Education

The Obesity Society's Mission for Continuing Medical Education

The Obesity Society is dedicated to disseminating knowledge in the field of obesity and providing quality education about obesity for its members and other interested individuals and groups. By combining the knowledge of our scientific members with the expertise of our clinical members we provide quality Continuing Medical Education activities that:

• Make available the latest results of scientific research on obesity and its related disorders to physicians and other health care providers.
• Translate research into strategies and applications for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of obesity.
• Provide training for physicians and other heath care providers to implement these strategies and applications in their professional practice. The goal of this training is to improve their competency in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of obesity.
• Assist in the development and implementation of clinical practice guidelines for physicians and other healthcare professional for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of obesity.
• Encourage and provide assistance to physicians and other healthcare professionals to become leaders in community-based efforts that will contribute to a reduction in the prevalence of obesity.

To accomplish these objectives, The Obesity Society will continue to provide valuable educational activities on obesity through traditional live and print/journal-based formats, and will expand our capabilities for providing educational activities through new and emerging electronic and Internet-based formats.

New Programs on Obesity Online

There have been several new slide deck programs launched as CME programs on The Obesity Society's Obesity Online education site:

Bariatric Surgery for the Treatment of Obesity

In this program, Dr. Samuel Klein, MD, MS, and Harvey Dr. Sugerman, MD, present an overview of surgical therapies for the management of severe obesity. They discuss the indications, contraindications, postoperative complications, and expected long-term results from each of the bariatric surgical procedures currently being performed in the United States.

Weight Bias and its Social, Economic, and Health Impact

In this program, Dr. Rebecca Puhl, PhD, and Dr. Kelly Brownell, PhD, present and discuss the growing body of scientific evidence which demonstrates that weight bias among employers, educators, parents, and the media has serious, negative social, economic, and health consequences. They discuss strategies to address the false attributions about obesity and reduce this bias.

Weight Bias in Healthcare Settings

In this program, Dr. Rebecca Puhl, PhD, and Dr. Kelly Brownell, PhD, present and discuss the growing body of scientific evidence which demonstrates that weight bias among healthcare professionals has serious, negative impacts on the quality of healthcare services provided to overweight and obese patients in healthcare facilities. They also discuss what providers can do to reduce any bias which they may have in their practice.

These educational CME activities have been approved for AMA PRA credit.  All CME activities on this site are available free of charge.

New CME Programs on Surgical Options for Treatment of Extreme Obesity

The Obesity Society recently made available two new professional continuing education programs discussing the surgical options available for the treatment of extremely obese patients.  Both programs were developed from the proceedings of a meeting by a multidisciplinary panel of national experts that was convened as part of an educational initiative to address this topic.  The EMBRACE (Exploring Multiple Bariatric Surgery Research Advancements for the Treatment of Extremely Obese Patients) Scientific Roundtable, was held in December 2006, in Atlanta, GA.

Program for online viewing: The Proceedings from the: EMBRACE (Exploring Multiple Bariatric Surgery Research Advancements for the Treatment of Extremely Obese Patients) Scientific Roundtable

Listen and learn a the panel presents and discusses the key issues in the treatment of extremely obese patients.  Audio clips and key slides will bring participants up to date as this group of surgeons internists, bariatric specialists, psychologists, and other clinicians present and discuss current thinking regarding behavioral, pharmacologic, and surgical interventions.  Clinically relevant 2007 updates from recently published literature are also included.  

These educational CME activities have been approved for AMA PRA credit.  They are available free of charge.

The Obesity Society's Live Learning Center

The Live Learning Center is an archive of selected proceedings from recent Annual Scientific Meetings of The Obesity Society.  In addition to recorded slide/audio proceedings from the symposia, key lectures, debates, workshops, and tutorials, you can view the scientific abstracts.  New this year, attendees can complete their evaluations online.  They can then download their official transcript of education sessions attended during the meeting and can earn additional CME/CPE/CEU credits after the meeting by viewing the recoded proceedings on the site.

This feature is free to all Annual Scientific Meeting attendees.  Non-attendees can purchase online access to these materials for a nominal fee.  Starting in 2007, the recorded slide/audio proceedings will be available from in additional downloadable formats, such as Flash presentations and podcasts. For more information on this valuable leaning resource, go to www.softconference.com/naaso.

Obesity Online

The Obesity Society is pleased to introduce Obesity Online, the premier education resource for clinicians, researchers and educators with an interest in obesity and its related disorders.

Developed with time demands of the busy professional in mind, www.obesityonline.org is available all of the time. Take advantage of quality scientific obesity information and educational tools. All material has been developed by The Obesity Society's expert Editorial Board and is regularly updated. Obesity Online offers pertinent information critical to the assessment, treatment, and management of obesity in a variety of formats to fit your needs.

Slide Library

Customize your own presentations from hundreds of downloadable slides. Each slide is complete with talking points and references and can be downloaded into your own PowerPoint program for personal and educational use.

Virtual Meetings

View and participate in critical presentations given at recent national meetings by The Obesity Society's leading obesity experts. All programs and presentations are available for CME credit and are augmented with abstracts, searchable references and downloadable text.

All CME Activities

The links in this section will take you to all CME activities developed by The Obesity Society that currently offer CME credit for successful completion. Available CME activities include:

• Bariatric Surgery for the Treatment of Obesity
• Weight Bias and its Social, Economic, and Health Impact
• Weight Bias in Healthcare Settings
• The Proceedings from the: EMBRACE (Exploring Multiple Bariatric Surgery Research Advancements for the Treatment of Extremely Obese Patients) Scientific Roundtable

Other Online CME Activities

The Obesity Society's first online CME activity, Office Management of Obesity, is still available online.  To date, over 3800 healthcare professionals have completed this course.  In 2004, an expert panel commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reviewed this course and rated it as the best online CME activity available on the subject of obesity.

This educational CME activity has been approved for AMA PRA credit. This CME activity is available free of charge.

Meetings

The Obesity Society's largest educational forum is the Annual Scientific Meeting. This is the chief gathering of professionals in the field of obesity treatment. More than three days of programming is available to thousands of professionals. If you prefer face to face meetings and the personal camaraderie of your colleagues, this is the place to be. For more information, visit the most recent Annual Scientific Meeting page.