ASPEN Nutrition Nutrition Science and Practice Conference 2026

ASPEN Nutrition Nutrition Science and Practice Conference 2026

ASPEN Nutrition Science & Practice Conference 2026 | Clinical Nutrition, Parenteral Nutrition, Enteral Nutrition, Critical Care, Malnutrition & Metabolic Support

The ASPEN Nutrition Nutrition Science and Practice Conference 2026 is a major multidisciplinary educational meeting dedicated to the latest developments in clinical nutrition, nutrition support, parenteral nutrition, enteral nutrition, malnutrition, metabolism, critical care nutrition, gastrointestinal disease, pediatrics, oncology, and intestinal failure.

Presented by the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), the 2026 conference brought together physicians, dietitians, pharmacists, nurses, researchers, advanced practice providers, trainees, and other healthcare professionals involved in nutrition and metabolic support.

Held from February 14–17, 2026, in Long Beach, California, the program combined evidence-based clinical education with new scientific research, practical guideline implementation, multidisciplinary discussion, and professional development.

Participants could attend either in person or virtually, allowing clinicians and researchers worldwide to participate in the conference program.

Course Details

• Course: ASPEN Nutrition Nutrition Science and Practice Conference 2026
• Official Event: ASPEN 2026 Nutrition Science & Practice Conference
• Provider: American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN)
• Dates: February 14–17, 2026
• Location: Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center
• City: Long Beach, California
• Format: In Person + Virtual
• Primary Specialty: Clinical Nutrition
• Additional Focus: Gastroenterology, Critical Care, Pediatrics, Surgery, Oncology, Pharmacy and Metabolic Support
• Main Conference CE: Up to 19.5 hours for eligible participants
• Preconference Courses: Additional educational activities available separately
• Scientific Content: Clinical Sessions + Research Abstracts + Paper Sessions + Section Forums

ASPEN confirms that the conference was designed for multidisciplinary nutrition professionals and provided both in-person and virtual participation options.

Target Audience

The ASPEN Nutrition Science & Practice Conference 2026 is intended for healthcare professionals and researchers involved in clinical nutrition and metabolic support.

It is particularly relevant for:

• Clinical Nutritionists
• Registered Dietitians
• Gastroenterologists
• Pediatricians
• Cardiologists
• Hepatologists
• Medical Oncologists
• Surgeons
• Critical Care Physicians
• Internal Medicine Physicians
• Pharmacists
• Clinical Pharmacy Specialists
• Nurses
• Nurse Practitioners
• Physician Assistants
• Nutrition Support Specialists
• Researchers
• Fellows
• Residents
• Medical Students
• Dietetic Students
• Healthcare Professionals involved in enteral or parenteral nutrition

The meeting is especially useful for professionals managing patients who require complex nutrition support across hospital, outpatient, home-care, pediatric, oncology, gastrointestinal, surgical, and intensive-care settings.

Program Overview

Clinical nutrition plays a central role in patient recovery, disease management, metabolic stability, and long-term outcomes.

The ASPEN 2026 Nutrition Science & Practice Conference provides a broad review of contemporary nutrition care across multiple clinical specialties.

Major educational themes include:

• Parenteral nutrition
• Enteral nutrition
• Malnutrition
• Nutrition assessment
• Critical care nutrition
• Pediatric nutrition
• Neonatal nutrition
• Oncology nutrition
• Gastrointestinal disease
• Intestinal failure
• Home nutrition support
• Micronutrients
• Nutrition safety
• Obesity
• Metabolic disorders
• Evidence-based nutrition guidelines
• Research and quality improvement

The program combines new research with practical recommendations that can be translated into everyday patient care.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the educational activity, participants should be better able to:

• Explore current scientific research, clinical advances, and evidence-based updates in nutrition and metabolic support.
• Apply contemporary parenteral and enteral nutrition strategies to improve patient care.
• Integrate new evidence into nutrition assessment, treatment planning, and multidisciplinary clinical decision-making.
• Evaluate practical strategies for improving the safety and effectiveness of nutrition support.
• Recognize emerging clinical research across adult, pediatric, critical care, oncology, gastrointestinal, and surgical nutrition.
• Apply evidence-based practice through clinical inquiry, research dissemination, quality improvement, and performance evaluation.
• Strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration among physicians, dietitians, pharmacists, nurses, and other members of the nutrition support team.

Parenteral Nutrition

Parenteral nutrition remains one of ASPEN’s core areas of clinical expertise.

The 2026 program includes education related to:

• Appropriate indications for PN
• Formulation
• Macronutrients
• Micronutrients
• Electrolytes
• Monitoring
• Complications
• Central venous access
• Safety
• Quality improvement
• Home parenteral nutrition

Closing the Gaps in Parenteral Nutrition Safety

Results and Implications of the 2025 ASPEN PN Use Survey

This official ASPEN26 session examines current parenteral nutrition practice and opportunities to improve safety and adherence to clinical standards.

