Bradley Johnston

Dr. Bradley Johnston is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Nutrition, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Texas A&M University. His work involves quality of life measurement, and the application of randomized trial, systematic review, meta-analysis and for clinical and public health guideline recommendation methods to a wide range of areas, with a particular interest in Evidence-Based Nutrition.

As the Co-Chair of the Canadian Pediatric Obesity Management Guidelines and the Director and Co-founder of EvidenceBasedNutrition.org, he leads an international consortium of researchers and research trainees developing high quality, value-added systematic reviews and guideline recommendations on clinical (e.g. pediatric obesity management) and public health nutrition questions (e.g. red meat, salt substitutes). As a thought leader in evidence-based nutrition practice and policy, he regularly leads and contributes to seminars, workshops and educational articles (e.g. Nutrition Users’ Guides) on evidence-based decision-making for clinicians, patients and members of the public. In the past five years, he has held funding from the National Institute of Health NIDDK, Obesity Canada, Texas A&M’s Center for Teaching Excellence, Provost Fund and AgriLife Research; he does not accept speaker fees, funding/renumeration from industry.

Evidence-Based Nutrition Practice and Policy: A Standardized Competency Training Program

Based on a 2024 systematic literature review of evidence-based practice and policy (EBPP) competencies, there is a pressing need for nutrition-focused, EBPP skills training for nutrition professionals and students. While numerous successful models exist in medicine (e.g. McMaster, Duke, Oxford University), standardized, in-depth EBPP competencies have not been systematically implemented into nutrition training. A new EBPP graduate and health professional competency training model based on core reading materials is underway given the unique challenges within the nutrition discipline, including observational study confounding, practice guidelines that may not adhere to international methodological standards, and the observed heterogeneous EBPP guidance from national bodies that regulate nutrition and dietetics. Together with internationally recognized nutrition and EBPP experts with a distinct portfolio of teaching and research skills, this presentation will provide an overview of the training materials both available and under development.