ESPEN Newsletter – December 2022

Dear ESPEN Member,

We hope that this message finds you and your dear ones well. At the close of 2022 we send to each of you our greetings and best wishes for the Holidays on behalf of the Society. We are indeed closing a difficult but also exciting year, when we could finally get back to meet in person and slowly overcame many pandemic limitations. A transition from virtual to physical activities was finally possible, and ESPEN sought to combine the best opportunities from both interactions.

Indeed, we were happy to be able to re-start several physical workshops and the educational Basic course on clinical nutrition in October; we enjoyed an increase in ESPEN Educational grants for on-site training. At the same time, we have continued and will further promote successful virtual initiatives, including the new Webinars, the LLL webinars which are now globally established, and the very well received ESPEN Guidelines apps. Communication has been generally further enhanced, with Social Media, website and the launch of a new Fact Sheets series for focused graphical communication on selected relevant topics. As we met in Vienna in September for the first physical Congress after three years, we also ensured the opportunity for virtual participation through the hybrid format. The Congress was a great success, with state-of-the-art scientific and educational program and over 4.000 overall attending from 95 Countries, with more than 3.000 physically on-site. A highlight of the Congress was the launch of the Declaration on Nutritional care as a Human Right; it was a solemn ceremony, with endorsement from more than 70 national nutrition Societies worldwide. ESPEN was proud and grateful to host such a meaningful event for the global clinical nutrition network. Also importantly, we launched in November our first Malnutrition Awareness week, with several virtual events to promote awareness on the importance of disease-related malnutrition, and its devastating consequences on patients health and outcomes. The human rights approach was the underlying theme, and we launched an Action plan to implement its principles. To promote awareness on the role of clinical nutrition in the care of all patients, we continue to promote partnership and cooperation with policymakers and healthcare professionals from different fields. In September, ESPEN became an official WHO Europe non-state Actor, which will open further opportunities for partnership and cooperation.

We thank again each of you, our Members, for supporting and indeed participating in all of these activities, as well as all ESPEN Officers, Committees and teams, for their dedication, hard work and ideas. We are happy and grateful that after the pandemic ESPEN remains a large and dynamic global community. We are committed to continue to do our best to make ESPEN actions and initiatives ever more available and inclusive. As always, our common goal is making clinical nutrition a central part of routine assessment and treatment, for all patients and in all clinical settings.

Again, please receive ours and ESPEN’s best wishes for the Holiday Season, and for a healthy, peaceful and successful 2023.

Rocco Barazzoni             Cristina Cuerda              Stéphane Schneider

ESPEN Chairman            ESPEN Secretary             ESPEN Treasurer