Digital future of dietetics: EU project E+DIETing_LAB revolutionizes training!

Digital future of dietetics: EU project E+DIETing_LAB revolutionizes training!

The international EU project “E+DIETing_LAB” for the training of dieticians concluded on June 13, 2025. Over the past three years, a dedicated team of dietitians and IT experts, led by the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, has developed an innovative digital platform. This platform, which offers virtual avatars, is designed to help dietetics students improve their consulting skills before working with real patients.

The program has promoted collaboration between six European institutions, including the University of Valladolid, the University of Porto, the AP Hogeschool Antwerp and the Jan Kochanowski University. These countries, on the other hand, have come into contact with a diverse audience. Over 1,000 participants from Austria, Spain, Belgium, Poland and Portugal were involved in the project. According to project manager Thomas Prola, this commitment shows the importance of European cooperation in the training of health professions.

Innovative learning opportunities and successful results

Among the project's key achievements is the development of a virtual patient chatbot platform that enables students to conduct simulated dietary consultations in six languages. This not only expands the future dietitians' language skills, but also improves their clinical reasoning and anamnesis. The virtual clinic, which is also part of the project, offers telemedical consultations under professional supervision and has already attracted 270 participants in the pilot phase.

Feedback from the pilot phase is encouraging: over 75% of community members reported increased awareness of healthy eating habits. These findings underline the positive impact of the digital platform on public health.

Sustainability and future prospects

A special toolkit has been developed to ensure the sustainable implementation of digital learning methods in dietetics. Partner institutes have committed to further developing the platform and the virtual clinic for at least three more years. The materials are made available as open source so that they can be used by other educational institutions.

The project's award is particularly noteworthy: E+DIETing_LAB was awarded first place in the "People's Choice" category of the "Triple E Awards", which further underlines the recognition and success of the project in the educational landscape. Funding was provided by the EU Erasmus+ program and coordination was by the European Atlantic University in Spain. This comprehensive support shows the value and necessity of such innovative educational offerings.

The “E+DIETing_LAB” project therefore represents a significant step in the development of modern training approaches for dieticians, which both improves the quality of training and promotes the health of the population.