The Institute
A first-of-its-kind institute advancing food is medicine.
Our vision is a world where nutritious food is a core component of health and health care, and all communities can achieve health equity through nourishing food.
Our approach
One roof for the evidence, the tools, and the policy.
The Food is Medicine Institute is a first-of-its-kind academic institute based at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. It is directed by Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and nutrition scientist, and is home to more than 20 specialized experts working across clinical research, health-system practice, and policy analysis.
Rather than housing research, practice, and policy in separate silos, FIMI holds all three under one roof: the clinical trials and microsimulations that build the evidence, the tools that put it into a clinician’s or a health plan’s hands, and the analysis that turns it into legislation, regulation, and guidance. The Institute collaborates with dozens of health systems, pharmacies, payers, and government partners across the country and around the world.
That structure is why the work moves faster than a typical academic department: a finding from a produce-prescription trial can inform a Medicaid toolkit within the same year, and a state policy question can be answered from data the Institute already has in hand.
How we work
Six focus areas make up everything the Institute does.
Evidence
Clinical trials, 50-state microsimulations, and program evaluations that build the rigorous case for food is medicine.
Practice
Preparing clinicians and health systems to deliver food is medicine in real clinical settings, at scale.
Policy
Translating the evidence into legislation, regulation, and guidance for federal and state policymakers.
Convening
Cross-sector summits, briefings, and coalitions that move the field forward together.
Innovation
Public tools, databases, and screening instruments, Food Compass, the Food is Medicine Toolkit, the Nutrition Security Screener, that let each audience act on the best available science.
Business Case
Building the economic evidence, cost, cost-effectiveness, and return, that lets health systems and payers say yes.
Leadership
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, Director
A cardiologist and nutrition scientist, Dr. Mozaffarian is the Jean Mayer Professor and Dean Emeritus at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and a Professor of Medicine at Tufts University. He has authored more than 650 scientific publications on diet, cardiometabolic disease, and food policy.
Work with us
Ready to put this evidence to work in your organization?
Whether you lead a health system, set policy, or fund this work, there is a direct line to the Institute.