Research Symposium 30th November 2012

BDA Research Symposium 2012
30 November 2012
IET Austin Court, Birmingham

The event that took place on the 30 November was attended by over 100 dietitians, with over 60 presenting their research and practice over four streams.  The day was a great success, with many inspiring and informative presentations. 

The event started with a breakfast briefing from the British Coffee Association, with a presentation on ‘The Science Behind Coffee’ from Dr John Stanley.  Delegates then heard from an inspiring and motivating presentation from Prof Kevin Whelan, Professor of Dietetics – Kings College, London, presenting ‘Dietitians must be involved in research: why, who and how’. Watch a video of Kevin’s presentation on YouTube.

The rest of the day was an interesting range of e-poster or oral presentations from authors who had submitted their work to the event.  These presentations were across four topic streams: malnutrition, new to research, public health and practice evaluation.  Dr Emma Parsons also spoke about her recent research project on nutritional care in care homes.

Delegates had this to say about the day:

‘The quality of the great majority of presentations was very good and the broad range of topics kept it interesting.’

‘I am looking forward to communicating back to my department and improving my practice. It has inspired me to continue research.’

‘Great to gain more information on research as a new dietitian and also to hear about studies being carried out.’

Winners

Congratulations to the following e-poster prize winners, announced at the end of the day:

Public Health
Rachel Barton and Eleanor Donaldson
Importance of a multi component approach to weight management interventions

Malnutrition
Lisa Williams
An investigation into food provision and consumption in an orthopaedic rehabilitation hospital in Scotland, UK

Practice Evaluation
Liane Reeves
Learning needs of dietitians working with individuals with food hypersensitivities in the UK

Dietitians new to research
Susan Ovington
A multi-centre randomised trial to assess whether increased dietary fibre intake (using a fibre supplement or high fibre foods), produces healthy bowel performance and reduces laxative requirement in free living peritoneal dialysis patients.

All of the presentations were filmed and will be available to view on the BDA members' website in the very near future.