Eleventh Annual Conference on Obesity: Practical Approaches and Guidelines to Treatment

Orlando, Florida, September 24–26, 2010

by Michel Murr, MD, FACS, FASMBS

Dr. Michel Murr is a professor of surgery at the University of South Florida and director of bariatric and metaboloic surgery at Tampa General Hospital.

Bariatric Times. 2011;8(1):15

The University of South Florida College of Medicine and Tampa General Hospital held the 11th annual Conference on Obesity: Practical Approaches and Guidelines to Treatment in Orlando, Florida, September 24–26, 2010 at the Rosen Plaza Hotel. This two-and-a-half-day conference was attended by more than 200 multidisciplinary primary healthcare professionals.

Obesity is a global epidemic with far-reaching medical and social consequences. The conference engaged healthcare providers in learning about the obesity epidemic and exposed them to cutting-edge clinical and research approaches for the recognition, treatment, and prevention of obesity.

Attendees learned to recognize the medical, economic, and societal burden of the obesity epidemic across age, gender, and race/ethnicity; to develop clinical skills to identify, evaluate, and treat obesity and its related comorbidities with special emphasis on diabetes and childhood obesity; to implement the skills for a practical interdisciplinary approach to obesity by motivating patients via behavior modification and office-based dietary counseling; to evaluate the rationale and efficacy of pharmaceutical intervention and nascent drug therapies targeting the treatment of obesity; and to assess the efficacy of bariatric surgery in the treatment of obesity and understand the role of emerging technologies in the treatment of the metabolic syndrome.

The conference began with an afternoon of parallel sessions and practical workshops starting with a discussion on how to create a center of excellence for bariatric surgery led by Judy Crouch, RN, and Susan Orellana, BA, bariatric program manager at the University of South Florida and Tampa General Hospital. Another workshop by Rita DeBate, PhD, MPH, University of South Florida, and Perry Kaly, PhD, University of South Florida, taught participants how to interview patients in a motivational manner .

Other workshops included a presentation by Samantha Datz, PhD, on how to encourage patients to be more physically active, and a lecture by Mohamad S. Kasti, MS, MBB, MCA, University of South Florida, and Barbara Allen, ARNP, CBN, Tampa General Hospital, on tips to improve patient satisfaction during episodes of care.

A speech on slimming down corporate America followed by the Hotel’s president and CEO, Harris Rosen, closed the first day of the conference.

The next day began with lectures on obesity and its related disorders and behavioral treatments by Dara Shuster, MD, Ohio State University Hospital System, and Gary Foster, PhD, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Lee M. Kaplan, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School, gave a lecture about body weight regulation, and Dara Schuster, MD, presented advances in pharmaceutical treatment of obesity.

Course director Michel M. Murr, MD, University of South Florida, presented an overview of bariatric surgery. After an exhibition break came discussions on nutrient deficiencies before and after metabolic surgery, and device intervention and incision-less surgery, presented respectively by Edward Saltzman, MD, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, and Raul Rosenthal, MD, FACS, FASMBS, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, Florida.

The next morning presentations on childhood obesity and how to manage and incorporate pediatric obesity treatments into clinical practice were presented, respectively by Melinda Sothern, PhD, CEP, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Lloyd Werk, MD, Co-director of Healthy Choices Clinic, Orlando, Florida, and Lisa Hansen, PhD, University of South Florida. The panel discussion was led by Drs. Hansen, Sothern, and Werk.

The last two lectures of the conference were on different diets and treatment of diabetes by Drs. Morrison, MD, University of South Florida, and Arshad Mooradian, MD, University of Florida.

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Overall, the conference was a huge success and delivered its message with emphasis and clarity. Next year’s conference is still in the planning stages and will take place again at the Rosen Plaza in October 2011.

Category: Past Articles, Symposium Synopsis