Overcoming Obesity: OMA’s Fall Conference to Offer the Latest Obesity Tools and Knowledge to Advance Obesity Outcomes

| September 1, 2022

by Ethan Lazarus, MD, FOMA

Dr. Lazarus is Director of the Clinical Nutrition Center in Greenwood Village, Colorado, and he is the current president of the Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) and serves as their delegate in the American Medical Association (AMA). 

Funding: No funding was provided.

Disclosures: The author has no conflicts of interest relevant to the contents of this article. 

Bariatric Times. 2022;19(9):18.

For healthcare providers eager to expand the skills needed to treat patients with obesity, the Obesity Medicine Association (OMA)’s fall conference, Overcoming Obesity 2022,1 offers a variety of expert-led sessions that will deliver the latest tools and knowledge. Focusing on OMA’s four pillars of obesity—nutrition, behavioral modification, physical activity, and pharmacotherapy—conference attendees will gain a better understanding of how to launch or advance their obesity practice, discover emerging pharmacotherapies for obesity treatment, and explore advanced techniques for developing personalized treatment plans for patients with Type 1 diabetes, patients with bipolar disorder, adolescents with obesity, and patients with limited resources. 

Offered both in-person, in Anaheim, California, from October 12 to 16,2 or virtually, November 2 to 5,3 the 2022 fall conference gives the more than 4,000 members of OMA the opportunity to create their own experiences by solely attending the Fall Obesity Summit or by pursuing additional preconference courses, also available in-person or virtually. 

Conference happenings. Each conference session falls under one of OMA’s pillars of obesity for a holistic presentation of obesity medicine. The preconference courses also include practical applications for participants to optimize their practices and develop individualized treatment plans for their patients. Highlights of the conference include:

  • A preconference event, the Optimizing an Obesity Medicine Practice course will focus on utilizing best practices in an obesity medicine practice, covering topics such as patient-centered engagement, utilizing common office-based diagnostic tests, building an obesity treatment network in your community, and billing and coding obesity medicine visits. 
  • A preconference event, the case-based advanced class Building an Obesity Treatment Plan will explore how to develop obesity treatment plans for patients with complex diseases, conditions, and lifestyle factors.
  • The Fall Obesity Summit will cover late-breaking research on phenotypic-guided lifestyle interventions, emerging pharmacotherapies for obesity treatment, utilizing motivational interviewing, special populations, and more.

Notable sessions. The in-person conference provides a variety of networking opportunities for attendees to connect with industry experts and participate in Q&A sessions. Notable sessions4 include: 

  • The Pediatric, Adolescent and Young Adult Track will address issues unique to pediatric obesity medicine, such as special populations, gender diversity, and shifting from pediatric to adult as patients age. Designed to provide clinicians with updated information on utilizing advanced tools of weight management for children, adolescents, and young adults with obesity, attendees will better understand how to treat obesity in special pediatric populations, including those with genetic or syndromic obesity, intellectual disabilities, and behavioral issues, such as autism spectrum disorder. 
  • Connecting Across Generations, the opening general session with speaker Lisa Walden, will explore generational understanding, break down the heart of generational theory, bust common stereotypes, and generate awareness of why each generation behaves the way they do. 
  • Industry Keynote Speaker Dr. Robert Lustig will deliver a session on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and the role liver dysfunction plays in metabolic syndrome.
  • Led by Faith Newsome, Patient Perspective: The Lived Experience of Childhood and Adolescent Obesity, will go beyond the data to reveal her personal experience with obesity that led to her decision to undergo bariatric surgery at 16 years old and identify opportunities to build patient-centered care.

Ahead of the fall conference, OMA will be releasing the third volume of Obesity Pillars,5 a timely and freely accessible journal with high-quality research and expert peer review to help clinicians manage obesity with the latest resources and tools. The conference will also reflect on collective progress achieved in the fight against obesity and celebrate individual contributions to the field of obesity medicine.

To register for OMA’s fall conference, Overcoming Obesity, in-person or virtually, visit https://obesitymedicine.org/fall/pricing.

References

  1. Obesity Medicine Association. Overcoming Obesity 2022 conference. https://obesitymedicine.org/fall/?utm_campaign=pr&utm_source=bariatric_times&utm_medium=article_august_2022. Accessed 19 Aug 2022.
  2. Obesity Medicine Association. Optimizing an obesity medicine practice. https://obesitymedicine.org/fall/optimizing/. Accessed 19 Aug 2022.
  3. Obesity Medicine Association. Building an obesity treatment plan: advanced cases–virtual. https://obesitymedicine.org/fall/virtual-plan/. Accessed 19 Aug 2022.
  4. Obesity Medicine Association. Overcoming Obesity 2022 conference schedule. https://obesitymedicine.org/fall/schedule/?utm_campaign=pr&utm_source=bariatric_times&utm_medium=article_august_2022. Accessed 19 Aug 2022.
  5. Obesity Pillars. https://www.journals.elsevier.com/obesity-pillars. Accessed 19 Aug 2022.

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Category: Medical Methods in Obesity Treatment, Past Articles

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