Faculty include:

• Phil Ayers, PharmD, BCNSP, FASHP, FASPEN
• M. Petrea Cober, PharmD, MEd, BCNSP, BCPPS, FASPEN
• Jessica Monczka, RD, CNSC, FASPEN
• Sarah Cogle, PharmD, BCCCP, BCNSP, FCCM, FASPEN

The session focuses on findings from the 2025 ASPEN PN Use Survey and strategies for reducing gaps in safe PN practice.

Enteral Nutrition

Enteral nutrition is another major focus of ASPEN education.

Important issues include:

• Feeding access
• Tube placement
• Formula selection
• Delivery
• Monitoring
• Gastrointestinal tolerance
• Aspiration risk
• Tube complications
• Safe replacement and verification

Feeding Tube Placement Verification

Clinical Guidelines for Feeding Tube Placement Verification: How Does Your Practice Measure Up?

This session reviews evidence-based approaches to feeding tube placement and replacement verification.

It incorporates:

• NOVEL NICU findings
• Global practice approaches
• Newly released ASPEN clinical guidance
• Balloon gastrostomy tube replacement verification

Faculty include:

• Leslie A. Parker, PhD, RN, NNP
• Gu Ying, PhD
• Gina Rempel, MD, FRCPC, FASPEN

Malnutrition

Malnutrition remains a major clinical challenge across hospital and ambulatory populations.

The conference explores:

• Screening
• Nutrition assessment
• Diagnosis
• Documentation
• Coding
• Intervention
• Monitoring
• Outcomes
• Quality measures

Malnutrition can occur in patients with:

• Cancer
• Gastrointestinal disease
• Critical illness
• Chronic disease
• Surgery
• Pediatric conditions
• Older age

Critical Care Nutrition

Critically ill patients frequently require complex metabolic and nutrition support.

ASPEN26 includes education and research involving:

• Enteral nutrition in the ICU
• Parenteral nutrition
• Energy expenditure
• Protein requirements
• Metabolic response to critical illness
• Nutrition timing
• Indirect calorimetry
• Metabolomics
• Trauma

The Critical Care Section Forum specifically addressed:

Metabolomics in Critical Care—Past, Present, and Future

Comprehensive Nutrition Therapy in 2026

ASPEN offered a physician-focused preconference course titled:

Comprehensive Nutrition Therapy—Tactical Approaches in 2026

This course covered nutrition management in patients with:

• Liver disease
• Malignancy
• Gastrointestinal disease
• Obesity
• Trauma
• Critical illness

The program concluded with complex clinical case discussions.

Gastrointestinal Nutrition

Gastrointestinal disease can affect digestion, absorption, nutritional status, and the ability to maintain adequate oral intake.

The conference includes education related to:

• GI disease
• Malabsorption
• Enteral feeding
• Parenteral support
• Short bowel syndrome
• Intestinal failure
• Home nutrition support
• Nutrition rehabilitation

Intestinal Failure

Intestinal failure is a major multidisciplinary area involving gastroenterology, surgery, pharmacy, dietetics, and nutrition support.

The conference includes education on:

• Chronic intestinal failure
• Parenteral support
• Intestinal rehabilitation
• Home PN
• Quality of life
• GLP-2 therapies
• Patient-reported outcomes

A featured award lecture examined:

Democratizing Knowledge, Strengthening Interprofessional Specialty Care, and Improving Patient Outcomes in Nutrition and Intestinal Failure

Marion Winkler, PhD, RD, LDN, CNSC, FASPEN

The lecture reviewed interdisciplinary care, education models, patient outcomes, and home PN assessment tools.

GLP-2 and Intestinal Rehabilitation

ASPEN26 also highlighted the evolving role of GLP-2-based therapies in intestinal rehabilitation and short bowel syndrome.

These therapies may reduce dependence on parenteral support in appropriately selected patients and are increasingly incorporated into multidisciplinary intestinal rehabilitation programs.

Oncology Nutrition

Cancer patients frequently experience complex nutrition challenges related to:

• Tumor location
• Treatment toxicity
• Dysphagia
• Mucositis
• Weight loss
• Cachexia
• GI dysfunction
• Surgery
• Radiation therapy
• Chemotherapy

ASPEN26 included guideline-driven education specifically addressing:

ASPEN Nutrition Guidelines for Adult Patients With Head and Neck Cancer

Presenters included:

• Liam McKeever, PhD, RD, FASPEN
• Jeannine Mills, MS, RDN, CSO, LD, CNSC
• Jacqui Frowen, BSpPath(Hons), PhD
• Nicole Kiss, PhD, APD

Pediatric Nutrition

Pediatric nutrition requires age-specific consideration of:

• Growth
• Development
• Energy requirements
• Micronutrients
• Feeding tolerance
• Human milk
• Formula
• Enteral nutrition
• Parenteral nutrition

ASPEN26 included numerous pediatric and neonatal sessions and research presentations.

