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Accelerating obesity research

Background 

We have identified a need to review the current state of the science and identify the most pressing needs in future research and clinical care for the treatment of people with obesity. These needs include:

• Adjusting health care provider perceptions of and attitudes toward people with obesity 
• Encouraging health care providers to treat obesity first, rather than first treating comorbidities 
• Encouraging health care providers to adjust other prescriptions a patient with obesity may take, instead recommending alternatives that promote weight neutrality or weight loss.
• Remembering that diet, exercise and behavioural modification are fundamental to all obesity management. 

To help address these needs, World Obesity, in collaboration with The Endocrine Society (ES) and The Obesity Society (TOS), are establishing The Accelerate Obesity Research Initiative. This is a series of annual meetings which will be used to accelerate scientific research into prevention, clinical interventions, and overall patient care in obesity. The meeting will bring together global scientific leaders to review the current state of the science and identify the most pressing needs for future research and clinical care.

Post-doctoral fellows from the scientific leaders’ laboratories will be invited to present their research work and participate in order to cultivate a continued commitment among leading scientists in the field of obesity and global health. Representatives from the leading public health agencies in Europe and the United States will also participate to inform the global public health research agenda. 

The meeting will be modelled off of the Endocrine Society’s successful 2013 Global Partnership to Accelerate Diabetes Research meeting, which brought together over 40 basic researchers, clinical endocrinologists, and primary care physicians from around the world to discuss the need to improve understanding of the role of beta cells as key drivers in the natural history of type 2 diabetes. The meeting resulted in the creation of the website BetaCellsinDiabetes.org, which engages primary care physicians in pathophysiology-based clinical decision making and encourages physicians to incorporate the new science into their treatment regimens for patients with type 2 diabetes.

Programme status - Objectives - What we will do - How you can help - Benefits of supporting