Doctors consistently advise their patients to consume less of the artery-clogging fast foods that contribute to Americans' rising obesity rates and declining health. However, a new study reveals that four in ten university-affiliated hospitals serve brand-name fast food from such vendors as Krispy Kreme, Burger King, Wendy's and McDonald's. The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the nation's largest independent medical student organization, urges the nation's hospitals to work toward expelling fast food vendors from their grounds and provide a safe and healthy eating environment for patients, staff and visitors.

"The medical community must practice what it's preaching," says study author Dr. Lenny Lesser, AMSA's Healthy Hospitals Campaign coordinator and a family medicine resident at Tufts University. "It is deplorable for a doctor to lecture a patient on taking more careful precautions against heart disease, while there is McDonald's in the hospital's lobby serving a fried-food lunch."

Of the 234 hospitals surveyed, 42 percent were selling brand-name fast food on their campuses. Some of the most prominent offenders include: The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), at the University of Pennsylvania (McDonald's) The Cleveland Clinic, at Case Western Reserve University (McDonald's) The Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital, at Vanderbilt University (Taco Bell and Pizza Hut) Grady Memorial Hospital, at Emory University (McDonald's) University of Michigan Hospital (Wendy's) Tufts-New England Medical Center, at Tufts University (Pizza Hut and Dunkin Donuts)
AMSA encourages hospitals to put quality before profit, and publicly promote health in their communities by removing nutritionally unsound food vendors from their campuses. Their presence in so many of America's premier academic hospitals severely limits medical professionals' abilityto credibly reinforce healthy behaviors.

AMSA proposes that fast food franchises located on hospital grounds be required to post nutritional information on their menu boards so consumers can make educated choices. Hospitals should also discontinue serving foods prepared with partially hydrogenated oil, the most common source of trans fats in the American diet.

AMSA also commends institutions like Duke Children's Hospital and Health Center at Duke University and Barnes-Jewish Hospital at Washington University for removing fast-food vendors from their grounds.

AMSA first began working to reform unhealthy hospitals in 2005 with its "Healthy Foods in Hospitals Campaign."

"With the obesity epidemic in America getting more attention every day, AMSA hopes administrators at teaching hospitals consider the results of this study and evaluate whether the food that is served on their campuses is truly consistent with the mission of improving the health of their communities," says AMSA president Jay Bhatt.

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The study, which appears in the September issue of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (JABFM), can be found online at jabfm. Information on AMSA's campaign can be found at: amsa/cph/healthyhospitals.cfm.

About the American Medical Student Association
The American Medical Student Association (AMSA), with more than a half-century history of medical student activism, is the oldest and largest independent association of physicians-in-training in the United States. Founded in 1950, AMSA is a student-governed, non-profit organization committed to representing the concerns of physicians-in-training. With nearly 68,000 members, including medical and premedical students, residents and practicing physicians, AMSA is committed to improving medical training as well as advancing the profession of medicine. To learn more about AMSA, our strategic priorities, or joining the organization, please visit us online at amsa/.

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The American Medical Student Association