FNCE CPE Session: Hospital Malnutrition: Current Screening Gaps and Emerging Artificial Intelligence Approaches

​CPE: 1.5 credits

​Session Description

​Hospital malnutrition is common yet underdiagnosed, contributing to higher morbidity, mortality, longer length of stay, and increased costs. This session will review commonly used malnutrition screening tools, explore applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical nutrition, and explain how AI technology using electronic health record (EHR) data can support continuous malnutrition risk screening in hospitals. Speakers will present a retrospective validation study of a novel AI screening system spanning 3.75 years and over 100,000 adult inpatient admissions at a large academic medical center, comparing the AI model with a version of the nurse-administered Malnutrition Screening Tool that was used in practice. This demonstrated strong criterion and predictive validity when indexed against dietitian-recorded and discharge-coded malnutrition. These findings highlight the potential to enable earlier, more accurate detection of malnutrition risk and timelier interventions. The session will close with a real-world case study from a well-respected health system, which will include a deep dive into RD workflow, adoption challenges and strategies, and measurable clinical outcomes.

Sponsored by HealthLeap

​Speakers

• ​Stacy Pelekhaty, Senior Clinical Nutrition Specialist, R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland Medical Center

• ​Emily Burke, Associate Director, Cedars Sinai Medical Center

• ​Marianne Aloupis, Director of Clinical Nutrition Support Services, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Medicine)

• ​Moderator: Terese Scollard, Owner, MySurgeryPlate LLC, Beaverton, Oregon

​Learning Objectives

• ​Compare the effectiveness of AI-based malnutrition screening techniques with traditional methods in the early and accurate detection of malnutrition risk.

• ​Explore the potential implications of AI-based malnutrition screening on clinical practice and patient outcomes.

• ​Evaluate real-world considerations for implementing artificial intelligence-based malnutrition screening in hospital settings, including workflow integration, staff adoption, and measurable outcomes.

​Full session info is available here: https://www.eatrightpro.org/events/fnce/fnce-event-schedule/foundation-prefnce-nutrition-symposia-hospital-malnutrition-current-screening-gaps-and-emerging-arti