What makes for the best functional medicine training program really depends upon what you are looking for. Just like anything, all programs have their strengths and weaknesses so in determining the best functional medicine training program, it is important to understand what you are looking for and what is important to you.

Some questions we find that are helpful to ask functional medicine training programs include:

• What level of training is covered? Does it focus on basics such as thyroid problems, gut issues, and sex hormone problems? Does it go into advanced topics such as autoimmune disease, neurological dysfunction, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome?
• When labs are taught, how are the reference ranges being taught? Are standard lab values being used? Or does the school teach more on optimal reference range levels?
• Does the school talk about when to use different lab companies for getting the most accurate results? Do they talk about the EXACT company name, or do they speak more broadly?
• When protocols are given out for treatment, do they give the exact duration and time to use the specific protocols?
• Do they give brand names of specific products used in protocols for easy implementation?
• Does the school teach when to run repeat labs unique to individual findings?
• Do they teach what to do if a treatment does not work?
• Do they offer ways to test oneself and ask questions to make sure that one is understanding the information?
• Do they offer certification? Continuing education credits? Anything else?
• What sort of other supportive material comes with the course content?
• Do they offer stand-alone modules of specific topics, or do they only offer entire courses?

Depending upon how you answered these questions will make a big difference with what course is the best functional medicine training program for you and your unique needs. What is most important is that you get your unique needs met for what you want to learn and how you want to grow your clinical toolbox. We recommend asking these sorts of questions to a few different schools you are deciding between to help you determine the best functional medicine training program to get you to where you want to go with your practice.

To learn more about our functional medicine training program, you can go here to learn more! We are definitely the best functional medicine training program for some people and certainly not the one for all people.