Dr Nguyen Viet Quynh Thu, Head of FV’s Nutrition and Dietetics Unit, participated in the International Science Conference, which was held to celebrate 60 years since the establishment of the Institute of Preventive Medicine and Public Health. The conference took place on 18^th November, 2020, and was organized by the Hanoi Medical University, focusing on the topic “Strengthen the Disease Control Capacity in the Context of Globalization”.

As part of the wider topic, Nutrition in the Context of Globalization, during the third session, Dr Quynh Thu shared on “The Newest Southeast Asian Expert Consensus in Malnutrition and Current Vietnamese Healthcare Clinical Nutrition Practices”. Her report was part of an overview article which she is a co-author of with many other Nutrition experts, representing Southeast Asian countries. The article was published on the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition science magazine. In addition, Dr Quynh Thu also participated in writing another report in the form of a poster. The report was on the topic: “A Survey on the Effectiveness of Nutritional Interventions Among Malnourished Inpatients at FV Hospital”, which was carried out by Dr Thu, together with Dr Do Trong Khanh and Ms Joanna Llamzon Lusterio, and was published on a special issue of the Journal of Practice Medicine.

In the report, Dr Quynh Thu presented the main points regarding malnutrition, which were accepted by many Southeast Asian nutritionists. Through that, she emphasized the importance as well as the effectiveness of improving nutrition during treatment. Moreover, the report also pointed out many problems of clinical nutrition practices in Vietnam. Compared to the recommendations from Southeast Asian experts, many hospitals in Vietnam do not perform well in providing nutritional care, except those with high standards acquired by following the nutritional criteria of the Ministry of Health or JCI.

Dr Quynh Thu also introduced many colleagues to the model of clinical nutrition practices being used in FV Hospital. This included the screening process and how a nutritional evaluation was carried out from the time a patient is hospitalized, treated and then monitored in the outpatient clinic. Experts, clinical staff, international standard assessment tools, F&B guided dietetic instructions, and training courses about clinical nutrition have become the standard nutrition care practices to ensure the best care and treatment for patients at FV Hospital.

One of the main participants of the conference, Ha Thanh Son, MSc, Nutrition Department, Agency of Health Examination and Treatment, Ministry of Health, highly appreciated the model of clinical nutrition practices seen in FV Hospital. He shared that this model followed the requirements in Circular 18/2020/TT-BYT, which was recently issued to create new standards according to international orientation by the Ministry of Health. In the near future, he hoped that he and Dr Luong Ngoc Khue, Head of Agency of Health Examination and Treatment, Ministry of Health, will have a chance to visit FV Hospital for evaluation and reference to help expand the clinical nutrition practice models in Vietnam.