© 2026 Canadian Malnutrition Task Force
Measuring What Matters: Using Malnutrition Data to Lead Change in Your Hospital
October 8, 2026 | 12:00 PM - 01:00 PM
This webinar is brought to you by CMTF as part of Canadian Malnutrition Awareness Week™ October 5 - 9, 2026 "Lead The Change"
This webinar is presented in English / Ce webinaire sera présenté en Anglais.
Webinar description:
Malnutrition is a serious, prevalent and costly problem that is often underreported and under recognized. It not only prolongs hospital stays and negatively impacts patient outcomes but also poses a significant burden on healthcare professionals and monopolizes space needed to accommodate other patients.
Nutrition care best practices such as screening, assessment, diagnosis, and individualised nutrition care plans, and quality improvement initiatives targeting these best practices play a fundamental role in preventing, detecting, and treating malnutrition. Nutrition care is often deprioritized not due to a lack of data, but because data are not consistently findable, accessible, or usable. Improving the timeliness, accuracy, and usability of malnutrition data is essential to better understand its burden in Canadian hospitals and inform care and quality improvement efforts. Health care professionals working to embed nutrition care best practices within their electronic health information systems (including electronic medical records, electronic health records, and clinical information systems) are faced with challenges and are often left to navigate barriers on their own.
In this session, speakers from hospitals and health regions will share their experiences building a case for integrating nutrition care best practices into electronic health information systems. Speakers will discuss using nutrition care data in dashboards and reports to visualize practices in real time and how to apply a measurement framework to evaluate documentation practices for malnutrition care. Examples of combining nutrition care data with real life stories to highlight impact and bring context to data will be shared. Practical tips on how dietitians, healthcare professionals and managers can get started with using data to lead change in their own settings will be provided.
This session is aligned with CMTF’s strategic aim to “Strengthen Malnutrition Data Collection and Use” and is relevant to front line dietitians, health care professionals, managers and analysts interested in collecting key malnutrition data locally or at a health care region level.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the webinar, participants will:
- Become familiar with how to begin collecting key malnutrition data from their own hospital setting.
- Understand how to use data to complement experiences of at risk/malnourished patients to amplify impact.
- Learn the potential of evaluating documentation practices for malnutrition care across a provincial health system.
- Recognize how data can drive consistent, system-wide improvements in malnutrition care.
Speakers:
- Marlis Atkins, RD- Nutrition Services Director, Alberta Health Services
- Lisa Martin, PhD, RD - Alberta Health Services
- Amanda Beales MAN RD, Clinical Nutrition Discipline Head, University Health Network, Toronto
Moderator: Marlis Atkins, RD - Alberta Health Services
About the Speakers:
Marlis Atkins - Marlis Atkins is a Registered Dietitian with more than 30 years of experience and has served as the Director of Nutrition Services, Provincial Initiatives and Integrated Services for Alberta Health Services (AHS) since 2011. Her leadership spans provincial and national levels, supported by active involvement in the Canadian Nutrition Society (CNS) and in the Canadian Malnutrition Task Force. With over a decade of experience leading system‑level initiatives, Marlis brings expertise in knowledge translation, implementation of nutrition science, and health‑system integration. She has guided numerous initiatives within AHS that bridge research and clinical practice to enhance care quality, patient outcomes, and operational efficiency.
Lisa Martin - is a Research & Evaluation Lead for Nutrition Services at Alberta Health Services, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Alberta. In her role she bridges the gap between academic research and provincial healthcare delivery, supporting evidence-based nutrition care. Dr. Martin is a Registered Dietitian and holds a Ph.D. in Nutrition and Metabolism. She has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications and has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences. Her work focuses on using real-world data and implementation science to study malnutrition, develop diagnostic tools, and improve nutrition care. She leads the analysis and evaluation of malnutrition care pathways using provincial EMR data, examining documentation practices, pathway adherence, and quality indicators to inform system-level quality improvement initiatives. Dr. Martin’s research interests also include developing and implementing novel nutrition assessment techniques such as CT body composition to facilitate the identification and diagnosis of malnutrition. Her work aims to improve health outcomes through evidence-based nutrition practice.
Amanda Beales MAN RD - is a Registered Dietitian with close to 20 years of clinical experience and a master’s in applied nutrition from the University of Guelph. She has worked across diverse hospital settings and has spent the past decade in clinical leadership roles, including Interprofessional Educator and her current position, Clinical Nutrition Discipline Head. In these roles, she is committed to advancing best practices in patient care. A recipient of the Dietitians of Canada Change Catalyst Award and holder of a Lean Green Belt, Amanda is passionate about improving malnutrition care through quality improvement, collaboration, and innovation.
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