May 2008 - Congratualtions to Dr Helen Cross and Dr Elizabeth Neal for the publication of the Ketogenic Trial findings.  We wish you every sucess in promoting the diet.

Ketogenic diet and EKM (Electronic Ketogenic Manager)

We have worked with the Institute of Child Health in London to develop a Ketogenic calculator.  This program allows dieticians and, those parents that wish, the ability to fine tune or even create meal plans with accurately calculated ratios and Fat/Protein/Carbohydrate intake.  It must be stressed that this is NOT a substitute for a medically supervised diet.  This program must be used with the close supervision of a ketogenic dietician and medical supervision.  It is available with all foods from the "The Composition of Foods" data set (version 6) - we have negotiated for this data (limited to Fat/Protein/Carbohydrate only) to be available free with the program.  However, any food can be entered directly into the program thus EKM can be used with a small personal selection of foods or a vast range from the data set provided.

The one condition we made to develop such a program is that it would be made available free to any parent that requires it.  We believe that there should be no financial obstacle to any child with epilepsy.  In reality this is not the case as such children require special help for many years.  However, we hope that this program will help in some way to lessen that burden.

EKM has completed final testing now and is now available for general use.  Click here for the latest news on EKM

1) If you are a parent then send a email request to us or your dietician.  This will be confirmed with your dietician and once the request is sanctioned then a email will be sent with download details and a password.

2) If you are a dietician then please email us your request.  A down load link and password will be sent.

Email address for download requests:        ekm@edm2000.com

Cost of EKM:                                                    Free* to all parents and dieticians.

* Free: As in nil cost, £0 or even $0 - this program is for the improvement of lives; for that there is no possible cost that can be put to that one aim.

Although we do take donations to assist with our costs and future developments.

Please send bitcoins to address: 1AL1KmBpj1WihNAERoU6yiJiveeaDD3U7p

Below is a screen shot of the windows version:

If you wish to have more information on epilepsy and the Ketogenic diet please visit a very good site at: http://www.matthewsfriends.org

Link to a new Epilepsy web site is : http://www.ncype.org.uk/

People ask us how do we expect to make any money from providing a free software program.  The EKM program is just a small sub-set of a bigger program that we have developed and is used in many hospitals though-out England and Ireland call EDM2000.  Any dietician that starts to use EKM is likely to want to use the full EDM2000 system for Ketogenic and many other diets and modular feeds.  Thus EKM will be a "teaser" for them but provides a fully functional tool for parents.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Ketogenic in the Media:

Link for an article on the diet on South African TV: http://www.carteblanche.co.za/Display/Display.asp?Id=3414

Link for video on South African TV: http://mnetnmvideo.m-net.co.za/mnetVideo/e-mnet-mnetmedia-mn_carteblanche_1_epilepsydiet100k.wmv

"This morning" ketogenic interview - 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jUkP0V678Q

Emma on the BBC - 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbJjfHEJSWY

NB: These are external links and may not be current at the time of use.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Some quotes from EKM users:

"We had been struggling for over eight months to get her into ketosis and after just one day on recalculated EKM meals we were there!"

"It wasn't until we started using the EKM that we started to see the seizures reduce by 90%"

"brilliant!"

"EKM is FAB!"

"program has been an absolute godsend to us"

"I would recommend it [EKM] to any family as a wonderful, RELIABLE tool to recalculate keto recipes that you may have been given. [by your dietician]"

"..I bless you every time I use EKM"

"EKM continues to be a lifeline for me especially now that I'm using it for my two children"

"EKM is the back bone of our existence in our household and without it, we would grind to a halt. My understanding is that it is essentially for the classical diet but can be used for the MCT too. It is brill, brill brill thanks to Liz and Bruce."

"I've been using EKM since September and it has made a huge difference to us - my both kids are on the classical diet."

"Don't know where we'd have been on our keto journey without EKM, for me it is right up there with the other 7 wonders of the world!!"

"it's great- has taken a lot of the hard work out of ketogenic diets!!!" - Clinical Specialist Dietitian

"The most important advancement in the Ketogenic Diet for over 10 years" - Ketogenic Dietitian

There is much comment with regard to the use of drugs as a treatment and the ketogenic diet.  Below is an interesting article written by a parent with their personal point of view on the subject:

Click here for a diary of events written by a parent

Note to dieticians & Hospitals:  If you require a network installation of the EKM system, training or custom reports then please contact us for a quotation.  Basic assistance and several emails will be provided to ensure all users get started, however, if you require formal training or detailed assistance then please ask for a quote for such work.  For free on-site EKM training just book an EDM2000 demonstration for your department - both are free when combined!

Our aim is to ensure that all dieticians and parents that need to use EKM are assisted to do so, however, there has to be some limits to the amount of assistance.  Basic computer skills are a pre-requisite of using EKM.

To obtain your own copy of EKM:

1) If you are a parent then send a email request to us or your dietician.  This will be confirmed with your dietician and once the request is sanctioned then a email will be sent with down load details and a password.

2) If you are a dietician then please email us your request.  A down load link and password will be sent.

Email address for down load requests:        ekm@edm2000.com

Cost of EKM:                                                    Free* to all parents and dieticians.

