Committee, Council & SIG Updates
Malnutrition Action Group (MAG)
Rebecca Stratton, Chair, Malnutrition Action Group
Email: mag@bapen.org.uk
Website: www.bapen.org.uk/about-bapen/committees-and-groups/malnutrition-action-group
BAPEN COVID-19 surveys
Thank you to everyone who completed the BAPEN COVID-19 community and hospital surveys. We are currently analysing this really interesting survey data and will plan to summarise these findings for you and publish them later this year.
Report coming soon: UK MAW 2019 National Survey of Nutritional Care
The full report of the results of our Malnutrition Awareness Week 2019 Nutritional Care survey (with completed data on 1300 participants) will be launched soon on the BAPEN website. Thank you to all the centres and individuals that participated. We hope that you will join us for our next national survey later this year during UK Malnutrition Awareness Week 2020 (UK MAW 2020) – #UKMAW2020.
Take part in our UK MAW 2020 National Survey on Malnutrition and Nutritional Care
Once again, the Malnutrition Action Group will be undertaking a national screening survey across all health and social care settings as part of UK MAW 2020 (5-12th October). Our aim is to get as many people and organisations in the UK to participate in malnutrition screening during the week and recording how nutritional care is used. We are really keen to make sure that we have participation from Wales, Scotland, N Ireland and England.
By screening a large number of people across the UK, we can build a better picture of the scale of the malnutrition problem in different locations, settings and according to age and any clinical conditions. For 2020, we will also include COVID-19 as one of the diagnoses. We also want to understand the treatment that people are receiving, which will give us an estimation of the use of the various nutrition support options, including dietary options, oral nutritional supplements, tube feeding and parenteral nutrition.
You will be able to complete the survey online through the BAPEN website in our dedicated portal (as we did last year) and the good news is that all the calculations of ‘MUST’ are automated!! As before, there will be prizes on offer for the top screeners from each of the UK countries (England, Scotland, Wales, N Ireland).
Thank you for your support.
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
It has been an unsettling and challenging time for us all following the outbreak of COVID-19, and I hope you and your families are well. As I scrambled this spring to bring my teaching and research activities completely online (while home schooling!), I repeatedly thought of you, my NHS colleagues on the frontline and hoped for all of your personal safety and resilience.
The Nutrition Society also had to quickly adapt to the new ‘normality’ that has ensued. As you may know, one of the Society’s central aims is disseminating evidence-based nutritional science, and the Nutrition Society’s Training Academy (NSTA) worked quickly to support nutrition and healthcare professionals with CPD during lockdown. As well as making pre-recorded webinars ‘on-demand’ so they can be viewed at any time, the NSTA ensured the most recent and medically relevant research surrounding nutrition, immunity, vitamin D and COVID-19 was made available during lockdown through a series of COVID-19 specific webinars.
Recognising the extensive efforts of our NHS colleagues and all frontline workers, it was great to see the Society offering these webinars free to all NHS colleagues. Another major adjustment was moving our annual Summer Conference online! Although it was a disappointment not to be able to meet colleagues and dear friends in Aberdeen as planned, the ‘virtual’ Nutrition Society Live was a huge success with 454 attendees. The programme provided two days of excellent science on the topic of protein, exploring aspects related to the physiological determinants for protein requirements with much clinical relevance. There were also posters and oral communications, with recorded presentations available throughout, which I found gave me flexibility I don’t normally have when busy networking at meetings to see everything. The event led by the NSTA, allowed the Society to continue its mission while keeping all attendees – from around the globe – safe.
Following a well-deserved Summer break, the NSTA has returned with a new Autumn programme and you can now view many of the previous webinars on demand.
While, I am equally sad that I will not get the chance to meet with many of you in Brighton this November given that our annual BAPEN conference has also been cancelled, I am pleased that the Nutrition Society staff are working with the Programmes Committee to share lessons learned on hosting virtual events. Although I am certain the virtual event will be a success, I am nonetheless very much hoping that I will see you again in person at our December meeting or at BAPEN 2021.
This year’s annual Winter Conference in London will take place on 8-9 December. It is again on a topic of significant clinical relevance for BAPEN members: Micronutrient malnutrition across the life course, sarcopenia and frailty. During the Winter Conference, there will be opportunities for researchers to present their research during the Original Communication sessions, which will provide the opportunity for their work to be published in Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. Find out more and view the two-day programme here.
Lastly, likely of interest to BAPEN members will be the recent launch of Gut Microbiome, a co-published speciality journal publishing high quality articles that focus on the human gut microbiome, which is currently accepting submissions. This promises to be a popular and useful resource for gastroenterologists as well as other scientists, clinicians and health care practitioners wanting to know the latest advances in gut health.
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