IrSPEN2023

Fit to function: a new focus on muscle in aging and disease

March 21 2023

Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

Registration now open!

Nutrition has become increasingly important for all members of the healthcare team, with an ever-growing body of evidence highlighting the many ways in which nutrition influences patient outcomes. But is your knowledge or practice in nutritional care keeping up with the latest scientific evidence?

After many years of online conferences, IrSPEN is looking forward to welcoming you back to a fully live, one day 2023 conference designed to bring you up to date with what’s new in medical nutrition!.

Theme – Fit to function

The conference theme is Fit to function, with speakers explaining how new insights into the critical role muscle plays in maintaining function throughout the body, present opportunities for more effective nutritional intervention strategies across the medical spectrum.

Programme

With a programme that will feature world leading experts in nutrition and metabolic medicine presenting new thinking and more effective treatments in the management of severe obesity, cancer, frailty, chronic and acute ICU patients, this one day event will be a ‘must attend’ event for dietitians, nutrition researchers as well as doctors, nurses and physiotherapists and other allied health professionals, particularly those working in oncology, endocrinology, gerontology, gastroenterology and endocrinology. The programme will also feature the best of young researchers from around the country, with oral presentations of the top three posters submitted by February 18th – Click here to submit.

Making the most of such a fantastic central venue, this year will include opportunities to learn more about tube placement, the best techniques for measuring muscle mass and function, with parallel session in the morning designed to cater for both hospital and community healthcare professionals. Most importantly, delegates will have plenty of time to network and meet up with colleagues throughout the two days. As always, we will have our breakfast and evening satellite symposium and an extensive exhibition area. We encourage you all to take time to visit the stands as well as the Poster exhibition, which will showcase new research and clinical advances in Nutrition.

IrSPEN 2023 CONFERENCE (Provisional Programme)

Tuesday March 21st 2023 l Aviva Stadium, Dublin
6th Biennial National Conference: Fit to function: a new focus on muscle in aging and disease

07:30 – 8:45	BREAKFAST SATELLITE MEETING – ABBOTT NUTRITION
SESSION 1: Nutrition in medicine – where next?
Chair	Niamh Rice
9:00	Opening address Professor John Reynolds
9:10	Stepping up – how the ESPEN community is shaping the future of medical nutrition Professor Rocco Barazzoni, President ESPEN
9:40	Muscle as the target for interventions in enhancing outcomes – what does it take? Professor Luc Van Loon
10:10 – 10.40	Panel Discussion
10:45 – 11.10	COFFEE
SESSION 2A: Focus on the acute patient and critical illness: using nutrition to improve outcomes
Chair	TBA
11:15	How to preserve muscle mass in the ICU patient Carmel O Hanlon
11:30	Everything you need to know about indirect calorimetry: the Cork experience Clare Twomey
11:55	Lessons from ICU: Nutritional rehabilitation and critical illness Lisa Shanahan
12:10	Questions and answers
Session 2B : Focus on chronically ill and aging patients: using nutrition more effectively
Chair	TBA
11:15	Targeting muscle mass and function with nutritional interventions – how to screen and what to measure Dr. Karen Boland
11:45	A new approach to community based nutritional care – new insight from field based research Professor Clare Corish
12:15 pm	Questions and answers
Session 3: Oral Presentations and awards
13:00 – 14:00	LUNCH
Session 4: From prehabilitation to rehabilitation – can more assertive, targeted nutrition intervention alter the trajectory of cancer and chronic disease?
Chair	TBA
2:00	The future focus for cancer nutrition interventions – where are we now? Professor Alessandro Laviano
2:30	Cancer and the nuritional care gap in Ireland – can we do better? Dr. Erin Stella Sullivan
14:50	The effects of higher protein in critically ill patients – Results and implications of the EFFORT trial Professor Daren Heyland
15:15	Panel Discussion: Panel Discussion: Setting up a nutrition prehab service, how to maximise the impact where resources are scarce. Lessons from ICU
15:30 – 16:00	COFFEE
Session 5: Preserving muscle mass arising from substantial weight loss in obesity
Chair	Professor Carel le Roux
16:15	Changes in food preferences after bariatric surgery and pharmacotherapy for obesity Professor Alan Spector
16:35	The impact of new medications for obesity on muscle mass in obesity Professor Alex Miras
16:55	Rethinking the role of nutrition support in obesity care when patients have substantial weight loss Dr. Werd Al Najim
17:00	Expert Panel Discussion
17:30	IrSPEN Special Award
17:50	Closing Remarks
6.15pm	EVENING SATELLITE MEETING – NUTRICIA IRELAND LTD

Guest speakers will include

Rocco Barazzoni MD, PhD, President of ESPEN; Associate Professor, Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Surgery and Health Sciences, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
Luc van Loon (NL), Professor of Physiology of Exercise and Nutrition, Masstricht University, Netherlands
Alessandro Laviano, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
Alan Spector, Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, State University of Florida
Dr. Karen Boland, Consultant Gastroenterologist, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin
Clare Corish, Professor in Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, UCD, School of Public Health, Physiotherapy and Sports Science
Alexander Miras, Clinical Professor of Medicine, Ulster University
Dr Werd Al-Najim, Clinical Nutritionist and a Research Fellow, UCD
Erin Stella Sullivan RD PhD, IRC EPS Postdoctoral Fellow Research Dietitian (Oncology)
Lisa Shanahan, Clinical Specialist Dietitian, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital
Clare Twomey, Senior Dietitian, Cork University Hospital

We want IrSPEN to be affordable for all

To keep IrSPEN as accessible to all as possible in 2023, including students and young researchers, we have made the decision to ask you to pay no more than required to cover our basic catering costs, and student costs will be subsidised by our own funds. We are however banking on attracting the largest turnout ever – so do please encourage friends and colleagues to put this ‘must attend’ event in the diary!