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Health News Hub articles featuring outpatient RDs

Podcasts

Guest appearances by Jamie Allers, RD on the The Gut Doctor podcast with Dr. Neil Parikh of CTGI.

Television Appearances

Research

  • 2 outpatient RDs (Christopher Barret, Jillian Wanik) contributing authors on abstract accepted to FNCE.
  • The Role of a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist in Improving Weight Loss Prior to Elective Total Joint Arthroplasty in Overweight or Obese Adults Among Participants in MODIFY, a Pre-surgical Optimization Program.
  • Taylor Quigley MS; Regina Kostyun, MSEd, ATC; Christopher Barrett, MS RDN CSCS; Caitlin McCracken, MA; Brooke Bosco, Cristina Perez, DNP APRN NP-C; Kellyann Kosma, DNP APRN NP-C; Mandeep Kumar, MD; Valerie Duffy, PhD RDN; Ellen Shanley RDN MBA CDN FAND; Jillian Wanik DCN RDN CSSD CDN CNSC.

Learning Outcome: This retrospective review examines the efficacy of Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) with a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) utilizing virtual and in-person modalities for weight loss in overweight or obese adult individuals prior to elective total joint arthroplasty (TJA).

Background: Obesity is positively associated with post-operative complications in elective total joint arthroplasty. To mitigate risks, patients may be referred by orthopedic surgeons to pre-operative services to modify behavioral risk factors, including MNT, to promote weight loss.

Objective: To explore if virtual or in-person MNT with a RDN prior to elective TJA of knee or hip facilitates weight loss among patients enrolled in MODIFY, a pre-surgical optimization program.

Participants: Seventy-six post-operative patients (n=21, virtual; n=55, in-person) [KR1] BMI median 41.6, range 28.2-53.5 kg/m2,[KR2] aged 46-81, median 65 years old (67% female, 87% white) were analyzed for this study.

Methods: A cohort of patients who underwent elective TJA (knee or hip) after being referred to MODIFY were evaluated for changes in weight/BMI from referral to up to 1-year post-op [KR3] follow-up. Differences were determined using paired and 2-tailed t-tests and linear regression with a significance of p<0.05.

Results: Patients who had MNT with a RDN achieved modest weight loss (14.6 lbs, -5.5% (+/- 5.7%), p<.0001) prior to surgery. There was no significant difference in weight loss between patients who saw a RDN virtually (-12.6 +/- 12.3 lbs) or in-person (-15.9 +/- 17.5 lbs) (p=0.35). Median number of visits was 3 (range 1-10; in-person- 2; virtual- 3). Weight loss and number of MNT sessions was significantly, positively correlated (p=0.001). Patients lost more weight with more contact with a RDN regardless of modality (~2.9 lbs per visit, p<0.001).

Conclusions: This review supports the role of MNT using either virtual or in-person modality for weight loss in overweight/obese individuals referred for elective TJA.

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