BAPEN at DDF


BAPEN at DDF 2012


Was BAPEN at DDF the best Clinical Nutrition and Digestion Conference in the world? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’, as was predicted by Pete Turner in the May edition of In Touch. The conference was held in Liverpool 17th to 20th June 2012, as part of the Digestive Disorders Federation meeting. It was the first


ever UK collaborative meeting which brought together the UK’s leading organisations specialising in digestive diseases and nutrition: BAPEN, British Society of Gastrenterology (BSG), British Association for the Study of the Liver (BASL) and Association of Upper GI Surgeons (AUGIS). The large number of nationally and internationally renowned experts attracted over 3500 delegates from around the world. Whilst it’s not possible to describe in detail the vast number of sessions provided, this review will provide an insight into some of the conference highlights. Further information, including presentations, is available on the BAPEN website in the members section.


Opening Symposium


BAPEN Chair, Dr Tim Bowling, and journalist Estelle Matthews professionally chaired the opening session of the main conference. ‘Today with BAPEN’ involved the red sofa in true BBC Breakfast News style. After an introduction by Tim about the changing political landscape and how BAPEN needs to be aware and ahead of these changes, he and Estelle interviewed guests on the sofa. There was an exciting line up of guests: • Dr Sheldon Cooper, BAPEN Chair for Education and Training, discussed the biggest challenges facing BAPEN within education, including Life-Long Learning, best practice guidance and his vision for the next 5-10 years.


• Professor Marinos Elia discussed the nutritional screening tool ‘MUST’, which has been a real success story in the challenge to identify those at risk of malnutrition within hospitals, but needs to be embedded within community settings and possibly developed further into a self- screening tool.


• Christine Russell presented the results of the Nutrition Screening Week surveys which she has led over the past 4 years and discussed a need for BAPEN to take this into the future by analysing prevalence of malnutrition within GP practices and the wider community.


• Dr Trevor Smith, as BANS Chair, discussed the latest findings from the British Artificial Nutrition Survey, the huge amount of unique data collection and analysis that has been undertaken and how the results will affect national activities and future commissioning.


• Having discussed some of the national activities, there was a round-up of all the latest BAPEN regional activities with ‘weather girl’ Dr Ailsa Brotherton.


• Lastly, Tim talked to Dr Mike Stroud, Chair of BAPEN’s Quality Group, to discuss the political and strategic activities of BAPEN, including influencing the Department of Health and how these activities will impact those working clinically and, of course, patients.


The full Breakfast News, including the weather, can be found on the BAPEN website in the members section in ‘Today with BAPEN’.


Feeding Decisions at the End of Life


(and in other difficult circumstances) There was a full hall for an intriguing session which highlighted the difficult issues faced in real life nutrition, chaired by BAPEN Medical’s Dr Ruth McKee. First up was the topic of parenteral nutrition (PN) in patients with cancer. Two case presentations eloquently showed an unexpectedly positive outcome in one case and the difficulties of decision making in the other. Then Dr Catherine Hanson discussed the differences between countries in the use of PN in malignancy.


7 BAPEN In Touch No.66 August 2012


Tim Bowling and Estelle Matthews on the Red Sofa at BAPEN Breakfast News


The Cambridge team then took the floor with Sarah Galbraith, Palliative


Care Physician, and Jeremy Woodward, Consultant Gastroenterologist. They provided insightful explanations on the way in which their multidisciplinary complex feeding difficulties team make decisions about starting and stopping tube feeding in the context of problems such as dementia, cerebral palsy and PEG complications. Since each topic was illustrated with a clinical case, the audience identified with many of the dilemmas faced and some vigorous discussion ensued. There were no ‘quick fix’ answers but most of us emerged with the reassurance that others struggled with the same questions and felt that we had been given some useful pointers for thinking through the issues.


The Nutrition Society Symposium:


Immuno Nutrition and Novel Substrates This session was chaired by Chris Seal, Professor of Food and Human Nutrition at Newcastle University. We were treated to three excellent presentations. Firstly, Professor Philip Calder presented a summary of the evidence for using different types of fatty acids in nutrition support. He highlighted the benefits of various classes of long chain fatty acids in the clinical setting and how these relate to the inflammatory response. Professor Stella Knight then followed with a presentation of her


group's work on the interaction between gut bacteria and dendritic cells and how these are affected by probiotic bacteria used for the treatment of inflammatory gut diseases. The symposium was closed by Professor Paul Van Leeuwen describing


the importance of different amino acid supplements required during recovery from surgery. The audience was treated to wide ranging information on the needs for providing appropriate nutritional support to improved health outcomes.


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