The Nutrition Department is committed to providing the best possible patient care and research support for patients of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. The department is staffed with 15 registered dietitians with a variety of backgrounds and diverse interests. Clinical research dietitians provide an array of patient-care services including: nutrition assessments, nutrition diagnosis, nutrition counseling services and enteral and parenteral feeding recommendations. Research services include: protocol design, dietary intake assessment, body composition analysis, data analysis and interpretation. In addition, dietitians pursue adjunct research interests related to nutrition and serve as co-investigators on protocols.
Nutrition food service is dedicated to providing a variety of meal choices for our patients while adhering to special nutrition and/or dietary needs. Our room service program allows patients to order meals on demand or to schedule a future meal delivery time. With the use of a computerized meal-ordering system, we are able to coordinate compliance of all of the menu items on our restaurant-style menu with 150 regular, therapeutic and metabolic diets. It also allows us to perform other tasks such as nutrient analysis and seasonal menu changes. The call center communication system uses state-of-the-art technology to efficiently process calls and provides callers with options to reduce wait times.