title: Metabolic Diet App Suite for inborn errors of amino acid metabolism.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  An increasing number of rare inborn errors of metabolism (IEMs) are amenable to targeted metabolic nutrition therapy. Daily adherence is important to attain metabolic control and prevent organ damage. This is challenging however, given the lack of information of disorder specific nutrient content of foods, the limited availability and cost of specialty products as well as difficulties in reliable calculation and tracking of dietary intake and targets.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop apps for all inborn errors of amino acid metabolism for which the mainstay of treatment is a medical diet, and obtain patient and family feedback throughout the process to incorporate this into subsequent versions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Metabolic Diet App Suite was created with input from health care professionals as a free, user-friendly, online tool for both mobile devices and desktop computers (http://www.metabolicdietapp.org) for 15 different IEMs. General information is provided for each IEM with links to useful online resources. Nutrient information is based on the MetabolicPro™, a North American food database compiled by the Genetic Metabolic Dietitians International (GMDI) Technology committee. After user registration, a personalized dashboard and management plan including specific nutrient goals are created. Each Diet App has a user-friendly interface and the functions include: nutrient intake counts, adding your own foods and homemade recipes and, managing a daily food diary. Patient and family feedback was overall positive and specific suggestions were used to further improve the App Suite.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Metabolic Diet App Suite aids individuals affected by IEMs to track and plan their meals. Future research should evaluate its impact on patient adherence, metabolic control, quality of life and health-related outcomes. The Suite will be updated and expanded to Apps for other categories of IEMs. Finally, this Suite is a support tool only, and does not replace medical/metabolic nutrition professional advice.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemical Diseases, BC Children's Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Gloria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemical Diseases, BC Children's Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ueda
authors.affiliation: Health2Media, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Roderick F A
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Houben
authors.affiliation: Health2Media, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Joa
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemical Diseases, BC Children's Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Alette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Giezen
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemical Diseases, BC Children's Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemical Diseases, BC Children's Hospital, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Department of Pediatrics, Centre for Molecular Medicine & Therapeutics, Child and Family Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Electronic address: cvankarnebeek@cw.bc.ca.
authors.forename: Clara D M
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: van Karnebeek
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000592:Amino Acid Metabolism, Inborn Errors / Q000178:diet therapy*; D004032:Diet; D004035:Diet Therapy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D010349:Patient Compliance; D011788:Quality of Life; D012984:Software
keywords: Diet; Digital technology; Inherited metabolic diseases; Medical nutrition therapy; Rare disease; Treatment