November 11, 2025 — Just skimming headlines about new medicines for obesity and surgery, comparisons seem to be a dominant theme. Some of these headlines tell us surgery is more cost-effective or delivers more durable results. Some of that is certainly true. But the deeper truth surfaces this week in JAMA and JAMA Network Open. Clinical experience and, increasingly, […]
October 9, 2025 — At the annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons this week, six smart people debated the future of metabolic surgery versus medicines in the treatment of obesity. The interest in this debate is unmistakable. Our newsfeed is full of it. The undercurrent seems to be an implicit contest. Which is best? Which will prevail? […]
September 8, 2025 — For a long time, the relatively few people with deep commitment to obesity care knew that multimodal therapy was necessary. Bariatric surgery centers of excellence assembled teams to deliver nutrition, mental health, and physical therapy support. But persistence with follow-up was often disappointing. Now, though, something different is emerging. Suddenly, multimodal therapy is the hot […]
August 7, 2025 — At the opening of the ANZMOSS (Australian and New Zealand Metabolic and Obesity Surgery Society) meeting today, we had the unique privilege of helping people peer into the future of obesity care. Endocrine surgeon Juan Pablo Pantoja presented a view of the future of bariatric surgery in the era of a medical frenzy. The frenzy, […]
July 15, 2025 — At ENDO2025 Saturday, we got a fresh view of the future that lies ahead for medical and surgical obesity care. In a sharp contrast to either/or constructs that pit medical and surgical care as rivals, endocrinology fellow Angela Rao presented data pointing to complementary roles for medical and surgical obesity care. Analyzing data from 846 […]
April 16, 2025 — Back in October, JAMA Network Open published a research letter suggesting that metabolic surgery numbers were “plunging” because of GLP-1 medicines. They claimed to observe a 26% drop in surgeries between 2022 and 2023 for privately insured patients. A few months later, the authors issued a correction and said the actual drop was more like […]
January 19, 2025 — Narratives in health reporting tend to cluster. This is how we get diet fads. It’s also why stories about how bad BMI is have gotten enough traction to drive people to extreme views about it. Lately, we’ve noticed a new cluster forming. Let’s call it the premature death notices for diet and exercise. In Vox […]
October 8, 2024 — For dietitians who have long been seeing people who want help with issues related to diet, weight, and obesity, the last few years in obesity care have been disorienting. The source of discomfort is simple. New medicines that offer tremendous help with the physiology of obesity have changed the landscape for the nutrition guidance dietitians […]
July 18, 2024 — The excitement of the moment we are in for obesity care can make it hard to step back and take a long view. But a new study in the International Journal of Obesity offers a good reminder about the importance of doing just that. Hanna Konttinen and colleagues offer us a good, objective view of […]
June 17, 2024 — The annual meeting of the ASMBS wrapped up last week in San Diego after producing a steady flow of new insights and headlines. Robotic surgery, long-term outcomes, and diabetes prevention figured prominently in the news. But one of the less enlightening threads of news from the meeting was a horse-race narrative about metabolic surgery versus […]
