RealChoices, Duke Diet & Fitness Center

Overview

RealChoices was developed for the Duke Diet & Fitness Center, a leading multi-disciplinary residential weight loss program. Faced with an outdated, paper-based menu and food ordering system that hindered personalization and efficiency, they approached SciMed to build an advanced electronic platform. Our goal was to create a solution that empowered clients with better nutritional insights while significantly streamlining operations for staff.

Challenges

Replacing their manual system involved meeting a precise set of success criteria to enhance both client experience and operational efficiency. The Duke Diet & Fitness Center needed a system capable of:

• Allowing clients to easily tally calories, macronutrients, and sodium in their food orders, alongside comprehensive ingredient lists.

• Supporting diverse diet options and guiding clients' food choices within specific dietary frameworks.

• Enabling clients to specify food allergies from a common list, with automated warnings for allergen-containing selections.

• Providing nutrition staff with robust tools to review, modify, and approve weekly menu orders for each client.

• Sending automated reminders to clients who hadn't placed orders by weekly deadlines.

• Automatically tallying ordered menu items and ingredients for the Food Service team, optimizing meal planning and inventory.

• Seamlessly importing existing and new recipes, including ingredients and nutritional analysis, from their "Food Processor SQL" software to eliminate duplicate data entry.

Our approach

As with all our projects, we began by immersing ourselves in their operational nuances, asking detailed questions and brainstorming solutions to ensure the most efficient and effective system design. Early on, we tackled the complex rules governing food choices – considering individual diets, allergies, dietitian recommendations, and meal times. The Duke Diet & Fitness Center team noted this thoroughness, saying:

I was surprised by the attention to every detail in the planning process. By asking so many questions, they were able to really tailor the program to meet our needs.

We recognized that successful weight loss is highly personal, so the system needed to be flexible without undermining the crucial dietitian-client relationship. We developed a robust framework allowing dietitians to set personalized "guardrails" for each participant, including dietary goals and menu item restrictions, alongside a structured review and approval process for all submitted orders. Participants could then independently select meals, note allergies, and adhere to their tailored plans. This attention to detail and personalization was highly valued by users, as the Duke Diet & Fitness Center shared:

Clients were VERY pleased with the updated system - it made our program stand out among other similar programs.

Given that many program participants were new to or unfamiliar with technology, ease of use and an intuitive interface were paramount. We continuously reviewed wireframes and development progress with stakeholders, ensuring the user interface was approachable and confidence-inspiring.

Moreover, system uptime was critical; any downtime during meal service could disrupt operations and compromise clients' dietary adherence. We designed and implemented a comprehensive business continuity plan for the team to rely on. This included making all participant menus accessible offline, allowing manual meal service even if RealChoices was temporarily unavailable. Working closely with the Duke IT team, we proactively troubleshot and resolved issues, ensuring minimal service disruption.

Results

SciMed successfully launched RealChoices and provided dedicated support to the Duke Diet & Fitness Center for three years. The new system delivered transformative results, enabling their team to:

• Track specific nutrient intakes for clients with unprecedented ease and precision, leading to more effective nutritional guidance and better client success.

• Achieve a huge improvement in time management for food service staff, eliminating hours of manual tallying of menu items and missed meals each week.

• Accurately track missed meals, a capability that significantly improved client success rates within the program.

• Ensure precise protein content in ordered meals, a critical dietary factor previously impossible to consistently monitor before the RealChoices system.