Submitted by Leslie Cimei on

A major barrier to treating patients with obesity is to get more and more primary care physicians to recognize the condition as a disease. Considering the AMA declared obesity a disease more than 7 years ago, it's a mystery why more PCPs and health care professionals aren't changing their daily practices to better help patients suffering from this condition. 

What tactics do you have in place to help your patients with obesity or are battling being overweight? 

Comments

Virginia Hultin replied on

This was really interesting - I didn't have a strong background in working with those with OHS, sexual dysfunction, or with weight as it affects infectious disease outcomes. I think we do need to be careful, as practitioners, not to use the term 'devastating' in relation to obesity, especially in direct patient care. I'm interested in how others use these terms and also if other people have more examples of how obesity affects lesser-described conditions?

Virginia Hultin replied on

Ann Lokuta replied on

Ultimately when we're providing patient care, we hope that our care and our guidance empowers behavior changes that lead to improved health and quality of life (when a condition could be influenced by behavior change). This topic is definitely challenging. I think there are a lot of obstacles in the typical physician visit that make it difficult to effectively counsel or make recommendations around lifestyle changes for their patients. Very limited time in visits is the primary one that comes to mind. I'd imagine it is sometimes easiest to "give" patients goals that seems appropriate for their condition versus involving them in the goal setting process and allowing them to choose their own goal based on what matters to them (their biggest concerns may not actually be related to their diagnosis). Wondering if any physicians or other healthcare providers have been able to restructure their visits to allow time for this? Any successful examples to share?

Ann Lokuta replied on