Podcast

Health Inequities in Obesity Care

Launch Date

12/30/2022

Credit Amount

1.0

Credit Expires

12/30/2025

This activity is part of a series

Faculty

Monica E. Peek, MD, MPH, MSc

(she/her/hers)

Ellen H. Block Professor of Health Justice in the Department of Medicine

Associate Director, Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research

Director of Research, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics

The University of Chicago

Chicago, IL

Nijya Noble, MS, RDN, LD

CEO of NK Fitness and Nutrition, Reynoldsburg, OH

(she/her/hers)

CEO of NK Fitness and Nutrition

Reynoldsburg, OH

Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, MPA, MBA, FAAP, FACP, FAHA, FAMWA, FTOS

Obesity Medicine Physician Scientist

Massachusetts General Hospital

Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics

Harvard Medical School

Boston, MA

Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, MPA, MBA, FAAP, FACP, FAHA, FAMWA, FTOS

Dr. Stanford is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics who practices and teaches at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/ Harvard Medical School (HMS) as one of the first fellowship-trained obesity medicine physicians worldwide. She is among the most highly cited obesity medicine physician-scientists with over 170 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Stanford received her BS and MPH from Emory University as an MLK Scholar, her MD from the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine as a Stoney Scholar, her MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Zuckerman Fellow in the Harvard Center for Public Leadership and her executive MBA as a merit-based scholarship recipient from the Quantic School of Business and Technology. She completed her Obesity Medicine & Nutrition Fellowship at MGH/HMS after completing her internal medicine and pediatrics residency at the University of South Carolina. She has served as a health communications fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a behavioral sciences intern at the American Cancer Society. Upon completing her MPH, she received the Gold Congressional Award, the highest honor Congress bestows upon America’s youth.

Dr. Stanford has completed a medicine and media internship at the Discovery Channel. An American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation Leadership Award recipient in 2005 and an AMA Paul Ambrose Award for national leadership among resident physicians in 2009, she was selected for the AMA Inspirational Physician Award in 2015. The American College of Physicians (ACP) selected her as the 2013 Joseph E. Johnson Leadership Award recipient, and the Massachusetts ACP selected her for the Young Leadership Award in 2015. She is the 2017 recipient of the HMS Amos Diversity Award and the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) Award for Women’s Health. In 2019, she was selected as the Suffolk District Community Clinician of the Year for the Reducing Health Disparities Award for MMS. She was chosen for The Obesity Society Clinician of the Year in 2020. In 2021, she was awarded the MMS Grant Rodkey Award for her dedication to medical students and the AMA Dr. Edmond and Rima Cabbabe Dedication to the Profession Award, which recognizes a physician who demonstrates active and productive improvement to the profession of medicine through community service, advocacy, leadership, teaching, or philanthropy. She is the 2021 Recipient of the Emory Rollins School of Public Health Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2022, the National Academy of Medicine selected her as a Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence. She was named to the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA).

Statement of Need

Both the American Medical Association and American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) now recognize obesity as a disease characterized by multiple pathophysiologic aspects that require a range of interventions for treatment and prevention. As if this weren’t challenging enough, patients with obesity from many underserved communities have an even greater hurdle: how to receive equitable care when so many factors, including social determinants of health, are stacked against them.

For clinicians, step one is helping patients to realize their difficulty with losing weight and keeping it off is not their fault from being lazy or undisciplined. Indeed, several pathophysiologic/hormonal forces within an individual’s body conspire to regain any weight loss that may have been achieved. Step 2 is for clinicians to dig deep and reflect on potential personal and/or institutional biases that negatively impact the care they provide. And step 3 is to partner with patients to help them overcome barriers to receiving and adhering to equitable, evidence-based care.

In this installment of the popular CMEO podcast series on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Drs. Peek, Stanford, and Noble discuss the influence of implicit bias, health disparities, and health inequities on the quality of care for patients with obesity. Practical approaches to self-reflection, recognition of potential bias, and positive action are explored.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this CME/CE activity, participants should be able to analyze the influence of unconscious bias, health disparities, and health inequities on obesity care.

Financial Support

Supported by an educational grant from Johnson & Johnson.

Target Audience

Physicians, physician associates (PAs), nurse practitioners (NPs), nurses, pharmacists, and dieticians specializing in primary care, endocrinology, surgery, or internal medicine

Credit Information

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MIPS Improvement Activity

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Disclosure Declaration

It is the policy of CME Outfitters, LLC, to ensure independence, balance, objectivity, and scientific rigor and integrity in all of their CE activities. Faculty must disclose to the participants any relationships with commercial companies whose products or devices may be mentioned in faculty presentations, or with the commercial supporter of this CE activity. CME Outfitters, LLC, has evaluated, identified, and mitigated any potential conflicts of interest through a rigorous content validation procedure, use of evidence-based data/research, and a multidisciplinary peer review process.

Dr. Peek reports the following financial relationships: Consultant: Pfizer Inc.

Ms. Noble reports no financial relationships to disclose.

Dr. Stanford reports the following financial relationships: Advisory Board: Alfie; Calibrate Health; Coral Health Inc.; GoodRx, Inc.; and Veri; Consultant: Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH; Eli Lilly and Company; Gelesis; Novo Nordisk; and Pfizer Inc.

The following peer reviewer and CME Outfitters staff have no financial relationships:

Shirley Michelle Franks, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC (peer reviewer)
Meghann Taft-Lockard (planning committee)
Warren Beckman (planning committee)
Evan Luberger (planning committee)
Sandra Caballero, PharmD (planning committee)
Susan H. Yarbrough, CHCP (planning committee)
Sharon Tordoff (planning committee)

Faculty of this CE activity may include discussions of products or devices that are not currently labeled for use by the FDA. The faculty have been informed of their responsibility to disclose to the audience if they will be discussing off-label or investigational uses (any uses not approved by the FDA) of products or devices.

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