Getting Started

What was your first job as an RD?

Food service manager for a contract company using production sheets, sales tracking forms, purchasing and inventory forms, and employee management data bases.

How did you first get into Nutrition Informatics? What sparked your interest?

Started during graduate school performing nutrient analysis and research data management.

What education or training helped you most?

Completed the AMIA 10x10 course. Knowledge of food composition and research project management.

What was your biggest challenge breaking in, and how did you overcome it?

Convincing management that there was enough work for a full-time informatics staff member.

Day-to-Day & Key Skills

What is your current role?

Retired. Currently, I am volunteering for NI DPG.

What does a typical day look like for you?

Answering emails and keeping up to date with AI and new nutrition RD skill sets using informatics.

Must-have technical skills (software/tools):

Observation, editing skills, understanding HL7 standards, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, SAS, project management and communication skills.

Beyond tech, what other skills are essential in this field?

Communication, flexibility, desire for constant learning, and go with the flow.

Has AI impacted your day-to-day work? If so, how?

Added to more learning opportunities.

Resources and Tips

What resources do you swear by for learning?

HL7 courses, Academy DPG education sessions. Professional meetings.

What’s one key tip for someone trying to get into Nutrition Informatics?

Perseverance. Know why your informatics skills will help a prospective employer and market those skills.

How do you stay updated on the latest trends?

Read a lot! News links/papers.

Favorite AI tools, tips, or tricks?

Looking forward to learning more about AI and how I can use it.

The Impact

What do you find most rewarding about working in nutrition informatics?

It requires continuous learning.

Can you share a project you’re proud of and its impact?

Created a method to update food production and delivery service with patient care systems to manage allergy process for patient safety coordinating between two departments.

Getting Started with Amy Bollam

What was your first job as an RD?

My first role as a Registered Dietitian was with Aramark, where I worked as a Clinical RD and provided oversight of the diet office. That early experience—balancing clinical needs, patient safety, tray accuracy, and workflow coordination—gave me invaluable insight into how essential well-designed systems are to supporting nutrition care.

How did you first get into Nutrition Informatics? What sparked your interest?

My interest began when I realized just how much time dietitians spend navigating inefficient systems—manual diet office processes, menu errors, redundant documentation, and disjointed communication. I saw technology as a path to remove these barriers. The opportunity to build or refine tools that improve accuracy, reduce workload, and elevate nutrition care is what initially sparked my passion for informatics.

What education or training helped you most?

My degrees in Dietetics and Nutrition established the clinical foundation, while my Master’s in Human Resources strengthened my skills in leadership, organizational strategy, and change management. Additional training in workflow analysis, health IT, and foodservice systems helped me understand how to transform nutrition workflows through technology.

What was your biggest challenge breaking in, and how did you overcome it?

One of the earliest challenges was learning how to communicate effectively with software developers and technical teams. I overcame this by becoming a bridge—learning the basics of development, APIs, and system design so I could advocate for realistic, user-friendly solutions that align with the needs of dietitians and foodservice operators.

Day-to-Day & Key Skills

What is your current role?

I serve as the Vice President of Strategy for DiningRD, guiding strategic initiatives, product evolution, partnerships, and long-term planning for our nutrition and foodservice technology solutions.

What does a typical day look like for you?

My days blend strategy, collaboration, and problem-solving. I work with product and development teams on enhancements, meet with customers and partners to understand their operational needs, review market trends, and help ensure our technology supports regulatory compliance, workflow efficiency, and a high-quality dining experience for older adults.

Must-have technical skills (software/tools):

Understanding EMRs, menu systems, and integration pathways
Data analysis and dashboard interpretation
Workflow mapping and process design
Basic understanding of APIs and interoperability
Strong knowledge of regulatory requirements that influence nutrition documentation and menu management
Beyond tech, what other skills are essential in this field?
Change management
Clear communication and cross-functional collaboration
Systems thinking
Problem-solving and adaptability
Ability to translate nutrition and workflow needs into technical direction

Has AI impacted your day-to-day work? If so, how?

Yes—AI plays a major role in how I brainstorm, analyze data, and evaluate solutions. It accelerates early-stage content creation, supports predictive insights for operations, helps refine ideas, and enables more efficient strategic planning. AI has also become a valuable tool within our industry, improving menu personalization, forecasting, and workflow automation.

