I am passionate about educating both current and future health care professionals on the care of patients living with the disease of obesity.
If you’re a patient struggling with overweight or obesity, you need health care providers who are knowledgeable and skilled in giving you the most effective treatments.
Here, I’d like to share some of my current projects:
1-Updating Officials on Status of Obesity Education in Medical Schools
I had the privilege of updating the NIH Office of Obesity Research on the status of obesity education in medical schools as part of their monthly Virtual Speaker Series.
Because the demands of treating patients are increasing yet obesity curricula in medical schools remain insufficient to meet these demands, this is a timely topic.
In my presentation, titled Taking a Comprehensive Approach to Obesity Medical Education, I covered various topics ranging from using non-biased, non-judgmental communication skills, developing core competencies and overcoming barriers.
We need innovative approaches to educate both current and future health care professionals on the care of patients struggling with overweight and obesity.
2-Leading a 2-Year Quality Improvement Project, Called FORWARD
Along with several colleagues, I am helping to lead an innovative, two-year quality improvement project called FORWARD to develop, test and disseminate obesity medical education curricula designed for medical schools.
I am working with 10 medical schools from around the country that represent diversity in geography, size, public vs private funding, and traditional and osteopathic medicine.
Our goal is to create up-to-date, competency-based training in the science and practice of obesity care.
3-Writing a Book to Help Busy Clinicians Manage Patients with Overweight and Obesity
My latest book, titled Patient Centered Weight Management: The Six Factor Professional Program and Toolkit, was just published by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in August, 2025.
Through this book, we hope to fill the gap to help more health care providers with varied backgrounds become skilled in providing effective and efficient patient centered weight management care.
RK
Robert Kushner, MD
