e-plate- Making your nutrition easy
Project Street Address
Project City
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Focus of activity
Technology
Year the initiative began (yyyy)
2005
Which of these barriers is the primary focus of your work?
Health care not consumer friendly
Which of the principles is the primary focus of your work?
Simplify through technology
If you believe some other barrier or principle should be included in the mosaic, please describe it and how it would affect the positioning of your initiative in the mosaic:
This field has not been completed
Name Your Project
e-plate- Making your nutrition easy
Describe Your Idea
Define the innovation
Millions of Americans have some type of nutrition related problem or disease. While studies indicate Americans are eating better than in the 1980; tens of millions have poor diets and are overweight. One in three non-elderly adults are overweight. One in five children are risk for being overweight. Obesity is linked to an increase in chronic disease. Almost 90% of Americans have diets that need to be improved. The New Food Pyramid, Dietary Guidelines and the Nutrition labels are still not understood and used by the majority of Americans. The use of a product "e-plates developed by
a certified diabetes educator/registers Dietitians and a system administrator would provide a visible way to learn and understand nutrition with a visible tool. Consumer would be able to accces the site and get an assessment of caloric needs and be able to use on site as well download copies of their plates along with the nutrition information for their food items. The plates method have been used for many years to promote weight loss and improve blood sugar control. Currently there is not such meethod available on the internet. e-plate is an innovate way for consumers to choose their meals, place items on the plate, understand the nutrition content of these items on a daily basis. Copies of these plates can be sent to their health care professional for evaluation and immediate feedback to assist in the client's nutrition goals. The product is easy to use, accessible and simple. Other nutrition tools have been reported to be difficult to understand and clients have reported that nutrition is one of the difficult component of lifestyle change to undertand. If we are to make a national impact on chaning the course of obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes in children and adult; we need to find a easy. visual way to understand nutrition. e-plate is the answer.
Context for Disruption:
More than 20 millions Americans have diabetes. 67% of Americans are overweight e-plate have the potential to improve the nutritional status of millions of americans. Lifestyle changes are difficult for children,adolescent and adults. Nutrition is a crucial part of these changes and is very difficult to understand and implement. e-plate is an innovative way for clients to learn the nutrient content of meals and have a visual cue to assist in making healthy food choice. For years, we have used many tools to educate the public on healhty eating without a huge impact. e-plate has the potential to
impact the consumer to make better food choices, select balanced meal plan and improve nutrition on a daily basis, Along with exercise, making healthy food choices in meals planning serve as the most important resources for Americans. Using e-plate as a visual cue along the nutrient content that is available at the click of button will motivate the client to stick to the meal plan long-term. Food can be purchased in the grocery store instead of buying expensive food from weight loss compnaies. e-plate will make it easy to see portion sizes and at the same time understand the nutrient content of that portion. e-plate has the potential to revolutionize meal planning. Americans have reported probems in understanding the food labels, Food Pyramid and the Dietary Guideline for Americans.
By using e-plate, clients can use the model to fit their nutrition needs with their favorite foods.
Persons with diabetes can use the method to count carbohydrates and control blood sugars.
People with heart disease can track their fat and cholesterol intake. Clients can increase their knowlege of the food they are consuming meal by meal. The plates along with portion sizes can be forwarded to the health care professional for evalution and recommendations.
Delivery Model
A plate model for meal planning was first described in 1970 in the Swedish magazine"Var Naring" ((Our Nourishment). In the early 1980, several health care professional in Sweden produced a booklet to help clients easily select healthful meals with accectable portion sizes without measuring.
e-plate is an internet-based program. The internet is widely available on cell phones, PDA"S and in the library, and senior and community centers. All americans could have access to the program. Each client would be able to : 1) input personal data in profile page(age, gender, height weight, food prefernces) 2) Calulate Body Mass Index and caloric needs,3) Select their favorite foods, 4) click on areas of the plate and have the nutrition composition of their selection appear, 5) plan the whole days meals and download the visual plates to take with the,6) Plan snacks, 7) automatically produce a shopping list to purchase foods for the weeks, 8) Be able to see the caloric content, and other nutrient of each meals along with the visual cue of the plate. The plate produces a picture of the foods so that clients can truly see for the first time how the portion sizes impact the calories, fat and carbohydates content of a food items. Clients of the author are really surprised by the portion sizes and how easy it is to overeat. The plates method along with nutrient content could truly impact the knowledge base fo the clients about food. Other site give the nutrient content of meals without a visual. e-plate will be the first interactive site to be able to produce a profound picture of food on a plate with known content.
Key Operational Partnerships
The author (a RD/CDE and a system engineer have developed the model for e-plate. It has been tested on several professionals as well consumers. The regular plate method have been used by millions in the US and other countries with hugh success . e-plate would take this method into the age of technology. The proposal would require partnership with healthcare professional, system designers and programmers, local faith-based group, senior and community centers and clients. The author have worked in the community for years. She done classes and programs for faith based groups, worksites and senior and community centers. The author started Diabetes Expo, an event for thousands, in 1999. She is involved with the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association and the Tarrant County Diabetes Collaboration. The author has developed weight loss classes for children and adults. iLifestyle is the computer based company involved in the design and
implementation of the internet site. Options and iLifestyle have worked together to refine and test the program until a lack of funding halted the project. The author currently does nutrition counseling in senior centers and would promote this relationship. All of the senior centers have several computers and internet service.
