Creation of a specialized nutrition support outcomes research consortium: If not now, when?

Background: There is a compelling need to determine the benefits of sophisticated, costly, and potentially hazardous nutrition support interventions. The clinical efficacy and cost effectiveness of specialized nutrition support must be quantitatively defined. Creation of a national outcomes research consortium to study the use of specialized nutrition support can meet these objectives. Methods: Nutrition support and outcomes research literature were reviewed to develop a model for the application of outcomes research methods to clinical, professional, administrative, and financial problems currently challenging the discipline of nutrition support. Results: A multi-institutional nutrition support outcomes research consortium involving creation of a large, practice-based data base is proposed. Relevant clinical, administrative, methodologic, and implementation issues are discussed. Conclusions: A multi-institutional nutrition support outcomes research consortium offers the means to collect rigorous data that can be used to improve patient outcomes, improve the cost-effectiveness of nutrition support, establish a firm scientific basis for the discipline of nutrition support, and assist nutrition support clinicians in the cost-cutting climate that currently characterizes health care in the United States. Given the timeliness of these objectives and the human, professional, and financial costs of not achieving them in a timely fashion, it is fair to ask of a nutrition support outcomes research consortium, ''If not now, when?''