutrition is central to clinical decision-making, including allergy management, emergency response, occupational and institutional dietary considerations, and pre-operative care. The panel will also explore system-level issues such as food access, labeling and safety.
Panel 3: Nutrition for Athletes and Physical Activity
Osteopathy, physical medicine and rehabilitation, sports medicine, and military medicine will join forces to discuss nutrition’s role in performance, recovery and injury prevention, framed through an osteopathic, whole-person lens. The panel will address the specific needs of athletes, military personnel and patients in rehabilitation settings, with practical guidance on fueling, hydration and supplementation.
Panel 4: Gut Health, Brain Health and Inflammation
The session closes with neurology and psychiatry, internal medicine, addiction medicine, and prolotherapy regenerative medicine exploring the emerging science connecting nutrition, inflammation, mental health and neurologic function, and what it means for chronic disease management and regenerative approaches to care.
Together, the four panels offer attendees a comprehensive, cross-specialty look at how nutrition intersects with nearly every area of osteopathic medicine, reinforcing OMED’s broader commitment to whole-person, specialty-spanning education. More information on these panels and more programming can be found on the OMED 2026 website.