Nutrition Services
Alberta Health Services
This session highlights how clinical practice improvements are being driven by real‑world data from the Electronic Health Record (EHR). Building on identified gaps in nutrition screening and nutrition diagnosis, frontline quality improvement initiatives are underway to increase screening rates at hospital admission through multidisciplinary collaboration. The session will also introduce a provincially developed training program designed to enhance dietitians’ confidence and accuracy in completing the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) and Nutrition Focused Physical Exam (NFPE). Together, these efforts demonstrate how targeted education and data‑informed interventions are strengthening malnutrition care across the health system. Learning Objectives: 1. Recognize how data monitoring linked with targeted education drive consistent, system‑wide improvements in malnutrition care. 2. Understand how skill‑building in assessment tools (SGA, NFPE) strengthens clinicians’ ability to identify and diagnose malnutrition.
Marlis Atkins is a Registered Dietitian with more than 30 years of experience and has served as the Director of Nutrition Services, Provincial Initiatives and Integrated Services for Alberta Health Services (AHS) since 2011. Her leadership spans provincial and national levels, supported by active involvement in the Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS) and in the Canadian Malnutrition Task Force. With over a decade of experience leading system‑level initiatives, Marlis brings expertise in knowledge translation, implementation of nutrition science, and health‑system integration. She has guided numerous initiatives within AHS that bridge research and clinical practice to enhance care quality, patient outcomes, and operational efficiency.