Resources and Tips

What resources do you swear by for learning?

I rely on a blend of nutrition, technology, and industry-focused resources to stay current. Throughout the year, I participate in webinars on AI, workflow automation, and data-driven care, and I routinely take courses that strengthen my skills in data literacy, analytics, and API fundamentals. Because my work sits at the intersection of nutrition, healthcare, and foodservice, I also follow restaurant and consumer dining trend data from groups like Datassential, which provide valuable insights into menu innovation and generational preferences. Industry conferences across senior living, healthcare technology, and foodservice innovation round out my learning and help me stay connected to broader trends shaping the future of dining and nutrition care.

What’s one key tip for someone trying to get into Nutrition Informatics?

Start by observing inefficiencies in your daily workflow—those pain points are often where informatics has the greatest impact. You don’t need to be a developer; you just need curiosity and a desire to build better systems.

How do you stay updated on the latest trends?

I follow AI and health tech leaders, attend webinars, read industry publications, and stay connected with interdisciplinary colleagues who are shaping innovation in aging services and healthcare.

Favorite AI tools, tips, or tricks?

I use generative AI for brainstorming, data interpretation, workflow analysis, and early-stage drafting. My biggest tip: treat AI as a thought partner, but always apply your professional judgment. Learning basic prompt engineering also goes a long way.

Has the NI DPG been helpful on your journey? If so, how?

Absolutely—the community, resources, and thought leadership have helped broaden my perspective on the role dietitians can play in shaping technology.

The Impact

What do you find most rewarding about working in nutrition informatics?

I love seeing technology remove barriers for dietitians and foodservice operators. When a system reduces stress, increases accuracy, and ultimately improves care for patients or residents, it reinforces why informatics is so important.

Can you share a project you’re proud of and its impact?

One project I’m especially proud of is the evolution of DiningRD’s Tableside solution, which has grown significantly since its inception more than ten years ago. The idea for Tableside was inspired by my early experience in acute care, where I watched room service dining transform the patient experience through personalization, efficiency, and choice. I became passionate about bringing that same level of innovation to senior living and post-acute care—settings where dining has an equally profound impact on wellbeing and satisfaction. From the start, our focus has been balancing meaningful technological advancement with an intuitive, user-friendly design. Today, Tableside has evolved into a robust platform that enhances resident choice, improves order accuracy, strengthens communication across care teams, and streamlines the workflow for operators. Seeing how this tool has empowered staff, reduced errors, and elevated the dining experience across hundreds of communities has been incredibly rewarding, and it continues to guide how we design technology with both innovation and usability at the forefront.

Getting Started

What was your first job as an RD?

I worked for a nonprofit community organization as a Food Service Manager/Nutrition Educator, where I oversaw operations for government-funded programs. I then moved on to clinical and management roles.

How did you first get into Nutrition Informatics? What sparked your interest?

I assisted with an EMR transition as a clinical RD and enjoyed the work related to this implementation. A new opportunity arose to do this work on a larger scale with clinical and food service software programs, so I applied and was hired. I developed programs and processes and was largely self-taught related to this field.

What education or training helped you most?

My MS degree in Organizational Management set a solid foundation to work in this field. Seeking information on informatics and project management, and being a self-directed learner has been key to success. Reviewing the Project Management Book of Knowledge and the Google Classroom Project Management Certificate courses has also been very helpful.

What was your biggest challenge breaking in, and how did you overcome it?

The job required technical knowledge in subjects unrelated to dietetics, such as system architecture, software installation and configuration, VPN access, hardware, translation tables, change control, and project management—areas in which I did not have formal instruction. I asked a lot of clarifying questions and researched online and with experts to learn as much as possible about these areas.

Day-to-Day & Key Skills

What is your current role?

I work as a remote Project Manager/Clinical Informatics Specialist for a clinical and food service management company. I oversee and am involved in the details of clinical and food service software implementations and system integrations with our client partners.

What does a typical day look like for you?

It ranges from providing guidance to team members on project planning and implementation strategies, to software, hardware, or interface troubleshooting, to database programming and testing, to training and development, to task coordination with project teams. I spend a lot of my days on conference calls and working with others to bring projects to life, all while ensuring patient safety, and customer and client satisfaction.

