Paediatric Nutrition Symposium: Assessing anthropometry in dietetic practice

Dr. Susan Abdel-Rahman is a paediatric researcher, innovator, educator, and clinician with 25 years of experience in academic medicine. She is a former professor of paediatrics and holder of the Marion Merrell Dow/Missouri Chair in Paediatric Clinical Pharmacology. She also oversaw Health Care Innovation for the Children’s Mercy Research Institute in the United States, served as Section Chief at Children’s Mercy Hospital, directed an NIH funded T32 fellowship program, and provided clinical care on the Clinical Pharmacology consult service before becoming Chief Scientific Advisor for a Kansas City-based technology start-up. Dr Rahman chairs the Drug Utilisation Review Board for the state of Missouri’s Medicaid program and serves as the immediate past-President of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Bridget Little is an Advanced Clinician Paediatric Intensive Care Dietitian at Starship Child Health, New Zealand. She began working as a dietitian in 2001 and has had a diverse clinical career, including work in the New Zealand rural community and dietetic management roles. Bridget’s passion lies in the fields of paediatric critical care and intravenous nutrition, which she finds both challenging and rewarding. She enjoys the diversity and complexity of managing critical patient care, whilst working as part of a dynamic team focused on best outcomes for patients and their families.

Aimee McLeod is an Accredited Practising Dietitian who began her dietetic career by working in research and has published two original research articles. In 2012, Aimee began working for state government disability services in NSW, providing dietetics for people with a disability. Aimee has also worked for two large NGO’s providing disability services and started her own private practice, Aim High Nutrition, in 2015 in Newcastle, Australia. Aim High Nutrition was rebranded to Aim High Therapy Services in July 2020 and is a registered NDIS provider. Aimee has experience working in the NDIS environment since its inception of trial phase. Aimee now employs 6 dietitians (4 FTE) in her business providing only disability services. She also provides clinical supervision and mentoring for other APDs.

Karen Stephens is a Registered Dietitian who has spent over 30 years providing clinical nutrition services for adults and children. She has extensive expertise in paediatrics, malnutrition, weight management/bariatrics, cardiac rehab, and enteral nutrition. As former Assistant Director of Nutrition at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, United States, she directed Outpatient Nutrition Services and oversaw program development. Among her contributions were overseeing initiatives to improve identification and intervention for patients with severe malnutrition and implementing MUAC in clinical practice for all patients. In research, she led studies comparing MUAC and BMI z-scores and in evaluating clinical usefulness of MUAC z-score tapes. She spent 10 years teaching adult weight management groups as well as providing individual consultations.