August 15, 2022 — Obesity is a slow burn. It erodes a person’s health over time, causing other diseases and an earlier death. In contrast, the harm of weight bias and stigma is immediate. First, there is the everyday onslaught of dehumanizing treatment one receives. A constant barrage of insults and slights creates stress that chips away at both […]
August 10, 2022 — Before the COVID-19 pandemic, we could find lots of talk about the potential of telehealth – and see its potential for extending the reach of obesity care. Translation into action and care delivery, though, was very slow. When the pandemic became a constraint for face to face care delivery, that changed overnight. Telehealth care for […]
June 6, 2022 — Two ideas are hard to miss at the annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association. One is that it’s getting harder to treat and prevent diabetes adequately without treating obesity. Second is that health systems can’t handle this reality. They are systematically preventing adequate obesity and diabetes care. Distinct but Overlapping Diseases Let’s get […]
January 13, 2022 — The numbers are stark. More than 80 percent of Americans with diabetes are not meeting clinical targets to reduce heart disease risk. For people with both diabetes and obesity, more than 90 percent are bearing unnecessary risk. These numbers come from a new scientific statement in Circulation from the American Heart Association. On top of […]
June 20, 2021 — We have a problem in healthcare. It’s really quite simple. Health systems have grown better at delivering health services than they are at delivering health care. It’s worse for people living with obesity, because prevailing bias leads health professionals to care even less for people with obesity. Add in racism and the problem grows larger […]
May 5, 2021 — Weight bias envelopes us. But especially in healthcare systems it is jarring at times. Pervasively, weight bias is coded into health systems. Sometimes it’s subtle. Other times it smacks a patient right in the face. Change is slow because systems evolve slowly. Electronic medical records systems, for example, take years to design and implement. So […]
December 3, 2020 — We didn’t expect this: COVID-19 is a boon to the health insurance industry. Despite a health crisis killing someone every minute in the U.S., costs for medical care are down. That’s because of people avoiding or delaying healthcare – possibly putting their health at risk. But for health insurers, that means a big increase in […]
November 24, 2020 — We are waiting, but we should not. A tremendous gap in care for obesity stands open. It is the gap between primary care for obesity that people need and an uncomfortable silence that persists – at best. Because right now, if the silence is broken, most often patients receive only vague advice to lose weight. […]
October 8, 2020 — We’re learning the hard way that neglecting a health problem doesn’t lead it to “go away.” In fact, it can come back to bite you. But on the other hand, paying attention to a problem can pay big benefits. And so it is with diagnosing obesity and giving it real medical attention. A new study […]
June 22, 2020 — We are in a moment when life and death and race and ethnicity are forcing conversations that White people politely avoid. It’s uncomfortable. But the brutal deaths of Black people at the hands of police have become impossible to ignore. And in the COVID-19 pandemic, Black and Latino people are dying in numbers that make […]
