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 […]
November 27, 2023 — Truly, access to care for obesity is a tough slog. Not that it’s easy for any health condition. Obesity really is a special case, where medical care that can improve a person’s health often lies just out of reach. Bias about obesity is part of the problem. Fear of mounting medical costs is another. But […]
January 8, 2022 — Ten years ago, the American Board of Obesity Medicine was not yet certifying physicians in this specialty. Today, obesity medicine is one of the fastest growing medical specialties in the U.S. A total of 5,242 physicians hold this certification. This is indeed good. But the bad news is that it is far from adequate. That […]
July 26, 2021 — It’s been eight years since the American Medical Association resolved that obesity is a complex, chronic disease. But still, the argument endures. For different reasons, some people continue to resist what they see as medicalizing obesity. So with the closing session of the YWM2021 convention, it was quite interesting to hear a discussion from two […]
September 26, 2019 — A new systematic review in the International Journal of Obesity offers a global view on the state of obesity medicine education. It’s definitely a good news, bad news story. The good is that we have plenty of reason to believe that obesity medicine education helps. But the bad news is that the current extent of […]
June 29, 2018 — Yesterday, we received a very welcome bolt of good news. Suddenly, the outlook for training a new generation of obesity medicine physicians looks much brighter. The Obesity Society and the Obesity Medicine Association have come together to launch the Obesity Medicine Fellowship Development Program. The goal is to build the framework for training more physicians […]
October 16, 2016 — Primary care providers face a dilemma. More than a third of adults have obesity. Providers spend 75% of their time managing the chronic diseases that result – things like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. So what should they be doing about obesity? Does telling a patient to lose weight mean that a provider is […]
February 24, 2016 — In a letter from his physician, the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has been attributed to obesity and a long list of its complications, including coronary artery disease, diabetes, sleep apnea, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and degenerative joint disease. In a February 16 letter, Rear Admiral Brian Monahan stated that his “many significant […]
October 3, 2015 — In Washington, DC, last night, another milestone in the emerging specialty of obesity medicine was marked. The Obesity Medicine Association celebrated its brand new identity for the group previously known as the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. For most people, the word “bariatric” is a confusing distraction. People know, more or less, what obesity is. Right now, […]