Human Milk & Medically Complex Pediatric Patients

The dedicated pediatric preconference course was:

Human Milk and Substitutes Beyond the Basics

Topics included:

• Human milk
• Human milk substitutes
• U.S. and international formula regulation
• Macronutrient composition
• Micronutrients
• Chronic pediatric disease
• Thickening
• Donor milk
• Formula safety

The course was designed especially for pediatric clinicians across disciplines.

Micronutrients in Preterm Infants

The Neonatal Section Forum addressed:

Micronutrient Synergy: The Role of Zinc, Iron, and Copper in Preterm Infant Growth and Development

This session examined the importance of trace elements in neonatal nutrition and development.

Pediatric Intestinal Failure

The Pediatric Intestinal Failure Section Forum included multidisciplinary discussion of ongoing initiatives and clinical challenges in pediatric intestinal rehabilitation.

Faculty represented nutrition, gastroenterology, pharmacy, and pediatric intestinal rehabilitation programs.

Home Nutrition Support

Home nutrition support enables selected patients to receive enteral or parenteral nutrition outside the hospital.

Important areas include:

• Patient education
• Catheter care
• Infection prevention
• Formula or PN management
• Home monitoring
• Quality of life
• Caregiver training
• Multidisciplinary follow-up

ASPEN26 included a Home & Alternate Site Care Section Forum focused on:

Emerging Challenges in Home Nutrition Support

Pharmacy & Nutrition Support

Pharmacists play a central role in:

• Parenteral nutrition formulation
• Electrolyte management
• Medication-nutrient interactions
• Sterility
• Stability
• Safety
• Monitoring

The Pharmacy Practice Section Forum addressed:

Evidence Ages Well: Why Nutrition Support Pharmacists Still Matter

Drug-Nutrient Interactions

Medication and nutrition therapies may influence each other’s:

• Absorption
• Metabolism
• Pharmacokinetics
• Pharmacodynamics
• Clinical efficacy
• Toxicity

ASPEN26 included a dedicated Drug-Nutrient Interaction Section session on evolving research in this area.

Obesity & Metabolic Nutrition

Obesity and metabolic disease increasingly intersect with clinical nutrition practice.

Relevant conference topics include:

• Nutrition therapy
• Body composition
• Energy balance
• Obesity treatment
• Metabolic health
• Complex nutrition support
• Surgical nutrition

The Medical Practice Section also included discussions around obesity and nutrition support in complex conditions.

Clinical Nutrition Research

The ASPEN conference is an important venue for new clinical nutrition research.

Official ASPEN26 abstract categories included:

• Parenteral Nutrition Therapy
• Enteral Nutrition Therapy
• Malnutrition and Nutrition Assessment
• Critical Care and Critical Health Issues
• Gastrointestinal Nutrition
• Obesity and Metabolism
• Pediatrics
• Neonatal Nutrition
• Pregnancy and Lactation

The meeting also featured oral research presentations and the Harry M. Vars Award competition.

Critical Care Research

A dedicated Nutrition and Metabolism Research Paper Session presented high-ranking abstracts involving critical care and other major clinical nutrition questions.

ASPEN notes that these abstracts contribute to the scientific literature and are published through the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (JPEN).

Major Topics Covered

• Clinical Nutrition
• ASPEN
• Nutrition Support
• Parenteral Nutrition
• Enteral Nutrition
• Malnutrition
• Nutrition Assessment
• Nutrition Therapy
• Critical Care Nutrition
• ICU Nutrition
• Gastrointestinal Nutrition
• Intestinal Failure
• Short Bowel Syndrome
• Home Parenteral Nutrition
• Home Enteral Nutrition
• Feeding Tubes
• Feeding Tube Verification
• Nutrition Safety
• Head and Neck Cancer Nutrition
• Oncology Nutrition
• Pediatric Nutrition
• Neonatal Nutrition
• Human Milk
• Formula
• Micronutrients
• Zinc
• Iron
• Copper
• Obesity
• Metabolic Nutrition
• Liver Disease Nutrition
• Surgical Nutrition
• Trauma Nutrition
• GLP-2 Therapy
• Intestinal Rehabilitation
• Drug-Nutrient Interactions
• Nutrition Pharmacy
• Clinical Guidelines
• Nutrition Research
• Quality Improvement
• Interprofessional Nutrition Care

Continuing Education

ASPEN is jointly accredited by the:

• Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME)
• Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE)
• American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)

For the ASPEN 2026 main conference, the official CE information listed up to:

• 19.5 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™
• 19.5 pharmacist contact hours / 1.95 CEUs
• 19.5 nursing contact hours
• 19.5 dietitian CPEUs
• 19.5 IPCE hours

Separate preconference activities provided additional credit depending on the course.

