The Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative: A Multiyear Partnership Transforms Care.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, representing credentialed nutrition and dietetics practitioners-registered dietitian nutritionists (RDNs) and nutrition and dietetics technicians, registered, and students and interns and professionals holding nutrition and dietetics undergraduate and advanced degrees-and Avalere Health, a Washington, DC-based strategic advisory services firm, have led the charge in closing malnutrition gaps with the Malnutrition Quality Improvement Initiative (MQii), a national nutrition-focused quality improvement initiative. The initiative's journey from 2013-2019 utilized technical advisors and stakeholders to improve care and outcomes for hospitalized adults age 65 and older with a series of innovations. These innovations include the development of the first malnutrition electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) and a complementary interdisciplinary quality improvement toolkit and establishing the first nutrition-focused national Learning Collaborative. MQii's vision for future directions and applications in 2020 and beyond will explore partnerships to include the malnutrition eCQM in available clinical data registries. Qualified Clinical Data Registries will provide a pathway for collecting nutrition data relevant to RDNs because as of 2020, payments for Medicare Part B nutrition services and quality improvement are available for eligible RDNs participating in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Quality Payment Program. The MQii Toolkit's technical specification manuals, data dictionaries, and implementation guides will help RDNs integrate the malnutrition quality measures into existing electronic health records and lead nutrition data collection and analysis. RDNs' continued advancement with information technology leaders to incorporate terminology and clinical standards into electronic health record platforms will provide for malnutrition data transfer across care settings. FUNDING/SUPPORT: Publication of this supplement was supported by Abbott. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics does not receive funding for the MQii. Avalere Health's work to support the MQii was funded by Abbott.

Food security in the context of HIV: towards harmonized definitions and indicators.

Integration of HIV and food security services is imperative to improving the health and well-being of people living with HIV. However, consensus does not exist on definitions and measures of food security to guide service delivery and evaluation in the context of HIV. This paper reviews definitions and indicators of food security used by key agencies; outlines their relevance in the context of HIV; highlights opportunities for harmonized monitoring and evaluation indicators; and discusses promising developments in data collection and management. In addition to the commonly used dimensions of food availability, access, utilization and stability, we identify three components of food security-food sufficiency, dietary quality, and food safety-that are useful for understanding and measuring food security needs of HIV-affected and other vulnerable people. Harmonization across agencies of food security indicators in the context of HIV offers opportunities to improve measurement and tracking, strengthen coordination, and inform evidence-based programming.

Challenges in infant and young child nutrition in the context of HIV.

There is consensus on the benefits for all infants of exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months and introduction of appropriate complementary foods at 6 months, followed by continued breastfeeding. However, guidelines on infant and young child feeding (IYCF) for HIV-positive mothers have changed continually since 2000. This article explores issues and evidence related to IYCF for the prevention and care of paediatric HIV in resource-limited settings in light of new HIV treatment guidelines, implementation challenges and knowledge gaps.In 2010 the impact of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) on reducing the risk of mother-to-child transmission of HIV moved WHO to urge countries to endorse either avoidance of all breastfeeding or exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months while taking ARVs, depending on which strategy could give their infants the greatest chance of HIV-free survival. Implementation of the 2010 recommendations is challenged by lack of healthcare provider training, weak clinic-community linkages to support mother/infant pairs and lack of national monitoring and reporting on infant feeding indicators.More evidence is needed to inform prevention and treatment of malnutrition among HIV-exposed and HIV-infected children. Knowledge gaps include the effects of prolonged ARV exposure, the cause of HIV-associated growth faltering, the effects of early infant testing on continuation of breastfeeding and specific nutrition interventions needed for HIV-infected children.Significant progress has been made toward keeping mothers alive and reducing paediatric HIV infection, but sustained political, financial and scientific commitment are required to ensure meaningful interventions to eliminate postnatal transmission and meet the nutritional needs of HIV-exposed and HIV-infected children.