As we welcome our new CEO Liz Stockley and embark on a new era at the BDA, the changing landscape of Food & Nutrition and the demands of our current political, socio-economic and cultural context, all offer new potential to be realised. I have recently joined the Board at NDR-UK and hope to help to match the best interests of the BDA and its members with NRD-UK’s strategic aims.

Having worked in the public, charitable and now membership sector, I understand the growing importance of personalisation in achieving better outcomes for all. What can be more deeply personal than having choice and control over our health and well-being and being listened to?

Personalisation has a long history, derived and embedded in social care, though Local Authority and SCIE strategies such as ‘Think Local Act Personal’. In the NHS more latterly, the NHS Long Term Plan sets out the need to ensure people have choice and control over the way their care is planned and delivered. Our freelance community and dietitians working in industry understand the importance of personalisation as part of their value proposition to clients. However, dietitians and other health and social care professionals are more ‘time poor’ than ever before; much of their work is often reliant upon discretionary effort. Our professionals need to be fully equipped with the right resources that can be tailored and personalised so their precious time is effectively spent with people, rather than searching for the ‘best fit’ resource.  It is not any easy job for dietitians to cut through the noise of mis-information in the food and nutrition arena. The constant ‘buzz’ of opinion often based on inaccurate and non-evidence-based data.

So how can the BDA and NDR-UK help? Alignment is key here - there are many opportunities to align the BDA's objectives of supporting and growing our membership with those of NDR-UK.

For me, Primary Care is a great place to start, ensuring that Dietitians can demonstrate the evidence-based and personalised resources available to them.

• NDR-UK Prescribe, tailoring individual resources before it is received, providing personalised notes and follow ups. Topics from Allergies to Weight Management.
• Access to the PEN library (Practice-based Evidence in Nutrition) a global resource
• ORCHA App that supports BDA members navigate the best evidence based apps - countering the ‘I’ve just googled it’ challenge and providing the platform with requests to review new apps.

By showcasing what is available to Dietitians and the wider Primary Care team, we can raise the profile and value of dietitians e.g. First Contact Practitioner roles and illustrate the pivotal and vital role Dietitians can have in Primary Care. Simultaneously, we can showcase the resources available to other health care professionals through NDR-UK.

We can both evidence what may save GPs and other’s time, improve outcomes for individuals’ and increase confidence through the provision of personalised, evidence-based, high quality reviewed content. Opportunity knocks….

Louise Pritchard is the Chief Operating Officer at the BDA and newly appointed Director at NDR-UK.