Important CE Notice

Official continuing education credit is subject to ASPEN participation, attendance, evaluation, and certificate requirements.

Credit from the official conference is available only to eligible participants who satisfy ASPEN’s requirements.

Purchasing separately distributed conference recordings or educational files from MedicalAmboss does not independently provide ASPEN CME, CPE, nursing, pharmacy, or dietitian credit.

ASPEN also made recordings of many main-conference sessions available after the meeting, although certain roundtables, labs, paper sessions, and presentations containing unpublished data may not be recorded.

Why This Course Is Relevant

Clinical nutrition affects nearly every area of modern medicine.

Nutrition support may influence:

• Recovery from surgery
• ICU outcomes
• Cancer treatment
• Pediatric growth
• Gastrointestinal rehabilitation
• Infection risk
• Metabolic stability
• Quality of life

The ASPEN Nutrition Science & Practice Conference 2026 is particularly valuable because it brings physicians, pharmacists, dietitians, nurses, and researchers together around shared clinical nutrition problems.

Its combination of parenteral nutrition, enteral nutrition, malnutrition, intestinal failure, oncology, pediatrics, critical care, metabolic support, guideline implementation, and new research provides a broad and practical update for professionals involved in nutrition care.

Short Description

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ASPEN Nutrition Nutrition Science and Practice Conference 2026 provides a comprehensive update in clinical nutrition, parenteral nutrition, enteral nutrition, malnutrition, critical care nutrition, gastrointestinal disease, intestinal failure, oncology, pediatrics, neonatal nutrition, home nutrition support, feeding-tube safety, micronutrients and metabolic support. The program combines evidence-based clinical guidance, interdisciplinary education, and new nutrition research.

Topics

• Bruce R Bistrian Nutrition Mentorship Award Lecture: The Future of Clinical Nutrition is Bright Through Mentoring and Networking

• Charles Van Way III Nutrition Research Discoveries Symposium and Celebration

• Chemistry Fundamentals in Nutrition Support Stability: Drug-Nutrient Interactions and Incompatibilities

• Clinical Practice Enhancement Through Inquiry and Dissemination: A Focus on Performance Improvement Evidence-Based Practice

• Closing the Gaps in Parenteral Nutrition (PN) Safety Results and Implications of the 2025 ASPEN PN Use Survey

• Corporate Symposium: Short Bowel Long Journey Managing Parenteral Nutrition in Complex Adult Patients from ICU to Home

• Current Insights Into Critical Care Nutrition

• Deteriorating Muscle Health in Clinical Conditions – Measuring and Attenuating Muscle Wasting

• Dudrick Research Symposium: The Protein Hype Are We Getting It Right in Aging Obesity and Chronic Disease

• Evolution of Pediatric Weight Management Nutrition and Obesity Medication Therapy

• Fueling the Failing Liver: Nutrition Therapy for Liver Disease

• Intestinotrophic Hormones in Real Patients Today and Tomorrow

• Keynote Address: What is the Future of Nutrition Education? The Next Generation Speaks and the Clinician Responds

• Knowing What to Ask: A Crucially Overlooked Component of Shared Decision Making

• Late-Breaking Updates in Clinical Nutrition: ICD-11 Undernutrition Coding, Multi-Chamber Bag PN Guidance and Augmented Enteral Practice

• Navigating Disordered Eating in Complex Adolescent and Adult GI Patients

• Navigating Home Parenteral Nutrition (HPN): An Interprofessional Team Approach to Pediatric HPN Success

• Navigating the Timely Application of Parenteral Nutrition in Patients Undergoing Solid Organ Transplant

• Nutrition Interventions for Patients With Cardiovascular Diseases: An Outcome-Oriented Approach

• Pediatric Preconference Course: Human Milk and Substitutes Beyond the Basics

• Peggi Guenter Excellence in Clinical Practice Award Lecture: Democratizing Knowledge Strengthening Interprofessional Specialty Care

• Physician Preconference Course: Comprehensive Nutrition Therapy Tactical Approaches in 2026

• Presidents Address: Your Network is Your Net Worth Membership in Professional Organizations Helps Innovate and Saves Lives

• Shift from Ethics as Theory to Ethics in Action: Real-World Clinical Practice

• Stronger Bones in Intestinal Failure: An Interprofessional Healthcare Team Approach

• The ASPEN Nutrition Guidelines for Adult Patients With Head and Neck Cancer

• The Questions Nobody Is Answering: Empirical Responses From the Experts

• Unraveling the POTS, MCAS, and EDS Triad: Gastrointestinal Manifestations and Nutritional Challenges

• Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Patient Care: A 2026 Update

• When Nutrition Gets Surgical: Interprofessional Team Management of Complex Surgical Oncology Cases