Emma Whitmore is a Medical Science Liaison at Nutricia. She describes how her role involves providing educational resources and training to healthcare professionals (HCPs) and improving treatment pathways in the NHS, and why nutrition is so important in healthcare. 

I studied Nutrition and Dietetics on the Sunshine Coast in Australia and spent around eight years working across hospitals, including intensive care, cardiology and oncology, which I absolutely loved. But opportunities in that space were limited back home, and moving to London opened up a whole new level of experience. I’ve worked across major trauma, liver units and oncology, which is an area that’s especially close to my heart.

After three years in the NHS, I was ready for a new challenge. I came across the Medical Science Liaison (MSL) role at Nutricia, and it felt like the perfect fit, still working closely with clinicians, but with the opportunity to have a broader impact, particularly in oncology.

At its core, my role is about bridging the gap between science and clinical practice. A big part of what I do is translate complex evidence into something practical and usable for healthcare professionals. For example, I produce a monthly oncology digest that brings together the latest research and turns it into clear, actionable insights for clinicians.

Alongside that, I deliver education and training, whether that’s supporting dietitians, upskilling nurses in nutrition screening, or working with wider multi disciplinary teams (MDTs) to improve how nutrition is embedded into care. A lot of this is about empowering teams to act earlier, so patients receive the right nutritional support at the right time. For example, a lot of the work I do within oncology means working with oncology teams to highlight the importance of nutrition as a core pillar of cancer care - and that’s an incredibly rewarding aspect of my job. As a result, the other major aspect of my role involves helping teams in the NHS to improve treatment pathways so that nutrition is offered earlier in the patient journey.

I’m not a creature of habit so I love that every day is different.  I’m usually out in hospitals a few days a week, working directly with teams on education sessions or service improvement projects. The rest of the time is spent collaborating with colleagues, developing resources, and driving initiatives like our oncology digest, which now reaches hundreds of healthcare professionals each month. I just love the amount of variety in my workdays, and the opportunities that this provides to be really creative, while also demanding practicality in day-to-day oncology care and how we incorporate initiatives and education into the NHS. 

One of the more challenging aspects of the role is helping clinicians understand that MSLs are non-promotional. The role that we’re assigned is to add value in a way where we’re not associated with selling a product; we’re purely here to improve oncology services and keep clinicians up to date.  As the role is still relatively new in the UK, there’s been a learning curve. But once that trust is built, the feedback has been incredible. Teams really value having someone who can simplify complex concepts and help turn ideas into real, practical change. Because this is quite a new role - created about 12 months ago within Nutricia in the UK - we’re still navigating that dynamic and distinguishing ourselves from the commercial side of the business, aligning ourselves more with Medical Affairs. Clinicians are gradually getting to grips with the fact that we’re not going in to sell a product, but to provide a clinical service. Once they understand this we get incredible feedback; we had a response from one of our site leads saying that we have an ability to make these big, challenging concepts seem really easy and actionable. So our key role is to be that person who can help pull improvement projects through and educate staff, making clear that we have so much value to add. 

What’s wonderful about Nutricia is that it is a patient-centred company. It's focus is on supporting clinicians to deliver high value care that improves outcomes for patients. We’re constantly asking: how can we add value? Whether that’s through education, pathway development, or bringing new insights into practice. The MSL role is really unique in that regard, in that we’re able to help add value where dietitians need it, keeping them up to date so they can improve their services. It’s hard for them to do these things without help when they’re seeing hundreds of patients every day; they often just don’t have the capacity as they are so focused on patient care - so we can really help them evolve their service. 

Nutrition makes such a difference in patients’ lives and we will always advocate for it. Nutrition plays such a fundamental role in health, yet it’s often overlooked, especially in areas like cancer care, where the focus is naturally on treatment. But patients are more than their treatment plans. Supporting their nutrition, alongside physical and psychological wellbeing, is essential for delivering truly high-quality care. It’s incredibly rewarding work, making sure that nutrition is a priority for everyone - not just for dietitians.

That’s what makes this role so rewarding. Being able to advocate for nutrition, support clinicians, and ultimately improve patient outcomes, it’s exactly why I do what I do. I’m so proud to work for a company like Nutricia that puts health at the forefront of everything we do. My mission throughout my career has been to help my patients on their journey towards better health, often through disease management. And to be part of a company like Nutricia, which shares that mission, makes it even more meaningful.