The Practice-based Evidence in Nutrition (PEN®) system is a global nutrition and dietetic resource that provides quick online access to the evidence-base on more than 200 nutrition and dietetic-related topics, and translates this into practical information for you.
Each topic in the PEN system is collated under a ‘Knowledge Pathway’ (similar to a chapter in a book). Each 'Knowledge Pathway' is separated into different sections. The infographic below outlines the suite of products available to you on PEN:
The PEN Process
The PEN System follows five key steps to provide users with evidence based practical recommendations:
Why use PEN?
As busy practitioners, it can be challenging to stay up to date on the latest evidence in food and nutrition - especially in today’s ever-changing environment. Manuals and textbooks served dietitians well in the past, but are often limited in their scope and can be out-of-date even before they are published, to address this Dietitians of Canada developed PEN, to provide the following benefits to its members:
- Provides quick access using an online, searchable database
- Saves you time by searching, and critically appraising the research for you
- Delivers critically appraised evidence on more than 200 topics
- Provides practice-based answers to dietetic and nutrition practice-based questions.
- Uses the highest quality research available
- Evidence is graded so you always know the quality of the evidence behind a recommendation.
- Content is continuously reviewed as the evidence changes, ensuring you are kept as up-to-date as possible.
- All references are cited providing links to the abstract or full text so you can easily locate the original article.
- Supports you to challenge misinformation, misconceptions and pseudoscience.