Research & Faculty
Faculty review updates the R.O.O.T.S. Method™ evidence base: 212 studies audited, 38 lessons revised
The Clinical Faculty Board's annual literature audit — the University's largest to date — strengthens the gut-brain axis curriculum and retires two protocols that no longer meet the evidence bar.
By the Office of the Provost · with Dr. Maria Krista Piñol-Solis, MD, RN, Chair of the Clinical Faculty Board
July 22, 2026 · 6 min read
Every July, the Clinical Faculty Board does something most institutions in this field never do: it reads. Systematically, adversarially, and with the explicit mandate to find what the University teaches that the literature no longer supports. This year's audit — the ninth — reviewed 212 peer-reviewed studies published since the 2025 cycle, spanning the microbiome, thyroid function, the HPA axis, and women's hormonal health.
The result: 38 lessons revised across four schools, 6 new case studies added to the practitioner curriculum, and — the part Dean Piñol-Solis insists on publishing — two protocols retired entirely.
“An evidence base is not a trophy cabinet. It's a garden,” said Dr. Piñol-Solis, who chairs the Board. “You don't just add — you weed. Teaching something the literature has moved past isn't tradition, it's negligence with a syllabus.”
“You don't just add — you weed. Teaching something the literature has moved past isn't tradition, it's negligence with a syllabus.”
Dr. Maria Krista Piñol-Solis · Chair, Clinical Faculty Board
Current students see the changes automatically: revised lessons carry an “Updated · 2026 Evidence Audit” mark in the campus, and graduates retain lifetime access to the refreshed material — a deliberate policy, the Dean notes, “because a practitioner's education shouldn't expire the day her access would.”