How do you educate professionals about obesity care?
I recently had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion about obesity medication (semaglutide) for the treatment of high-risk patients with cardiovascular disease (SELECT trial) and its 2-year outcome results (STEP 5) at the Obesity Week and American Heart Association meetings. It was sponsored by Novo Nordisk.
The most innovative aspect of the panel discussion was that it was preceded by a play – a dramatic theatrical production of the lives of 4 individuals living with obesity.
The play was called Obesity – Stories Untold. Four journeys. One Stage.
Professionals treating patients with obesity and patients seeking care may appreciate some basic foundations of obesity care revealed:
1-Importance of Storytelling
The most important thing a clinician can do when taking an obesity history is to listen.
Patients want to be acknowledged and have their history validated. This is called narrative medicine or storytelling.
The life experiences that led to weight gain and obesity are complex and diverse; no two people are alike.
The biopsychosocial, genetic and environmental causes differ between people. Similarly, their responses and coping to their life experiences vary.
As clinicians, a typical 15-to-20-minute encounter can only offer a snapshot into patients’ lives.
This theatrical production invited us into their world.
2-Importance of Personalized Care vs Generic Advice
A sure way to sabotage the patient-provider relationship is to make assumptions about patients and give generic advice.
How many times have patients heard “eat less, move more” as a generic solution to their weight problem?
Or patients being told to choose and purchase healthier foods when they live in a food desert or have food insecurity.
Counseling needs to be empathetic and personalized, taking the patient’s values, perspectives, opportunities and barriers in mind.
Providing patient centered weight management to improve health outcomes is the goal.
3-Importance of Shared Decision Making
Shared decision making is at the core of obesity management.
It is a mutual collaborative process whereby patients and clinicians provide input on treatment options and choice.
In the play, Jane, one of the characters, is told that she is at risk for having a major cardiovascular event. But she hesitates seeking treatment.
At the end of play she is hospitalized, leaving the audience wondering if her outcome would have been different if she sought treatment earlier.
Here is where the panel discussion began with our professional colleagues – discussing judicious use of an obesity medication in a high-risk patient.
This novel pedagogical approach to medical education was impactful and personal.
Congratulations to Novo Nordisk for paving the way.
If you’re a clinician wanting to learn more about providing personalized obesity care within your existing practice, check out my new book, Patient-Centered Weight Management, published by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Individuals living with obesity may want to check out the Obesity Action Coalition website to get support, read stories and even share your own.
Sharing your story is a powerful way to get involved, make an impact and help change perceptions of obesity.
RK
Robert Kushner, MD
