Episode 49 - Building Trust in Dairy Through Physician Education

Healthcare professionals can play an important role in shaping how consumers think about nutrition and dairy. That’s why United Dairy Industry of Michigan and Florida Dairy Farmers are working directly with physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals to provide evidence-based nutrition information they can use with their patients.

On this episode of the Your Dairy Checkoff Podcast, Theresa Reps talks with Sandra Selby, a registered dietitian and board-certified sports nutritionist who leads healthcare professional outreach for the Michigan and Florida dairy organizations.

Sandy shares how the physician education program started as a pilot in Michigan and has grown into a formal program, including its expansion into Florida. The program takes a wraparound approach, reaching not only physicians but also other members of the healthcare team who can influence patient conversations about nutrition.

Topics frequently addressed include lactose intolerance, nutrition during the first 1,000 days, from conception until a child’s second birthday, and sports nutrition. Healthcare offices receive educational resources they can share with patients, with nearly 12,000 kits distributed since the program began.

Listen to hear how checkoff-funded education is helping put trusted dairy science in the hands of healthcare professionals and their patients.

Host & Guest 

• Host: Theresa Reps, Director of Farmer Outreach, Dairy Management Inc.
• Guest: Sandra Selby, Health and Wellness Senior Manager, United Dairy Industry of Michigan

Transcript (AI-Generated, please ignore typos) 

Your Dairy Checkoff Podcast 00:02

Welcome to your Dairy Checkoff podcast from Dairy Management Inc. where dairy checkoff leaders and farmers share real stories, strategies, and insights that grow sales and build trust for U.S. dairy. Let's get started.

Theresa Reps 00:19

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the regional rundown, a segment of the Your Dairy Checkoff podcast where we talk to local, state, and regional organizations about the work they're doing to drive sales and build trust in dairy. I'm your host, Theresa Reps, and on today's episode, we have Sandy here with United Dairy Industries of Michigan and Florida Dairy Farmers. Sandy, welcome, and tell us a little bit more about yourself.

Sandra Selby 00:43

Thanks so much, Theresa, for having me. I'm happy to be here. Yep, so I am Sandy Selby. I'm a registered dietitian, and I also have a board certification in sports nutrition. So I have been working here in Michigan for coming up on six years, which is kind of crazy. But my role with Michigan and now with our merger with Florida is primarily with healthcare professionals. So we are working with those next generation of of health professionals to make sure that they have the best science based information to share with their their patients and throughout their careers.

Theresa Reps 01:20

So before we dive into the work that you're doing with physicians, can you explain a little bit more about the Florida Michigan ties? How does Florida and Michigan team up?

Sandra Selby 01:29

Absolutely. So I think that most people, when they hear you know the Florida Michigan partnership, they're like, "What? How does that work? And I had the same reaction when I first heard about it, but at the end of the day, what it boils down to is what's good for dairy farmers is good for dairy farmers. It doesn't matter where you are. So Michigan is a pretty large producing state, so we've got about 850 dairy farms, but we've got about 10 million people who live in the state of Michigan. On the opposite side, Florida has about 23 million people and around 50 dairy farms. So, you know, larger population, smaller budget, large or smaller population, larger budget, and our boards came together and said, you know, we we think that we can have some economies of scale here. You know we can partner with one another, and again, you know what's good for dairy farmers is good for dairy farmers. It doesn't matter where you are geographically.

Theresa Reps 02:29

I love it. It makes a lot of sense when you explain the differences between the amount of dairy farmers versus the amount of consumers, and we know one thing that dairy farmers love to talk about is is how we use some of those influential partners, and that's really what we're here to talk about today. Because you guys have developed a program that reaches some of those influential people in the medical space. Can you tell us a little bit more about how that program got started and what that entails?

Sandra Selby 03:00

Yeah, so we have been executing our physician ed program for three years now. So about four years ago, our now CEO Melissa Gearharter came to me and said, "Dairamax has this physician education program with both pediatricians and cardiovascular physicians, where they're using a sales model. You know, they have sales reps, if you will, quote unquote, calling on physicians and providing nutrition education. We want to make sure that they have evidence-based, up-to-date information. She said, "I think we should explore this a little bit further. So I had the ability to go down to Texas and do a little shadowing. We decided to execute, and we started with a pilot here in Michigan, in the Lansing area, and in the Metro Detroit area. You know, just kind of like putting putting the feelers out there. What are the needs? How do physicians and other healthcare professionals feel about dairy? Are they recommending dairy? What resources do you need? And it has been overwhelmingly positive. I don't think that we have had any negativity when it comes to sentiments around dairy. Physicians are very, very supportive, and we realize that the physician isn't the only person in that office who may have influence and opportunity to educate patients, right? So it could be the medical assistant or the nurse, or it could be the person at the front desk. So we're really taking kind of that wraparound approach to educating them, so that they can then speak on our behalf to their patients and their clients.

Theresa Reps 04:38

And Sandy, you yourself are a registered dietitian, correct?

Sandra Selby 04:41

Yes, I am.

Theresa Reps 04:42

And you had mentioned that when it comes to how doctors talk about nutrition, there there's some discrepancies in the amount of coursework there. Correct? Yes.

Sandra Selby 04:53

Yes, absolutely. Physicians typically only get one or two nutrition courses throughout their medical training. So they don't have that in-depth knowledge that a registered dietitian like myself, who my entire you know educational career was specifically nutrition. So the opportunity to give them some tools and tricks, and again that evidence-based research that they can provide to their patients and help them feel comfortable in providing that information to them has been invaluable.

