[9th Jesús Culebras Lecture: "The value of clinical nutrition"]

The word "value" encompasses different concepts but it is probably the importance we give to something and its usefulness that best brings us conceptually closer to its meaning. In this text we analyze the reasons why it is necessary to value the usefulness of nutritional therapy. The development of a new discipline, Nutrition Economics, should help us to create value in Clinical Nutrition by incorporating economic evaluation into their research. It also reviews the importance of economic analysis in decision-making and in more detail the very useful tools also used in the field of nutrition economics, such as cost-of-disease studies, cost-effectiveness studies and budget impact. We analyze different works that have allowed us to advance in these fields in recent years. Finally, the difficulties related to the financing of nutrition in the centers as well as the regulation of enteral nutrition in the home are analyzed. The creation of value in clinical nutrition is a task for everyone (healthcare professionals, patients, managers and the pharmaceutical industry).