2011 - NIH Clinical Center - National Institutes of Health

RESEARCH DAY EXPOSES DIETITIANS TO CLINICAL RESEARCHThe Clinical Center Nutrition Departmentwelcomed 85 attendees from around the countryto an NIH Research Day on March 18, 2010.National Cancer Institute/CC Nutrition andCancer Prevention Research Practicum participantsand local dietetic interns heard a morning ofpresentations from staff before touring the hospitaland the Metabolic Clinical Research Unit to get aglimpse of the work of clinical research dietitiansAttendees heard a welcome and introduction tothe CC from dietetic internship director LCDRMerel Kozlosky, before learning about the role ofdietitians in research from Nancy Sebring. In anacute care hospital, clinical dietitians spend about80 percent of their time on clinical patient care,with the rest devoted to hospital and departmentsupport. Clinical research dietitians, on the otherhand, Sebring said, split their time between thoseresponsibilities and research support, though thebreakdown varies by staff member.Sebring presented some types of nutrition-focusedresearch.“For example, in one of our studies lookingat obesity we’re interested in patients’ tastepreferences—do certain people taste sweet or sourdifferently than others?” Sebring said.In the “Parade of Protocols “presentations, CCclinical research dietitians spoke on their roles invarious NIH studies. Beth Moylan found it importantto evaluate the existing low iodine diet, whichis used in conjunction with the treatment forthyroid cancer patients, due to food manufacturingchanges and an international patient populationconsuming foods grown in different soil compositions.LCDR Jennifer Graf explained balancingtypes of protein for those with methylmalonicacidemia who need enough protein for normalanabolic function but not too much of particularamino acids they cannot properly break down.LT Rachel Drabot recounted helping a cancerresearch patient who experienced a multitude oftreatment side effects by providing her with liquidnutrition supplements, individualized nutritioncounseling, meal plans, and support.Dr.Amber Courville, metabolic research dietitian,presented the Metabolic Clinical Research Unit,where more than a dozen obesity-related studiesare being carried out, such as one examining howgenes and the environment interact to determinebody weight.The unit continues to grow andseveral more protocols with nutrition componentsare currently under development.Dr.Amy Subar, nutritionist from the NationalCancer Institute, spoke on new methods of dietaryassessment, including using cell phone photos totrack what someone eats. Marnie Dobbin, CCclinical research dietitian, presented an overviewof botanical and “other” dietary supplements andresources available to guide safe supplement use.BTRIS—the Biomedical TranslationalResearch Information System—waslaunched in 2009 and is is available to theNIH intramural community, bringing togetherclinical research data from the CC and otherinstitutes and centers.“BTRIS is designed to bring together clinicalresearch data from all the institutes andcenters to give investigators one place toget all their data and allow other users to asknew questions of the old data,” said Dr. JimCimino, chief of the Clinical Center Laboratoryfor Informatics Development.BTRIS provides clinical investigators withaccess to identifiable data for the subjects ontheir own active protocols, while providing allNIH investigators with access to de-identifieddata across all protocols. The advancedsearch, filtering, and aggregation methodsto create data sets support ongoing studiesand stimulate ideas for new research.Dr. Jim Cimino demonstratedthe sorting capabilities of BTRISto a group of NINDS intramuralresearchers in June 2010ANNUAL REPORT 2011• 29