Theresa Reps 05:26

So when you go out there, you have sales reps, and what type of information are they providing the physicians, the nurses, the the staff that work at these clinics?

Sandra Selby 05:36

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm gonna I'm gonna say we're not calling them sales reps, right? We're not selling anything. They are they are educating, right? And I think that's a really big differentiation when we're going into offices. Sometimes you know people can be like, I don't want a sales rep back here. But if you say I'm educating, you know, I'm providing resources, we get a completely different reception. So the the top topics that typically come up are around lactose intolerance. I would say that's the number one question that we have. We have a lot of questions around the first 1000 days, which has been a hot topic in the dairy community. So from conception to age two, that's when growth and development of the brain is happening at the fastest rate that it ever will-and then this might have been a little bit influenced by by me, but sports nutrition has also been another big topic for students who are middle school, high school age when consumption of dairy starts to go down, but their bones are growing at the fastest rate that they will very, very quickly. We want to make sure that they are kind of building up that that bone bank, if you will, as as well as they possibly can, and we can weave in that sports nutrition recovery method with chocolate milk as well.

Theresa Reps 07:03

What are the resources that that you're leaving? Like, is it it is it videos? Is it handouts? You know what what type of resources are resonating the most with with this audience?

Sandra Selby 07:16

The beauty of it is that we can vary it based on their needs, but typically we are providing a small kit of information. So those three topics that I mentioned: lactose intolerance, first 1000 days, sports nutrition. We provide a kit that the offices can hand out to to their patients and their clients. Since the start of the program, we have distributed almost 12,000 of those kits. So you know some of those different hot topics. We have different materials. There's oftentimes a chocolate milk in it, maybe a sticker, or you know something fun in there for the kids to engage them as well.

Theresa Reps 07:54

How has this been received? I know you said that you've had 12,000 kits that have been handed out, but what ah what are you hearing anecdotally from from your audiences?

Sandra Selby 08:06

Sure, the I would say going into it, we truly didn't know what to expect. You know, there could be it could be all over the spectrum, but I have not heard negativity. Pediatricians in particular are supportive, and they are following the American Academy of Pediatric guidelines. Right, so we want to make sure that we are getting those servings of dairy in our kids, and they are following those guidelines. The biggest thing is, again, going back to that educational piece of things, is how do you deliver that message and how do you do it efficiently? They only have a few minutes with every patient, which is wild, and I'm sure that you and you've also experienced this. But how can we have a sound bite that you can say, you know, three a day is three a day of dairy, you know, to to make sure that they can they can take away some of those messages as a reminder.

Theresa Reps 09:05

Sandy, can you share a success story or story that resonated with you for this work?

Sandra Selby 09:12

Yeah, for sure. So I mentioned the first 1000 days, so from conception to age two, and one of the nutrients that heavily influences that brain growth and development is iodine, and I think that it's a really common topic for OB/GYNs and pediatricians to to be interested in. And I would say the majority of them have said, "I had no idea there was so much iodine in milk and how that could contribute to the needs of a pregnant mom or a new mom. Another success story or kind of soundbite that one of our reps has said over and over again is that osteoporosis is a geriatric disease with a pediatric. Onset, and I thought that that was just it's like mind blowing, right? So if we don't build up that what I call a bone bank, if we're not building up those strong bones when we're children and into our 20s, when we are older and we experience a fall or something happens, you know, that osteoporosis might impact us negatively. So if we are getting ahead of the curve, that geriatric disease with a pediatric onset, we we have to get ahead of it, and that I think has been really impactful for physicians to hear as well.

Theresa Reps 10:38

We talked a little bit about the pilot program in Michigan and some of the work that you're doing there has this gone into Florida or are there plans to go into Florida?

Sandra Selby 10:47

Yeah, so obviously we had a great amount of success with our pilot and now it is a formal program within UDIM. And we, when this merger was amount announced, we thought, well, we have to expand this this program down there, so we did a landscape assessment and kind of determined what the best community was, and we landed on Orlando. We hired someone; she has absolutely hit the ground running, and we've heard a lot of similar feedback. You know, physicians are very supportive of dairy, And you know that they're asking great questions, and we're able to provide them resources not only in English but also in Spanish, which has been a growth opportunity for us. There is obviously more multilingual people in Florida than there are in Michigan, so it really helps us kind of open up our our arsenal of resources as well, which is great.

Theresa Reps 11:45

So, what is one thing that you would love for farmers to take away from this work that you've done in this space?

Sandra Selby 11:54

I would say that physicians believe in your product. You know, they believe that dairy is a part of an overall healthy diet, and that that they are encouraging as much as they can their patients to consume this wholesome, nutritious product that they are that they are putting out there.

Theresa Reps 12:21

So, Sandy, is there a way to get these kits, or what do you recommend? What do you say to a farmer who wants to share some of this information with their physician who may be recommending that they cut dairy?

Sandra Selby 12:32

Yeah, I would recommend we don't currently have the kits for order. It is something that we provide provide directly to the physicians' offices. However, I would encourage you to reach out to your local checkoff. You know what resources do they have? What can you share with them? And I'm sure that one of your your lovely checkoff staff would be more than happy to provide some resources for them.

Theresa Reps 12:55

Perfect. Well, Sandy, we really appreciate you being here with us today. We appreciate your time and love hearing the work that you're doing on behalf of dairy farmers. So, thank you for joining us. Thank you, and listeners, thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you next time on the Your Dairy Checkoff Podcast.

Your Dairy Checkoff Podcast 13:16

Thanks for listening to Your Dairy Checkoff podcast. Want to hear more about how your checkoff is making every drop count, head over to dairycheckoff.com or follow us wherever you get your podcasts. See you next time.