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 Awareness Week #MAW2019
As Dr Trevor Smith has already highlighted, our focus has been Malnutrition Awareness Week (14-20th October 2019). Thank you to all of you who took part in our national survey on our new online portal to understand the prevalence of malnutrition and use of nutritional care plans, and nutritional support, from food to oral nutritional supplements, enteral tube feeding and parenteral nutrition (https://data.bapen.org.uk/maw/maw-home).
We will present the national findings at our BAPEN conference in November and your local results will be available to view too. At the time of writing, we have had over 1200 entries in our survey and congratulations to Louise Cleary, Aileen Spain and Robyn Collery who won prizes for entering number 250, 500 and 1000 into the portal. Also, we would like to thank Abbott Nutrition, Fresenius Kabi and Nutricia Ltd for their sponsorship to enable BAPEN to develop the portal.
Joint webinar with ASPEN
We took part in an international webinar with American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), which had over 650 attendees, to update on all the initiatives that BAPEN and partners have supported over the years to raise awareness of malnutrition and the importance of management. The webinar is available on the ASPEN eLearning Centre: https://aspen.digitellinc.com/aspen/sessions/14494/view
Integration into primary care systems
MAG is continuing to aim to get ‘MUST’ integrated into electronic patient records in primary care (EMIS, SystmOne). We have undertaken a survey of BAPEN members that highlighted the importance of this (to be presented at our BAPEN Conference1). We are working with Vision Outcomes Manager to support this initiative in some test areas.
Just a reminder that our ‘MUST’ calculator (www.bapen.org.uk/screening-and-must/must-calculator) and the ’MUST’ self-screening tool (www.malnutritionselfscreening.org) are available to use, as are all the other resources to support the use of ‘MUST’ (www.bapen.org.uk).
And finally, we are celebrating the 16th birthday of ‘MUST’, launched in November 2003, see the insert from our ‘InTouch’ all those years ago!!
Reference: 1. Cawood A, Burden S, Holmes E, Stratton RJ. A national survey to assess the use of the ‘Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool’ in electronic patient records in primary care. BAPEN Conference 2019.
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 almost at a close, the Society are very much looking forward to attending 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.
Diet and digestive health conference
With just one conference remaining on the calendar for 2019, the Society’s events team have been working closely with BAPEN Committee members on this year’s Winter Conference, which this year for the very first time will be jointly hosted 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, 2-4 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 speakers including Anne Holdoway, Consultant Dietitian and BAPEN Education Officer, on ‘Oral nutrition support in the treatment and prevention of malnutrition – setting artificial debates aside’ and Dr Matthew Kurien, University of Sheffield, with a talk entitled: ‘To PEG or not to PEG, that is the question’. The Cuthbertson Award, recognising early career excellence in metabolism or clinical nutrition research, will also be presented as part of conference proceedings. An additional highlight will be the exhibit from the Society’s archives focusing on clinical nutrition, featuring giants in the field and founding members of BAPEN. Thank you to those of you who have responded to our talented archivist Sheila Mercieca and shared your historical knowledge. We hope to see many BAPEN members in attendance. Further details can be found on the Society’s website with Early Bird Registration Rates available until 11th November at 23:59 PM.
Other news
The Society’s publications team last month successfully launched two new publications that we hope will be of use for clinical nutrition practitioners. The 3rd edition of Introduction to Human Nutrition is now available to purchase in print or digital format with a membership discount available via the Society’s website. Additionally, the Society are delighted to announce the launch of a new journal in partnership with Cambridge University Press – The Gut Microbiome.
In all it has been a busy year, work continues on the review of the nutrition curriculum for undergraduate medical education and I hope to bring you more news on this front in the new year. I would be keen to hear any member's thoughts on this, so please say hello either in Belfast in November or London in December.
All my very best,
Bernadette