Dr. Stephen Devries,
Executive Director
Dr. Stephen Devries is a preventive cardiologist and Executive Director of the Gaples Institute, an educational nonprofit with the mission of advancing the role of nutrition and lifestyle in medicine. Dr. Devries has also been appointed Adjunct Associate Professor of Nutrition in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Dr. Devries attended medical school at the University of Michigan where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He received Cardiovascular subspecialty training at Washington University in St. Louis and later completed a Fellowship in the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. He previously served as the Director of the Outpatient Heart Center at the University of Illinois and later, as Associate Professor at Northwestern University.
Executive Director of the Gaples Institute
In his primary role as Executive Director of the nonprofit Gaples Institute, Dr. Devries is the course director for a condensed online nutrition course for health professionals—a groundbreaking educational tool that is now required in the curriculum of leading medical schools and residency programs and is a widely acclaimed CME resource for practicing physicians. The course has been taken by over 4,000 medical students and clinicians.
In pursuit of the Gaples Institute mission to advance public nutrition education, Dr. Devries has also authored the award-winning patient nutrition learning program, Nutrition for Optimal Health.
Role at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Dr. Devries teaches a course at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, “Integrating Nutrition into Clinical Medicine: The Role of Health Professionals as Change Agents.” He is also the co-leader, along with Dr. Walter Willett, of the Nutrition Education Working Group, a multidisciplinary cohort of leading scientists, nutrition educators, and policy experts. The group meets regularly at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for the purpose of exploring ways to strengthen nutrition education in all levels of medical training.
Authorship
Dr. Devries is a trusted expert on nutrition in medicine, and in addition to authoring the courses mentioned above, he has written numerous peer-reviewed articles on the need to enhance nutrition education and practice in health care. Links to some of his recent publications appear below. He also authored What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Cholesterol and co-edited the textbook Integrative Cardiology with Dr. James Dalen. He is an invited author to both the most widely read textbook in conventional cardiology as well as the leading textbook in integrative medicine.
Dr. Devries has lectured on nutrition and lifestyle in medical care in venues from Thailand to the Royal Society of Medicine in London, and his work has been featured on PBS and NPR.
Selection of Recent Publications:
- Nutrition Education in Medical School, Residency Training, and Practice; JAMA 2019.
- A Global Deficiency of Nutrition Education in Physician Training: The Low Hanging Fruit in Medicine Remains on the Vine; Lancet Planetary Health 2019.
- Impact of an Online Nutrition Course to Address a Gap in Medical Education: A Feasibility Study; PRiMER 2020.
- A Deficiency of Nutrition Education and Practice in Cardiology; American Journal of Medicine 2017.