Must-have technical skills (software/tools):

Knowledge of related system architecture, software applications/hardware, VPNs, virtual communications platforms, change control processes, and project management.

Beyond tech, what other skills are essential in this field?

Knowledge of and experience in project management is important. Flexibility, eagerness to learn, excellent organizational skills, ability to multitask, and a growth mindset are key to success.

Has AI impacted your day-to-day work? If so, how?

No. Our work requires integration of many departments and concepts, as well as clinical application of data. There’s a lot of manual work related to clinical judgment and strategy that I’m not sure can be easily replicated by AI that is currently available in the marketplace.

Resources and Tips

What resources do you swear by for learning?

Google Career Certificate Programs courses, Project Management Book of Knowledge, Google searches, YouTube, regulatory websites, and software vendor websites are some of my key resources.

What’s one key tip for someone trying to get into Nutrition Informatics?

Volunteer for tech- and/or project-related opportunities to gain experience. Offer to assist with projects that stretch beyond the field of nutrition.

How do you stay updated on the latest trends?

I’m enrolled in email newsletters from many resources and browse these regularly. I attend free industry webinars that are tech related.

Favorite AI tools, tips, or tricks?

I don’t [use AI], but would like to learn more about this area!

Has the NI DPG been helpful on your journey? If so, how?

Yes, I’ve learned a lot from newsletters, webinars, and communications. It’s great to see what other RDs are working on and involved in.

The Impact

What do you find most rewarding about working in nutrition informatics?

I love bringing complex projects to life to help add value to the products and services we offer to our clients, staff, and patients. It’s extremely challenging and also very rewarding work!

Can you share a project you’re proud of and its impact?

I worked with our team to develop standardized healthcare recipes and menu cycles, and then programmed these and typical formulary items into two different platforms with appropriate allergen and diet compliance coding. These have been used as a data source over the past nine years for the customized development of 23 databases with 16 EMR interfaces which serve over 48 client partner sites and millions of patients! Our team has grown from one (just me!) to eight Clinical Informatics Specialists staff in that same time frame. It’s very rewarding to see hard work and dedication result in growth and development of myself and others!

Getting Started

What was your first job as an RD?

As a relief RD a the VA in Salt Lake City

How did you first get into Nutrition Informatics? What sparked your interest?

Working on Project Improvement/Quality Assurance

What education or training helped you most?

My Research background, working as a research assistant in Academia Sinica and University of Utah.

What was your biggest challenge breaking in, and how did you overcome it?

Collecting meaningful data with limited resources. Reading research papers to understand meaningful metrics and knowing the right people to work with to make it happen.

Day-to-Day & Key Skills

What is your current role?

System Director of Nutrition at NYC Health and Hospitals

What does a typical day look like for you?

Help the system to improve quality care of nutrition for our patients/residents and modify business plan based on the whole picture from collecting meaningful data and analyzing data to come out meaningful plans.

Must-have technical skills (software/tools):

Epic, excel, google form, google sheet, powerpoint, canva, ChatGPT, video editor

Beyond tech, what other skills are essential in this field?

Able to use simple chat/picture to tell the story

Has AI impacted your day-to-day work? If so, how?

Not day-to-day work however will use it sometime if doable since can’t use too much AI because of HIPPA.

Resources and Tips

What resources do you swear by for learning?

Google, chartGPT, Youtube

What’s one key tip for someone trying to get into Nutrition Informatics?

Starting a quality assurance/project improvement to improve patient outcome then get hands-on with data tools (remember to get data from tool not manually).

How do you stay updated on the latest trends?

Read research papers and willing to test/try new apps, especially take chances to learn from your dietetic interns (new generation)

The Impact

What do you find most rewarding about working in nutrition informatics?

Instead of helping one patient at a time, you get to design systems and workflows that influence hundreds or thousands and taking messy dietary, clinical, or foodservice data and organizing it into dashboards or decision-support tools that actually change practice.

Can you share a project you’re proud of and its impact?

