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Clinical Nutrition Blog
Articles explore topics including digestive health, metabolic conditions, malnutrition and expert witness work in clinical nutrition cases.
Latest Articles


Coeliac Disease: Diagnosis, Management, and Where Nutritional Care Goes Wrong
Coeliac disease requires lifelong dietary management. The points at which diagnosis and dietetic care fall short, and the medico-legal questions a dietitian expert witness can address.


Cancer-Related Malnutrition: The Dietitian Expert's Role When Nutritional Care Fails
Malnutrition is common in cancer and affects treatment tolerance and outcomes. Where nutritional care falls short, and the questions a dietetic expert witness can address.


Dietary Management in Diabetes: When Does Nutritional Care Fall Below the Standard?
Nutritional management is central to diabetes care. An HCPC-registered dietitian on where that care falls short, and the questions an expert can address in a clinical negligence matter.


Mental Capacity and Nutritional Decision-Making: The Dietitian Expert's Role
Mental capacity and nutritional decision-making intersect in brain injury, dementia, and end-of-life cases. A dietitian expert witness can address best interests assessments, artificial nutrition decisions, and the standard of care in capacity-affected patients.


Ketogenic Diet for Epilepsy: When Does Dietary Therapy Become a Medicolegal Issue?
The ketogenic diet is an established and evidence-based treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy in children, and increasingly in adults. It is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate, protein-restricted dietary regime that induces and sustains a state of ketosis, altering the brain's primary fuel source in a way that reduces seizure frequency and severity in a significant proportion of patients. For children who have failed multiple anticonvulsant medications, it can be transformative. It


Fabricated or Induced Illness and Nutrition: What a Dietetic Expert Can, and Cannot, Say
In FII and perplexing presentation cases, nutrition is often the presenting feature. An HCPC-registered dietitian on the proper scope of dietetic expert evidence, and the standard-of-proof discipline these cases demand.


Criminal Nutrition Neglect: How a Dietitian Expert Distinguishes Medical Complexity from Inadequate Care
Criminal cases involving nutritional neglect require a dietitian expert who can differentiate medical complexity from inadequate care and assess whether a child's or adult's nutritional presentation is consistent with neglect or explicable on other grounds.


ARFID and Restrictive Eating in Medicolegal Cases: What a Dietitian Expert Can Determine
ARFID and restrictive eating disorders create complex medicolegal issues in civil, criminal, and coronial proceedings. A dietitian expert witness can interpret nutritional presentation, assess standard of care, and address causation in cases involving eating and feeding difficulties.


Dehydration Negligence in Hospital: When Does Inadequate Fluid Management Become a Legal Issue?
Dehydration in hospital patients is a distinct clinical negligence issue from malnutrition, with its own failure patterns and causative mechanisms. A dietitian expert witness can assess fluid management, monitoring failures, and whether dehydration contributed to deterioration or death.


TPN and HPN Negligence: When Do Parenteral Nutrition Errors Become Legally Significant?
Errors in total parenteral nutrition and home parenteral nutrition management are a serious cause of patient harm. A dietitian expert witness can assess whether PN prescribing, monitoring, and management met accepted clinical standards and whether failures caused harm.


Care Home Malnutrition Negligence: When Does Nutritional Care Fall Below Standard?
Care home malnutrition negligence is an increasing area of clinical litigation. A dietitian expert witness can assess whether nutritional screening, care planning, and dietary intervention met an acceptable standard in care home settings and whether failures caused harm.


Bariatric Surgery Nutrition Negligence: When Does Post-Surgical Nutritional Care Fall Below Standard?
Bariatric surgery negligence claims frequently involve failures in pre-operative assessment, post-operative monitoring, and long-term nutritional support. A dietitian expert witness can determine whether the standard of nutritional care met professional guidelines and whether failures caused harm.


Dietitian Expert Witness in Coronial Proceedings: When Does Nutrition Contribute to Death?
When a patient dies in hospital and nutrition may have been a factor, a dietitian expert witness can assist the coroner in determining whether nutritional care met an acceptable standard and whether it contributed to the outcome. A practical guide for legal professionals and coroners.


Hospital Malnutrition Negligence: The 5 Most Common Documentation Failures That Lead to Claims
Hospital malnutrition negligence claims often arise from poor documentation. Learn the five most common failures in hospital nutrition records reviewed by dietitian expert witnesses.


Discharge Nutrition After Brain Injury: Risks, Responsibilities and Continuity of Care
Learn why discharge nutrition after brain injury is critical, including risks, planning requirements, and medico-legal considerations.


Refeeding Syndrome After Brain Injury: Risks, Recognition and Prevention
Learn about refeeding syndrome after brain injury, including risks, symptoms, prevention, and clinical management.


Nutritional Support in ICU Brain Injury Patients: Standards, Risks and Clinical Management
Learn how nutrition is managed in ICU patients with brain injury, including feeding methods, challenges, and risks of inadequate support.


Dietetic Referral Delays After Brain Injury: When Should a Dietitian Be Involved?
Learn when a dietitian should be involved after brain injury and how delayed referral may impact nutrition, recovery, and clinical outcomes.


Aspiration Pneumonia After Brain Injury: The Role of Nutrition and Dysphagia
Learn how aspiration pneumonia occurs after brain injury, the role of dysphagia, and how feeding decisions impact patient safety.


Malnutrition After Brain Injury in Hospital: When Does It Become Negligence?
Learn when malnutrition after brain injury may be considered negligence, including failures in nutritional care, feeding delays, and dysphagia management.
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