Advanced Nutrition Course – 19th-21st June 2025

Course Details

Event: AuSPEN Advanced Nutrition Course 2025

Dates: Thursday 19th – Saturday 21st June 2025

Venue: RACV City Club - 501 Bourke Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000

Course Dinner: 6pm Thursday 19th June 2025. This is a great networking opportunity, and a chance for people travelling alone to dine with friends!  The venue will be announced closer to the event, but will be within walking distance to the conference venue. Food and drink will be ordered from a menu - only pay for what you want. Information will be sent to delegates once dinner details are confirmed and you’ll be provided an option to book with us.

Registration*: 

  • Members/Student Members $720 incl GST

  • Non-members $980 incl GST

Accommodation:  We have organised a discounted accommodation rate at RACV City Club Melbourne. Nights available from Wed, 18 Jun - Sun, 22 Jun 2025.

The link to book discounted accommodation is on your confirmation page post-registration.

About the AuSPEN Advanced Nutrition Course

This course is designed to enhance the knowledge and understanding of the principles and application of nutrition support for those involved in the nutritional care of patients. With a multidisciplinary focus, this course would suit a physician, surgeon, nurse specialist, dietitian or pharmacist with an active role in nutrition support looking to enhance their learning in this area. Given there is nothing of its kind available in the Australasian area, we seek to meet the professional development needs of experienced clinicians in the area of clinical nutrition.

Through the use of facilitated discussion, problem-based learning and a seminar-style environment, focus points will include:

  • Nutritional assessment and objective measurements of body composition and  function

  • Acid base interplay and complex biochemistry

  • The emerging area of DGBI and GLP1 inhibitors

  • Nutritional requirements in different disease states

  • Complexities of enteral and parenteral nutrition

  • The compromised gut and intestinal failure

  • Leadership and research 

What you will learn

Following attendance at the Advanced Nutrition Course attendees will be able to:

  • Critically assess the nutritional status and requirements of patients taking into consideration all aspects of nutrition, across a number of nutrition support settings.

  • Evaluate the nutrition and hydration needs of complex nutrition support patients.

  • Understand the role of each member of the nutrition support team, and work closely to ensure a unified nutrition management plan for the nutrition support patient.

  • Incorporate evidence-based learning into a clinical setting

Specialist Facilitators

Each module for this course has been written by highly specialised health professionals ensuring the most up-to-date evidence is incorporated into training. Local specialist health professionals will deliver a mixture of lectures, problem-based learning sessions, and practical sessions. Participants will have access to all materials, including key papers, where key readings are suggested. As the subject matter is cumulative, it is essential that participants are able to attend all three days of the course.

Who should attend?

This course is recommended for anyone who has worked for at least three years in a clinical environment. 

Visit the Advanced Nutrition Course Website here.

Register to attend our 2025 Advanced Nutrition Course here.

Hot Off The Press - Updates from our latest E-Update

Phase angle as a marker of muscle quality: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Jarson Pedro da Costa Pereira, Amanda de Sousa Rebouças, Carla M. Prado, Maria Cristina Gonzalez, Poliana Coelho Cabral, Alcides da Silva Diniz, Ana Paula Trussardi Fayh, Flávia Moraes Silva

This study, authored by our Keynote Speaker Dr Carla Prado, aimed to investigate the relationship between Phase angle (PhA), a biomarker derived from raw bioelectrical impedence analysis, and markers of muscle quality. It suggests the potential of PhA as a surrogate marker for muscle quality. 

Nutrition considerations for patients with persistent critical illness: A narrative review
Viner Smith E, Lambell K, Tatucu-Babet OA, Ridley E, Chapple LA

This narrative review, authored by a number of our 2024 speakers, discusses nutrition concepts relevant to patients in critical illness including energy and protein metabolism, prescription and delivery of nutrition, bedside nutrition monitoring and role of the multidisciplinary team in optimising nutrition support. 

i-OPTIC: A new resource for clinicians working with people with cancer

Associate Professor Nicole Kiss shares that i-OPTIC is now live! The i-OPTIC project was funded by a Medical Nutrition International Industry (MNI) grant, with the application proudly supported by AuSPEN and is an intelligent online platform enabling real time prediction of the risk of mortality for an individual related to cancer-related malnutrition. The i-OPTIC platform is underpinned by machine learning models that include data from five countries (Australia, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Brazil, and Canada) and seven databases, representing 7406 participants with various cancer diagnoses. The i-OPTIC tool will help you establish:
-    Which patients are at greatest risk of malnutrition-related mortality
-    Which potentially modifiable factors (e.g. reduced food intake) are contributing most to the risk of mortality
-    Will allow for prioritisation of clinical care and timely interventions targeted toward improving the modifiable factors.

