PODCAST SERIES: CHANGING CARE TO IMPROVE SURGICAL OUTCOMES

Host Paul Wischmeyer, MD, is joined by Thomas Varghese, MD, section head of General Thoracic Surgery at the University of Utah, to discuss the role of nutrition in the American College of Surgeons’ Strong for Surgery initiative. They discuss the established evidence on the prevalence of malnutrition in candidates for surgery and how it can affect outcomes, as well as how to detect malnutrition and the barriers to implementing systemic change in clinics and hospitals.

Time: 27 minutes

Screening for malnutrition and preparing patients for the stress of surgery is a team effort for any health system. Duke School of Medicine dietitian Kathryn Starr, PhD, RD, joins Paul Wischmeyer, MD, in this episode to share how she approaches assessment and treatment, as well as her hope that registered dietitians will become a more common component of patient care teams.

Time: 21 minutes

Nutritional interventions are generally low cost, low risk, and high impact. But how do clinicians decide what they give and when? Bob Martindale, MD, PhD, is chief of Gastrointestinal and General Surgery at Oregon Health & Science University. In this episode, Paul Wischmeyer gets Martindale’s perspective on the history of these interventions, recent innovation in assessment tools, and takeaways from the latest research literature.

Time: 27 minutes

There are many ways to tackle malnutrition and better prepare patients for surgery. In this episode, Solomon Aronson, MD, MBA, and Abbey Whittington, PA-C, join Paul Wischmeyer to discuss what motivated them to create the Perioperative Enhancement Team (POET) at Duke University Hospital. They share how they got it done, and what the experience is like for patients.

Time: 23 minutes

Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol is gaining traction as standard of care in the US and abroad, but there are many areas that could benefit from more research and evidence. Dileep Lobo, MBBS, DM, professor of gastrointestinal surgery at the University of Nottingham, joins Paul Wischmeyer to discuss the limitations in the data available on individual nutritional interventions and calls for more randomized clinical trials.

Time: 20:55 minutes

In the final episode of the Nutrition in Surgery podcast, Paul Wischmeyer answers questions about his own experience as a surgical patient from guest host Monty Mythen, MBBS, professor of anesthesia and critical care at University College of London. The discussion also yields practical and specific advice on what nutritional supplements do for all patients entering surgery, from the fit to the frail.

Time: 14:59 minutes