Digging Deeper: Comprehensive Obesity Care
In this video, Karlijn Burridge, PA-C, MMS, FOMA, talks about her session at our Practical Updates in Primary Care 2024 Virtual Series. Karlijn Burridge talks about how clinicians can work together with their patients to ensure they are receiving comprehensive obesity care, including nutrition management, surgical options, and pharmacologic interventions.
For more meeting coverage, visit the Practical Updates in Primary Care newsroom.
For more information about PUPC 2024 Virtual Series and to register for upcoming sessions, visit https://www.practicalupdates.consultant360.com/.
Karlijn Burridge, PA-C, MMS, FOMA, is physician's assistant and fellow of the Obesity Medicine Association, and the founder and president of Gaining Health (Glen Ellyn, IL)
TRANSCRIPTION:
Hi, my name is Karli Burridge and thank you to everyone who is able to join Dr Angela Fitch and myself for this presentation, “Digging Deeper: Comprehensive Obesity Care.” With over 42% of the US adult population living with obesity and considering that obesity can cause or exacerbate over 200 other medical conditions, this is a topic that affects all of us and the patients that we care for every single day.
If you didn't get a chance to watch the presentation, hopefully you'll have an opportunity to do so at a future PUPC event, but I wanted to give you all a brief summary and overview of some of the important take home points.
One, first of all, obesity is a chronic disease and it should be treated as such. So it's important that clinicians make the diagnosis of obesity and also consider the stage of obesity as well as the severity of obesity-related complications when developing a comprehensive treatment plan.
Two, work together with your patients to develop a healthful nutrition and physical activity plan and set realistic goals with your patients and it's so important to use shared decision making when you're setting these goals.
Three, if the patient's BMI is 30 or greater or 27 or greater and they have weight-related complications, discuss pharmacologic interventions with your patients and explain to them that they'll be two to four times more likely to lose weight and successfully maintain that weight loss with the use of medications. And that the common inner to maintain weight loss is not due to a lack of willpower or effort, but rather due to complex biology that drives weight regain. And also, remember to recommend metabolic and bariatric surgery as indicated for patients who qualify for that. And ensure that patients with a history of metabolic and bariatric surgery are being evaluated and cared for appropriately afterward.
And lastly, make sure you're arranging for regular follow-ups. Say every 1 to 3 months with your patients being treated for obesity. We know that the more accountability and the more touch points we have with our patients, the more likely our patients will be to have long-term success with managing this complex and chronic disease state. And you may also consider using remote patient monitoring to help with more frequent touch points and support.
So thank you so much for tuning in, and I hope to see you again at a program in the future. Take care.