From January 9 – February 2, 2011, your response is needed!  The second ADA member-wide Nutrition Informatics Survey will be available for response via a link in Eat Right Weekly.  As you may recall, the first all-member survey on nutrition informatics was conducted in 2007 and published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association in November, 2008.  Over 14,000 ADA members responded. The survey results helped measure the use of, and comfort with, aspects of technology and information retrieval that relate to the practice of nutrition and dietetics.  We learned that use of technology is not specific to one practice area such as clinical nutrition – informatics crosses into every area of dietetics practice.  Remember our new streamlined definition of nutrition informatics – the intersection of information, nutrition, and technology. 

    The 2007 Nutrition Informatics Survey was a real eye-opener especially in the sense of the percentage of practitioners and students who have – or don’t have – access to the internet or a computer while at work or school, their ability to retrieve information used in practice, as well as their familiarity with and use of the International Dietetics & Nutrition Terminology (IDNT).  We certainly would predict that as each year goes by, ADA members’ comfort with technology and use of our standardized language will increase.  Surveying the membership to obtain this data is critical in helping to plan educational activities and strategic direction with respect to informatics.  So, be sure to take a few minutes to respond to the survey and participate in a drawing to win one of 25 ADA Pocket Guide to IDNT.   As they say, and we mean it – Your Opinion Matters!