Committee, Council & SIG Updates
Malnutrition Action Group (MAG)
Rebecca Stratton, Chair, Malnutrition Action Group
Email: R.J.Stratton@soton.ac.uk
Website: www.bapen.org.uk/about-bapen/committees-and-groups/malnutrition-action-group
Malnutrition screening in 2019 – Preparing for UK MAW19
As you may be aware, BAPEN will be undertaking its second UK Malnutrition Awareness Week (UK MAW19) later this year. This follows on from our success in 2018, which included national TV and radio coverage and winning five awards for the campaign including ‘Best Healthcare Campaign’ at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Excellence Awards and winning in four different categories at the Communiqué Awards.
We want to use this year’s Week (14th-20th October) as an opportunity to replicate the national surveys of earlier years. We want to get as many organisations across the UK (both in health and social care) to participate in screening as many people as they can in order for us to understand how big a problem malnutrition is now. We are also wanting to understand what treatment patients are getting, to give us an estimation of use of nutritional support options, such as oral nutritional supplements, tube feeding, PN and dietary options too)
In order to get national data during UK MAW19, work is underway to develop a dedicated, simple web-based system on the BAPEN website for everyone to input their data during this week. Keep an eye out on our website and on twitter for more information.
Screening in primary care – our survey
Working together with the Malnutrition Pathway Panel, MAG is wanting to work towards getting ‘MUST’ included in primary care systems in a standardised and automated way. We have undertaken a recent survey that suggests that healthcare professionals are screening using ‘MUST’ in primary care settings. However, the survey also suggests that the process for screening with ‘MUST’ could be made easier, and potentially simpler and more accurate if an electronic version of ‘MUST’, which includes automatic calculations of BMI and unplanned weight loss (steps 1 and 2 of ‘MUST’), linked to management plans for risk, are embedded into electronic systems. We will keep you updated on our progress and will present more of the details from the survey at BAPEN. Thanks to all of you who completed the survey.
Our new ‘MUST’ coordinators
We are delighted to welcome Robyn Collery and Wendy Milligan to the Malnutrition Action Group Committee as our new MUST’ coordinators.
Malnutrition priorities, in collaboration with James Lind Alliance
Finally, MAG has inputted into 10 top priorities for malnutrition and screening in adults which have been launched by a group of professionals, carers and patients with an interest in malnutrition (for more information see twitter @malnutritionPSP).
The Nutrition Society
Dr Bernadette Moore, University of Leeds, The Nutrition Society Clinical/Medical Advisory Council member
Email: office@nutritionsociety.org
Website: www.nutritionsociety.org
Twitter: @Nutritionsoc
Instagram: the_nutrition_society
LinkedIn: /nutrition-society
With 2019 somehow racing away from us already, the Nutrition Society have begun planning for the BAPEN Annual Conference in Belfast this coming November. I plan on attending along with several colleagues, and the Society will have an exhibitor’s stand once again. I am already looking forward to meeting many BAPEN members there.
Planning is also currently well underway for the Society’s 2019 Winter Conference, which this year we will be jointly hosting with BAPEN and the British Society of Gastroenterology on the topic of ‘Diet and Digestive Disease.’ The conference will take place at the Royal Society of Medicine in London, 2nd-4th December, and focus on recent developments in understanding the interrelationship between nutrition, gut function, and gut pathologies and their management. The conference will start with a half day BAPEN Practitioners’ Session examining oral nutrition support, with conference speakers including Professor Christine Edwards, ‘Nourishing the gut: a lifetime of opportunities’, and Professor Palle Beker Jeppeson on ‘Short Bowel syndrome: nutritional consequences’. We hope to see many BAPEN members in attendance. Further details can be found on the Society’s website.
As we head into the holiday season the Society’s training academy (NSTA) is taking a short summer break before returning in September. However, a range of one-hour webinars covering a variety of nutrition-related topics (from personalised nutrition to the ageing immune system) remain available for both members and non-members. The Society’s monthly Journal Club (NSJC) also continues to go from strength to strength, aiming to promote and develop engagement, discussion, and critical appraisal of the latest research papers in the face of growing public, clinical and policy interest in nutrition science. The Journal Club is free for all Society members.
The Society’s publications team have been busy preparing for the publication of Introduction to Human Nutrition (3rd ed.), the Society’s popular textbook for clinicians, scientists, and health care practitioners wanting an introductory overview of the topic. The 3rd edition of the textbook will be published in October with the other five textbooks in our series (including Clinical Nutrition) available to purchase with a membership discount via our website.
I have also continued to attend the Association for Nutrition’s (AfN) Nutrition Interprofessional Group in my role as Clinical/Medical Advisory Council Member for the Society alongside some of my BAPEN colleagues. The group aims to support medical schools in delivering their nutrition curriculum for undergraduate medical education. The group draws together representatives from each of the Royal Colleges, the Medical Schools’ Council, and the General Medical Council to review current delivery and assessment practices and, ultimately, to help improve medical student’s knowledge of evidence-based nutrition. A draft document of proposed learning priorities for the nutrition curriculum for medical students is currently being iterated. It is planned that this will go out for wider stakeholder review in the fall, and I hope to have further updates on any progress here over the coming months.
Finally, a reminder that the Society will host the Federation of European Nutrition Societies’ (FENS) 13th European Nutrition Conference in Dublin this coming October. Held once every four years, the conference will attract a wide variety of delegates from across Europe and from further afield. This year’s theme is ‘Malnutrition in an Obese World: European Perspectives’. The full programme agenda and registration information can be viewed on the FENS website.