* Free: As in nil cost, £0 or even $0 - this program is for the improvement of lives;

for that there is no possible cost that can be put to that one aim.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Download files for EKM (Ketogenic Calculator)

Full install version of EKM - (password required):

File size 4Mb, updated on: 10/10/2014 - now supports 'Drag & Drop' for meal products

 Update to latest version if you already have EKM installed :

*** If your version is dated prior to 19/05/2006 you MUST update to remain operational! ***

Note: if you have installed a version earlier in August 2007 and have a blank products table (and no meal data entered) then please remove the previous installation (delete C:\EKM) and then run this new install file.

________________________________________________________________________________________

(It is important to update to this version if you have an earlier version + new features available + updated reports)

Update from any previous version of EKM - (all data will be kept - but ALWAYS backup!)

PLUS: Support for low resolution (1024x600) Netbook screens:

Updated on 10/10/2014 - now supports 'Drag & Drop' for meal products

NB: Do NOT run the data rebuild option is you have version 1.6 , 1.7 or 1.8 - always backup data before upgrading!!!.

Click here for a parents version of the user manual for EKM (kindly written and provided by Gail Hall)

________________________________________________________________________________________

Note for Dieticians:  To unlock the advanced features of EKM please download the following file for the additional license files required.  You will need to contact us for the password as it is different from the standard down load - however these extra features are also provided free.

New feature added to permit direct edits to template meals plus advanced bulk load functions!

________________________________________________________________________________________

Where is EKM used?

In hospitals and homes in the following countries:

England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Australia, France

Germany, Holland, Denmark, South Africa, Canada, USA

Sweden, New Zealand, Belgium, Japan, Cyprus, Israel

Egypt, Central America, Greece, Hong Kong, Slovenia

Indonesia, Finland, Austria, Singapore, India, Poland

U.A.E., Qatar, Romania, Norway, Island of Malta, Saudi Arabia

If we have missed your country off the list (30+ currently) then please let use know so that we can update and get you on the web!

________________________________________________________________________________________

Transcript of a medical article written in relation to EKM - Ketogenic Calculator:

A new calculation tool for the ketogenic diet: results of an initial pilot study
 

E.G. Neal, B. Carroll, M.S. Lawson and J.H. Cross

Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital

for Children NHS Trust, Childhood Nutrition Research Centre,

30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH

e-mail: l.neal@ich.ucl.ac.uk

Background:

The ketogenic diet has been used for many years to treat childhood epilepsy. A recent resurgence of interest in this treatment has increased pressure on dietitians to include these highly prescriptive and time-consuming diets into their workloads. The ketogenic calculator (EKM) is a computer calculation program to assist with calculating ketogenic meal recipes that has recently been developed for use in the UK. The idea was developed at the Institute of Child Health and the program designed by Bruce Carroll (MicroMan2000 Ltd). It is available free, and allows dietitians to quickly plan and adapt ketogenic recipes, using data from McCance and Widdowson’s The Composition of Foods (Food Standards Agency 2002). Parents can also use it to plan meals, based on a prescription given to them by the dietitian. The aim of this evaluation was to investigate the opinions of dietitians and parents regarding the use of this computer tool.

Method:

A simple questionnaire was designed to pilot opinion on how dietitians and parents found using EKM. It asked about ease of use, whether there had been any problems, how the program compared with their previous method of meal planning and whether they would use it on a regular basis to calculate ketogenic diet meals. This questionnaire was sent by email to initial users of EKM (four dietitians and three parents), all of who had been using the program for at least 1 month.

Results:

Six of the seven respondents (86%) reported finding EKM easy or very easy to use, one dietitian initially found it more difficult. When asked about any problems, three dietitians reported having some computer compatibility problems that resolved with help; the other four respondents had no problems. All respondents said that the program was much better than their previous methods of calculating recipes, and that they would use the program on a regular basis; the dietitians finding that it was much easier than hand calculating ketogenic recipes, and the parents enjoying the freedom of calculating their own meals, working alongside their dietitian.

Discussion:

Initial pilot questionnaire results on the new computer tool were encouraging, although the survey was limited by small sample size. Users generally found it easy to use and it reduced the time taken to calculate a ketogenic diet. The ongoing aim is that more dietitians working in this area will use this resource; by freeing up dietetic time this will hopefully allow more children with severe epilepsy to try this treatment.

Conclusion:

The development of a computer calculation tool for the ketogenic diet is an exciting step forward for this area of dietetics; initial questionnaire feedback on this tool was very positive.

Reference:

Food Standards Agency (2002) McCance and Widdowson’s

“The Composition of Food”, 6th edn. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry.

________________________________________________________________________________________

News!

Mobile version of EKM will be available in November 2014 check this site for more news later - 10/10/2014

Update to ensure Windows vista compatible help file - 21/08/2007

________________________________________________________________________________________

EKM is also mentioned in the Ketogenic Chapter by Liz Neal & Gwynneth McGrath in the following publication:

Clinical Paediatric Dietetics

Third Edition

Edited by: Vanessa Shaw (Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children) and Margaret Lawson (Institute of Child Health, London)

ISBN: 9781405134934
ISBN10: 1405134933

Thank you all for the kind and detailed mention and thank you all for your dedication and hard work in field of Ketogenic diets.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Link to a new Epilepsy web site is : http://www.ncype.org.uk/