Financial Model
The program has the potential for consumers to have an easy to use nutrition tool that they can see and understand the nutrient composition of food. A $5000.00 grant would allow the author to place the program on a server again and beta-test the program at senior and community centers. With the grant, we could refine some of the program features and evaluate the prgram for cost-benefit. The amount of money needed for bring the concept to fully operatonal is over $500.00 to allow for the following1) recruiting and hiring designers and programmers to debug the program and add features to make the program more consumer friendly, 2) make the website more effective and user-friendly, 3) purchase a good nutrition-data base instead of the free limited one we have now 4) pay staff-RD/CDE and
system engineer a salary.
The final products could be make available to the general public after development for a fee comparable to other such programs.
What is your annual operating budget?
0.00
What are your current sources of revenue? (please list any sources that are foundation grants)
Funding has come from the author and the system engineer.
Effectiveness
e-plate will result in a tool that can be used by the average individual to understand the nutrient content of the food items consumed. With the regular plate methods, studies in the US, UK and Canada have reported weight loss and better blood sugar control for the patients. Clients feels the plate method is easy and requires less time, e-plate will simplifyy meal planning, empower clients to take control of food choices, provide a tool that will help clients to reduce and decrease barriers to good healhty eating. e-plate allows clients to use a visual tool that be followed for life.
Which element of the program proved itself most effective?
e-plate allows the client to see portions sizes and related the nutrient to the portion. Clients are able to make wise food choices because the plate is divide and allow the portions sizes to be very easy to estimate without measuring. Food labeling and the Food pyramid are diffucult to understand and few Americans use these method for long periods of time. In order to chnage lifestyle, changes must be easy and simple for the consumers to maintain for long period of time.
Number of clients in the last year?
At least 50 clients have used the program.
What is the potential demand?
Millions of Americans can improve their nutrition status with the program. Long term complications from obesity and diabetes could be reduce with improve meal planning and exercise. The increase cost of disease could be reduce and the quality of life increased.
Scaling up Strategy
Year 1-Hire designers and programmer
Debug program
Design and refine webpage
Promote program to worksites, school for additional testing
Program evaluation
Year 2
Hire additional healthcare staff
expand website
update server
Expand service to all area of the community
Program evaluuation
Year 3
Program should be able to operate on it own.
Activity for each year is solely to get the program fully operational.
Stage of the initiative:
1
Expansion plan:
Year 1-we will place the program on the server, beta-test, debug and refine the program and website. Hire staff to set up server; design web page and evaluate the improvements.
Year 2- Refine the program based on consumer input; hire additional healtcare staff, expand the program to other community locations and the general public.
Year 3- the program is fully operational and widely available to the general public.
Origin of the Initiative
The author has over 30 years experience in healthcare. The author is a Registered Dietitian/Certified Diabetes Educator and a leader in working with low income persons in all types of communitysetting. The author started using the regular plate method in individual and group counseling. Client have reported 10 to 100 pounds weight loss using the tool. Expanding the plate method to the internet would provide an easy to use tool for millions to have to make changes in their eating habits. The author understand the clients need to have easy to use tool that do not consume their daily routine.
This Entry is about (Issues)
What are your two main challenges to finance the growth of your initiative
Lack of funding have stopped the program. The partnership have spent numerous hours designing and implementing e-plate. We removed the program from the server until we could raise additional capital to continue the project.
Our next challenge have been to have a complete program evaluation. We need a good food data base to determine the accuracy of the nutrient content of our food items. We need $500.000 during the first year and about $250.000 during the second year. We would expect to be fully operational and on our own in year 3.
How did you hear about this contest and what is your main incentive to participate?
I was checking the Robert Wood site for possible funding my work in the community.
Do you have an annual financial statement?
No.
Do you currently have an annual financial statement that tracks profit/loss?
No.
Please describe the amount (and/or type) of funding you need to implement your initiative, at year 1 and at year 5.
Year 1=$500,000
Recruit and hire systemdesigner and programmers
Design and refine webpage
Set-up and maintain server
Hire healthcare professional
Market program
Program evaluation
Year 2
Hire additional healthcare professionals
Update server
Refine webpage
Market program
Expand client base
Year 3 Program is fully operational and able to operate on its own.
 | Joice Carter said: Joice Carter MS RD LD CDE e-plate is different from other site that just track your nutrient in the linear format. Our plate will ... about this idea. - 972 days ago read more > |
| Marston Alfred said: Hey guys, Just wanted to say your project looks cool, although I see many similar to it online now (Though I'm sure you have ... about this idea. - 975 days ago read more > |
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