Statewide Collaboration Shines At Second Statewide Obesity Summit
Statewide collaborative quality care continued to shine at the second Obesity Summit, hosted by the Michigan Bariatric Surgical Collaborative (MBSC). Approximately 500 health care providers and health system leaders from across Michigan participated in the summit to learn about advances in obesity care, including pharmacological and surgical treatments, as well as the work of the collaborative quality initiatives (CQIs). The event marked the largest CQI meeting in the 25-year history of the statewide collaborations.
In addition to the main conference, the Obesity Summit was host to a CQI Fair. Representatives from 21 CQIs were in attendance to share updates about quality improvement efforts across Michigan in fields such as oncology, diabetes, mental health and surgical care. While the main focus of the day was bariatric care, the CQI Fair allowed attendees to learn about the impact CQI quality improvement has on almost every type of patient in Michigan.
As the summit began, Dina Griauzde, MD (Michigan Medicine) welcomed attendees, highlighting the historic significance of the summit being the largest CQI meeting ever before welcoming Dr. Kim Pfotenhauer (Michigan State University) for the first presentation on the epidemiology and pathophysiology of obesity. As Dr. Pfotenhauer reminded attendees that obesity is a chronic disease, the next speaker, Cassandra Turner (Michigan Medicine), spoke on weight stigma and disparities. Particularly highlighting evidence of differences in weight stigma and bias by various identities and intersections of identities, with higher scores for Latinx adults, sexual minorities, younger adults and intersectional identities including black men, non-black women, among others.
Dr. Jonathan Gabison (Michigan Medicine) gave a virtual talk on how weight affects the treatment of other chronic diseases. Building on this, Dr. David Paje (Michigan Medicine) and Elizabeth McLaughlin, both part of the Michigan Hospital Medicine Safety Consortium (HMS) CQI, highlighted risks associated with obesity, particularly for sepsis, as September is Sepsis Awareness Month. They reported that sepsis patients with obesity are younger than normal but have better clinical outcomes compared to patients with a normal BMI.
Session two focused on lifestyle and dietary interventions for obesity, kicked off by Dr. Karen Scherr (Duke Health). Her presentation focused on lifestyle interventions for treating obesity, though she also acknowledged limitations, noting that lifestyle interventions do not address the physiology of obesity, system level drivers or research practice gaps. Dr. Sarah Hampl (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine) discussed lifestyle interventions for treating obesity in children and adolescents, noting the shocking figure that there are 14.4 million children affected by obesity in the United States. Closing the second session, Dr. Marily Oppezzo (Stanford) discussed controversial dietary and exercise advice, providing an insight into research on how patients can effectively eat and train to lose body fat without losing muscle mass.
Medical and surgical interventions dominated the third session, with Dr. Beverly Tchang (Weill Cornell Medicine) giving the keynote address of the day. Her presentation highlighted a multi-modal approach to obesity care that includes lifestyle modifications, anti-obesity medications, endo-Bariatric procedures, bariatric surgery-a perfect summation of all the sessions at the event. Following Dr. TChang’s keynote address, Dr. Oliver Varban (Henry Ford Health) discussed bariatric surgery while Dr. Allison Schulman (Michigan Medicine) discussed endoscopic bariatric procedures- very different procedures that offer benefits to patients based on their specific situations and needs. To close the session, Dr. William Stratbucker (Corewell Health West) discussed medical and surgical obesity treatment in children and young adults.
Closing out the day with a focus on empowering care teams, Dr. Amal Othman (Michigan Medicine) discussed Michigan Medicine’s Weight Navigation Program, which matches patients with a physician to assist them with their weight loss journey and includes a review of weight and health history, blood tests, consideration of weight-related tests, guided discussion of program options, and a review of research opportunities. Dr. Katherine Freeman (Ann Arbor VA) and Lyndsay Ruff (Ann Arbor VA) closed out the session with a discussion on team-based approaches to low carbohydrate counseling and medications for treatment of type 2 diabetes, noting that 90% of people with diabetes are overweight or obese.
At the end of sessions one and four, patient advisors Frankie Bacarella, a veteran who was inspired to begin his weight-loss journey during the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Halla Jouma-Jouney, executive director of development and alumni relations at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, discussed their respective weight-loss journeys. The inclusion of patient advisors throughout the event served to not only highlight real world application of topics discussed at the meeting, but to show the continued importance in understanding bariatric medicine to tailor care to individual patients based on their health, lifestyle and goals.
The summit was held on September 21, 2024 in Novi, MI. MBSC received 157 pre-event provider surveys and 153 post-event provider surveys at the summit, which the team will use to shape MBSC’s quality improvement efforts and future events.