May 23, 2024 — “This is a dream come true.” In her opening presentation yesterday to a diverse group of experts in cardiology, endocrinology, and healthcare, the renowned Donna Ryan was marveling at the broad interest surfacing in serious obesity care – reaching far beyond the limited bubble where it stayed for decades. The American College of Cardiology assembled […]
March 17, 2020 — A pandemic such as COVID-19 has a way of raising difficult issues to confront. Questions about who’s at risk also raise issues about stigma and bias. On top of that, when the pandemic overruns our capacity for healthcare, triage becomes a reality. In Italy, physicians on the frontlines of this pandemic are facing difficult decisions […]
March 15, 2020 — Ready or not, it’s time to get comfortable with the idea of telemedicine for obesity care. Because the unfolding coronavirus pandemic is making it a fact of life. Wired describes it as a safety valve for a strained healthcare system. In addition, less personal contact is a tool for slowing the spread of this virus. […]
November 12, 2018 — Ever since the first bariatric surgeries emerged in the 1950s, the public has been skeptical. Bariatric surgeons found themselves in a box. Labels were a problem. Conceived as weight loss surgery, surgeons quickly figured out that it was doing more than causing people to lose weight. So they started calling it metabolic surgery, too. ASBS […]
March 23, 2015 — The gaps in what doctors know about obesity are startling — especially when you consider that obesity lies at the root of so many chronic diseases that doctors must manage every day. A new study published in Obesity Research & Clinical Practice provides an objective view of where the knowledge gaps lie. Terry Ann Glauser […]
October 11, 2014 — If you have any doubt about how fast healthcare is changing, consider this: Walmart plans to be the number one healthcare provider in the industry. Earlier this year, Walmart opened a half-dozen of their own convenient care clinics in Texas and South Carolina stores. Six more are on their way to opening before the end of […]
July 13, 2014 — A trustworthy doctor, in the eyes of someone with obesity, is likely to be one who will not judge them based upon their weight. This finding from researchers at Johns Hopkins builds further understanding of how weight bias — all too common in healthcare providers — erodes the likelihood of good clinical outcomes for people […]
April 21, 2014 — Healthcare fails people with obesity every day, serving up harsh judgments and substandard care. Any person who is severely affected can tell you about it, but few people stop to listen. The result is an ever growing burden of diseases that stem from this chronic disease largely ignored by our healthcare system. Sara Kirk and […]
July 13, 2013 — Hospital systems across the country are increasingly confronting health insurers on their turf. The bitter feud between the UPMC Health System and Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield in western Pennsylvania gives us a pretty good idea what this might look like. And it isn’t pretty. The UPMC Health Plan has competed with Highmark now for […]
