Review of the German MAW campaign week “Fighting malnutrition together”

The DGEM carried out the Malnutrition Awareness Week (MAW) from November 6th to 10th, 2023 in cooperation with specialist societies and associations. Clinics (wards), experts, those affected and those interested had the opportunity to find out more about malnutrition at various events and also to take an active part themselves.

The MAW kicked off with the Expert Day on November 6th, 2023. In a webinar, doctors informed over 200 participants about the topic of “Malnutrition in clinics and practices – from diagnosis to therapy to billing”. After a scientific introduction to the topic of malnutrition, the experts presented various best practice examples from clinics, oncology and general practice.

The highlight of the MAW was the Politics Day on November 7th, 2023, which began with the online press conference “Fight against disease-related malnutrition – nutritional care is a human right!”. Around 50 participants were interested in the political demands of Prof. Matthias Pirlich, DGEM President, and Dr. Nicole Erickson, Scientific Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Center for Dietetics and Nutritional Medicine (IZDE). Both demanded – also on behalf of the MAW cooperation partners:

Nutritional care is a human right! We demand systematic screening for malnutrition in all patient groups and nutritional competence anchored in quality management. At the same time, this prevention and therapy concept must be reflected in the DRG system and remunerated accordingly.

You can find the rest of the report in the document below (in German)