AuSPEN Short Research Course - May 2025

Research Mentoring Program – May 2025 

2025 will offer opportunity to enrol in our AuSPEN Research Short Course. It aims to support novice clinical research who may or may not be enrolled in formal research programs to develop skills for significant quality or quality research projects, create research support networks and work towards completing a quality/research project over the mentoring period.

Expressions of Interest are now closed.

Please find the full timetable with dates and times on the website Research Short Course page here.

Please contact admin@auspen.org.au with any queries regarding our 2025 Short Course.

Join us for AuSPEN 2025!

We are excited to invite you to the AuSPEN 2025 Conference: Where Survival Meets Nutrition, taking place at The Hilton Sydney from 6th to 8th November 2025. Our team is diligently preparing an event full of adventure and valuable experiences. This is your official reminder to submit your leave and join us for an unforgettable experience.

Registration is NOW OPEN: Click here

At AuSPEN 2025, you will have the opportunity to engage with leading professionals in nutrition and survival, participate in innovative sessions, and build lasting relationships with peers and industry leaders. Highlights include interactive workshops, panel discussions, an exhibition hall showcasing the latest products and services, and social events that promise fun and learning.

Visit our 2025 AuSPEN Event Website for more details!

Warm regards,

The AuSPEN 2025 Organizing Committee

Huge Success! - AuSPEN 2024

Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s Conference in Brisbane from November 14th to 16th. It was a great success, and the feedback has been very positive.

Over the three days of conferencing, more than 250 delegates checked in to learn everything Clinical Nutrition. Dr Carla Prado was an absolute standout, and we’re so glad she was able to come to the Land Down Under. Dr Dinesh Palipana spoke about his life and was an inspiration to all in the room. The conference also covered how the future may look with AI in the space.

The AuSPEN Networking Event was a hit! The Many Faces of Clinical Nutrition were out in full force at the Green House in Howard Smith Wharves. However, you may not have recognised them through their masquerade masks.

Hot Off the Press: Updates from our latest e-newsletter

Funding and resource availability for home parenteral nutrition in Australia: A national cross-sectional survey. Wong D, Osland E, Carey S. JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2024 Jun 8.

This study aimed to quantify the caseload, staffing, and capacity of existing HPN centers nationally, and highlights key shortfalls in funding for home parenteral nutrition services throughout Australia. 

Mid Upper Arm Circumference in the Paediatric Clinical Setting: An AuSPEN Consensus Statement and Toolkit. June 2024 

Multidisciplinary development of a series of clinical consensus statements using the Delphi process for the role of mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) in the Australian and New Zealand paediatric clinical setting.

AuSPEN Member Spotlight – Celebrating Matthew Summers

Matt is currently a Research Dietitian in ICU Research at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Beyond his work in research, he also works in private practice specialising in bariatric surgery and nutrition in weight management and diabetes, in addition to previously working as a Sports Dietitian for the Adelaide United’s Women’s team. 
  
He is driven by over 15 years of clinical research expertise in the ICU and passion to further the literature on the role of nutrition in recovery. Matt is proud of several research publications, in particular a study evaluating muscle protein synthesis in critically ill patients; as well as a multi-centre study published in JPEN evaluating the use of high protein enteral formula in critically ill patients.

Now halfway through his PhD, Matt is currently exploring the effect of augmented enteral protein on clinical outcomes in critically ill patients (TARGET Protein Trial), aimed for publication later this year. He received the AuSPEN Research Grant in 2022 for a sub-study stemming from this original research, evaluating the effect of augmented enteral protein on skeletal muscle mass measured by ultrasound and CT scan.   
  
For those who are interested in looking to embark on PhD studies, Matt encourages connecting with good mentors and getting into a field you are passionate about. 

Matt is more than happy to connect on social media, you can find him here:
•    Instagram: @msummo2  
•    Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/matt-summers-b07492119 

Join us - Membership Update: 2024 Retired Membership

The AuSPEN Council have introduced a new membership option for retired Members.

AuSPEN retired membership is $100 per year
For members who are now retired from the industry.
(Membership will allow access to both AuSPEN members area & ESPEN members area from 1st January through to 31st December)

To become a member, click here

Membership Benefits include:

  • Access to the AuSPEN & AuSPEN-endorsed Clinical Practice Guidelines on a variety of enteral and parenteral
    nutrition topics for both adults and paediatrics

  • Invitation to the annual AuSPEN Scientific Meeting

  • Reduced Scientific Meeting registration rate

  • Conference grants

  • Research grants for novice and more experienced researchers

  • AuSPEN Scientific Meeting research prizes

  • Australasian research meetings and initiatives

  • Access to resources and optimal care pathways, for example, the Exclusive Enteral Nutrition IBD Toolkit and the Paediatric Blended Tube Feeds Resource 'The A-Z Toolkit' and 'Recipe Builder’