News from members

American Dietetic Association

The American Dietetic Association (ADA) was founded in 1917 and is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. The ADA is headquartered in Chicago, IL and has a satellite office in Washington, DC that focuses most of its efforts on public policy and nutrition. With over 70,000 members, 75% of ADA’s members are registered dietitians (RDs) and 4% are dietetic technicians, registered (DTRs). Its members represent a wide range of practice areas and interests including, consulting, education, research, acute care, community nutrition and food service industries. The ADA is led by its Board of Directors and House of Delegates, both of which are comprised of national leaders in food, nutrition and health.

In order to advance the profession of dietetics and to enhance our creditability with other healthcare professionals, the ADA developed the online Evidence Analysis Library (EAL®). www.adaevidencelibrary.com . The EAL® summarizes the best nutritional research housed within an accessible, online, user-friendly library.

On the EAL, practitioners can find evidence-based nutrition practice guidelines and systematic reviews to assist them in appropriate healthcare decisions for specific clinical circumstances. There are currently fourteen published nutrition practice guidelines on the EAL, which are widely used and adopted by other organizations around the world. Each evidence-based nutrition practice guideline will be accompanied by a set of companion practice tools available for purchase to assist the practitioner in implementing the guideline. In addition to guidelines, the American Dietetic Association has also published more than seven hundred systematic reviews online in more than fifty evidence analysis projects.

Kaiser Permanente and the National Guideline Program

Founded in California in 1945, Kaiser Permanente (KP) is an integrated delivery system that has grown to include 8 geographic regions and cover the lives of roughly 9 million members, making it the largest non-profit health care program in the United States. KP's mission is to provide high quality, affordable health care services to improve the health of its members and the communities it serves. KP has established a National Guideline Program (NGP) to provide an evidence-based foundation for developing high quality, clinical guidance that informs care delivery. The NGP follows an inter-regional, collaborative plan to identify, create and maintain a core set of clinical practice guidelines. The NGP is overseen by the National Guideline Directors (NGD), an inter-regional group of KP experts in and advocates for evidence-based practice that is responsible for maintaining the guideline development methodology and determining the composition of the NGP portfolio. Currently, the NGP maintains 16 clinical practice guidelines that cover several common chronic conditions and screening/prevention issues.