
Five Things to Seek Out at ObesityWeek 2024 in San Antonio
November is upon us and thus, so is ObesityWeek 2024 in San Antonio. This has been a year of radical change in the environment for obesity research, prevention, and care. So as we peruse the program for this meeting, it comes across as a year for consolidating the understanding of this disease and transformative options for dealing with it.
Admittedly, there is more at this meeting than anyone can take in, so here are some impressions of what we intend to focus on.
New Data on Emerging Treatments
All the buzz all year long has been about GLP-1 agonists and related medicines, which are transforming the understanding of obesity and options for treating it. We are not counting on big, new revelations about these therapies in San Antonio. But we are counting on expanding our insights into what they can do and where research is taking us. Toward that end, we recommend Monday afternoon’s session on three-year outcomes from SURMOUNT-1. This will be an opportunity for a close look at the study from which topline results told us that tirzepatide can be 94% effective in preventing type 2 diabetes.
Other notable sessions include the deep dive into the SELECT study outcomes on Monday morning and the OAISIS-4 RCT of oral semaglutide on Wednesday.
Equity and Scale
The biggest challenge we face is to find adequate scale for obesity care now that we have effective therapies. Without that scale, obesity care will become less, not more, equitable. This theme is woven into many sessions. But we expect that none will do it better than the Presidential Plenary on Sunday evening. The TOS/ADA joint symposium on Monday afternoon will also be excellent for this subject.
Liver Disease
Steatotic liver disease is getting a lot of attention at this meeting because we are beginning to have much better options for treating it. For deeper insight, we are especially looking forward to the key lecture on Monday afternoon by Jeff Browning, exploring the causes of fatty liver in obesity.
Prevention Strategies
Being frank, we must say that preventing obesity has been a challenge. Disappointments bring opportunities for learning and we expect to find some good learning on Monday morning in a session titled “What to Do and What NOT to Do” in evaluating programs and policies. Likewise, the key lecture Tuesday afternoon on “effective obesity prevention policies” is not to be missed.
Food as Medicine
Food as medicine is a great concept that might be a pivotal strategy or a misplaced focus for addressing obesity. The Monday afternoon debate on this promises to be enlightening.
These five thoughts are only a small sampling of what ObesityWeek 2024 in San Antonio can offer. We look forward to all of the news and excitement that this upcoming week will bring.
Click here for further perspective on what to expect from the week ahead.
A Festival of Lights, photograph by AjoyDutta1997, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
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October 30, 2024