December 28, 2024 — To make a list of really hard problems in health and obesity care is easy. It is a daunting list. Inequities, access to care, explosive growth in costs, and byzantine payment systems are just a few of the issues that come to mind. But a new paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine suggests […]
October 25, 2024 — At the very outset of this week’ s International Weight Bias Summit in Montreal, one thing was plain see. Weight bias in healthcare is an area to focus on for much needed action. How can we accept this? People seeking care for obesity and health conditions that may (or may not) be related to it […]
October 14, 2024 — Are we on the way to ending weight stigma or is it more stubbornly persistent than we might imagine? We found a clue to the persistence of bias in health professionals in a new commentary published by the Washington Post. From his perch at the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Preston Lee writes: “Like many doctors, […]
September 22, 2024 — The scientific understanding of obesity is progressing with impressive speed. But the translation of scientific insight into clinical benefits is slow by comparison. Most clinicians (along with the public) are stuck. We’re encumbered by an inadequate definition of obesity, overreliance on BMI, and medical groupthink. Straining for a Clinical Definition In an excellent essay for […]
August 8, 2024 — New survey research from YouGov serves up a timely reminder of the problem with weight bias in healthcare. The research, fielded in late June, found that most American adults (53%) have an unfavorable view of the U.S. healthcare system. About one in three persons report negative treatment because of their identity. And weight is the […]
July 12, 2024 — Reuters has a news flash for us. People are quick to quit taking GLP-1 medicines. In an “exclusive” story, the Reuters report comes from a analysis from Prime Therapeutics and Magellan Rx (Prime/MRx) – a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). The headline finding is that 85% of people who start on GLP-1 medicines have quit taking […]
June 14, 2024 — It is unmistakable, Lee Kaplan tells us. Obesity care is evolving. But the change is painfully slow and inadequate – especially in comparison to the rapid advancement in tools for treating obesity. The slow progress is especially painful when you compare it to the progress made against HIV or COVID. In 1984, HIV was almost […]
April 28, 2024 — Daniella Lamas is a critical care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She recalls telling the wife of a patient who was dying something she did not want to hear about her husband’s care. The woman told Lamas: “Why should I believe you? I don’t think that I do.” The Imperative for Trust […]
April 14, 2024 — Quietly but firmly last year, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that it is A-OK for Texas Tech to fire a medical resident for obesity. No need to hear about whether she could do her job. Her “habitus” was a problem, they said. During a long and difficult emergency case, she was breathing heavily and sweated. […]
March 14, 2024 — Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder affecting young women, with effects that can span from adolescence to life after menopause. It is a complex condition and despite being so common, it’s still poorly understood. Quite often, obesity occurs coincidentally with PCOS. This coincidence has led to the kind of mistakes that […]
