PSG Hospitals launched the Department of Clinical Nutrition on Thursday. This is a very novel approach where the dedicated team of this department will look at the medical angle of the nutritional needs of the patients. The launch took place during the workshop on Nutrition Support Team jointly organized by PSG Hospitals, IAPEN and Otsuka Pharmaceutical.
The workshop featured several sessions hosted by luminaries including Dr.Hemant Zaveri, Dr.Ashwin Dabhi,Motoyuki Sakiyama, CEO, Otsuka Pharmaceutical India (OPI), Kenta Tanaka, also from OPI , Dr.JS.Bhuvaneswaran and Dr.K.Balu from PSG Hospitals.
Many topics like Gastrointestinal Tract and Nutrition, Malnutrition in ICU Patients, Sarcopenia- a hidden pandemic etc., Hands-On training was held on Parental Nutrition and Enteral Nutrition.
While talking about the Clinical Nutrition department in the event, Dr.J.S.Bhuvaneswaran, Director, PSG Super Specialty Hospitals said “this is the beginning. In the coming months, we have specific goals – We should have a concrete ongoing clinical program of nutritional assessment”. He said that will be achieved with the guidance of Dr.K.Balu, Chair, Dept. Of Clinical Nutrition, PSG Hospital.
“Our second goal is that we have to become a Centre of Excellence (COE) to coach and lead in the Clinical Nutrition department”, he added. Dr.J.S.Bhuvaneswaran expressed certainty that this could be attained with the support of Dr.Ashwin Dabhi, Hony. Vice President, IAPEN, India.
Dr. Ashwin said that he feels fortunate to be a part of this historic launch of clinical nutrition department in PSG Hospital. Referring to PSG Hospitals’ aspiration to become a COE in this specific area, he said with certainty “ we will take forward the mission to make PSG a center of excellence in the days to come”.
The Importance of Clinical Nutrition Department
Dr.K.Balu shared that this is a momentous for the hospital as it has launched the Clinical Nutrition Department and Nutrition Support Team in PSG. He said that this is unique initiative because no big hospital or any teaching hospital nearby has a separate department of Clinical Nutrition. All have dietary department which serves food to patients and takes care of food needs but the clinical nutrition is department is different because it will look at the medical angle of the nutritional needs of the patients, and help those who have deficiency in nutrition in the form of calories deficiency and try to address their specific needs in special situation where a regular doctor may not be enough.
He added that the department will have a series of training programs to train the team that includes doctors, nurses and dieticians to ensure that the patients who need the services will get the best out of them.