How I got involved in the field of clinical nutrition:
After two years of training in general surgery residency, I decided to take time to focus on research in pediatric surgery, and more specifically, basic sciences and clinical nutrition. During my rotation at Boston Children’s Hospital as an intern, I became fascinated with Dr. Puder’s work on parenteral nutrition-associated liver disease and his approach to many research questions still unanswered in the field of pediatric surgery and nutrition. A couple of years later, I’m now fortunate to be part of his team of research fellows, technicians, nurses, pharmacists, and biostatisticians, each playing a vital role to achieving our main goal of offering and delivering the best care to our patients.
The most challenging and rewarding aspects of nutrition support:
Caring for children on nutrition support and their families is certainly challenging. The exposure I have had the opportunity to have with my mentor has given me the insight of a very deep and strong relationship with patients and their families. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing a healthy child.
How has involvement with A.S.P.E.N. furthered your career in nutrition support so far:
Having joined ASPEN less than a year ago, it has been amazing how much I have been able to get from the Society. First and foremost, it has given me the opportunity to make experts in the field know about our work and how we, at the Puder Lab, are deeply committed to making contributions to advance the field and more importantly, looking for ways of improving the care we deliver to our patients.
Three things every physician should learn about nutrition support:
1) Understand the benefits of a multidisciplinary approach in caring for patients on nutrition support
2) For those patients on long-term nutrition support, build a strong relationship that will ensure that they understand their condition
3) Know the mechanisms of how therapies can help patients, but also be aware of how they can harm them
One book every medical student interested in nutrition support should read:
Dr Dudrick’s book in Surgical Clinics of North America on Nutrition and Metabolism in the Surgical Patient.
Online resources students and fellows interested in clinical nutrition should follow:
The ASPEN website is certainly an important source, as is the online version of JPEN. To surgical residents, I recommend using the material available on Surgical Nutrition at the Surgical Council on Resident Education (SCORE) portal.
