New Features:
- Advanced Nutrition Formula Selection: The app now intelligently selects nutrition formulas based on patient data.
- Formula Volume Calculation: The algorithm uses linear programming to minimize total nutrition volume while ensuring the patient's daily caloric and protein needs are met within a 10% margin.
About the Algorithm:
The new algorithm calculates the volume of each nutrition formula needed while adhering to the following constraints:
- Caloric Needs: The total calories provided by the selected nutrition formulas must be within ±10% of the patient's total daily requirement.
- Protein Requirements: The total protein amount is either equal to or up to 10% less than the total daily requirement.
- Protein Powder Limitation: Protein powder quantities are limited to a maximum of 15g (based on an educated guess).
- Small Drink Limitation: Small drink formulas are capped at a maximum of 3 bottles (600 ml), as per manufacturer instructions.
- Minimum Economic Volumes: Where possible, the recommended volume for each nutrition formula will be at least half of the smallest package to ensure economic use.
- Health Conditions: For each additional health condition the patient has, a specific nutrition formula is added to the mix. If the calculation becomes infeasible, the algorithm may skip some formulas and ignore lower volume bounds.
If the initial calculation becomes unsolvable due to constraints, the algorithm will adjust and retry with relaxed bounds to ensure feasible results.
Known Issues:
- Layout issues may occur when resizing the window.
- Some calculations might still be infeasible even with relaxed constratins. If such situation occurs in the field, the error will pop up. Please take a screenshot of all inputs/outputs and send them to the developer.
This release provides a robust approach to calculating personalized nutrition volumes, making it easier for healthcare professionals to meet the unique dietary needs of each patient.