Improving Malnutrition Care Score to reduce 30 days Readmission Rate. Use equity data to target the right population (elderly , food insecurity, and substance abuse) on continuing care after discharge from the hospital. Pull malnutrition revenue/30d readmission/length of stay impact to help recognize works from registered dietitians.

Getting Started

What was your first job as an RD?

I worked as the sole RD at a facility that included a SNF, long-term vent unit, acute rehab unit, and a memory care unit. I enjoyed it immensely and had great mentorship.

How did you first get into Nutrition Informatics? What sparked your interest?

My company decided to implement an EMR that all providers would use for documentation. At the time, we were using McKesson, and while the clinical team documented in the EMR, providers were still handwriting their orders and notes. I joined the super user team for clinical nutrition and realized how much I enjoyed integrating systems to improve both patient care and team productivity.

What education or training helped you most?

On-the-job training and validating information were key. I learned that you don’t fully understand the system until you use it daily and encounter real-world issues. I also discovered the importance of knowing your resources—it definitely helps to have a friend on the informatics build team!

What was your biggest challenge breaking in, and how did you overcome it?

Being overconfident in my understanding of workflows. I overcame this by becoming more curious—shadowing others, observing workflows, and asking more questions.

Day-to-Day & Key Skills

What is your current role?

Regional Clinical Nutrition Manager for Northwestern Medicine’s northwest region.

What does a typical day look like for you?

4–6 AM: Help my team check in and organize for the day. Although RDs have assigned floors, we ensure the workload is balanced across rounds, students, and patient care. Each RD typically has 9–10 patients on their list.
6–7 AM: Perform one chart audit and check emails.
7–8 AM: Commute to work onsite.
8–9 AM: Attend safety huddles and catch up on emails.
9–11 AM: Project work and high-priority meetings—this is when I do my best thinking.
11–11:30 AM: Lunch break.
11:30 AM: Operations huddle.
2 PM: Regional Teams virtual huddle (15 minutes).
2:30–3 PM: 1:1 meetings with team members.
3–3:30 PM: Wrap up emails and professional volunteer tasks.
Evening: Occasionally attend professional meetings.

Must-have technical skills (software/tools):

Microsoft Suite (Word, Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, To-Do, Teams)
Canva
AI tools (CoPilot / ChatGPT)

Beyond tech, what other skills are essential in this field?

Has AI impacted your day-to-day work? If so, how?

Absolutely! AI helps me write emails, communicate with different personality types, summarize thoughts, and brainstorm. I use it several times a day.

Resources and Tips

What resources do you swear by for learning?

Canva – Great for making information look professional.
ChatGPT – My go-to AI tool. If you haven’t started using it, now’s the time—it’s here to stay.
Podcasts – I use Spotify to explore topics I’m interested in and follow groups I want to learn more about.

What’s one key tip for someone trying to get into Nutrition Informatics?

Start volunteering! You’ll be surprised how welcoming the community is, and you’ll build a strong network of resources.

How do you stay updated on the latest trends?

Podcasts are my preferred method—I can listen while doing other tasks. My fave are: How to be a better Human, The Lazy Genius, Work Life with Adam Grant, The AI Daily Brief.

Favorite AI tools, tips, or tricks?

If something is time-consuming or challenging, AI can help. My biggest tip: get really good at prompting! Tell the AI who you are and what you want. Be specific about what to include or exclude. And if you’re unsure how to prompt—just ask the AI! It will guide you.

Has the NI DPG been helpful on your journey? If so, how?

The NI DPG has been so helpful to connect me with other RD's that like informatics and I love how the tech fairs make me think about new innovative ways to collaborate with other companies!

The Impact

What do you find most rewarding about working in nutrition informatics?

I love being able to influence my team’s productivity by improving workflows and accessing reports that help us stay laser-focused on our goals.

Can you share a project you’re proud of and its impact?

As a CNM, I know it’s crucial that our team understands, documents, and intervenes for malnutrition. A few years ago, I was part of a QI interdisciplinary group that developed tools to streamline this process. We created a “smartphrase” that allowed RD documentation to flow directly into provider notes. This changed how providers viewed malnutrition—they no longer had to rewrite notes, just embed the smartphrase. As a result, our malnutrition capture significantly improved and now leads the organization. The work was even published in a QI journal, which was very exciting! Read the article here!