Make your plans now to join NAASO in beautiful Vancouver, Canada October 15 - 19, for the NAASO 2005 Annual Scientific Meeting.
Vancouver was honored as "Best City in the Americas" at Conde Nast Traveler Magazine's Readers' Choice Award ceremony held recently in New York. Vancouver's Fairmont Waterfront Hotel received the "Best Hotel in Canada" vote and Vancouver Island won in the "Best North American Island" category.
Mark you calendars today!

Vancouver is also well known as one of the most accessible cities in the world among travelers with special needs. When making your reservations, please let us know if you have special needs so we can help to ensure your requirements can be met.

Reminder: For US citizens, a valid US passport would expedite your return to the US. For passport information, please visit the US Department ofState Website.

Watch your email for Abstract submission information for the 2005 Annual Scientific Meeting. We anticipate that the submission site will open within the next several weeks.
New updates and links to the Abstract Submission site will be posted on the NAASO Website home page.

Best Practices in Weight Loss Surgery
The February issue of Obesity Research will feature a series of evidence-based reports on recommendations for best practices in weight loss surgery. These reports, conducted by the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction, were requested by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. An Expert Panel convened to study weight loss surgical programs and procedures as they relate to patient safety.

Human Obesity Gene Map: The 2004 Update
The March issue of Obesity Research will feature the annual Human Obesity Gene Map. The 2004 update is the 11th update of the human obesity gene map. Previous gene map updates consistently appear in Obesity Research's 50 most- frequently-cited and most-frequently-read article lists.

CDC Corrects Figures in Obesity-Related Deaths
A study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published last year in the March Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), reported that obesity was near to overtaking smoking as the number one cause of death in the United States.
The CDC issued a correction to its estimates in the January19 issue of JAMA citing a computer error. CDC reported that the number of deaths caused by poor diet and physical inactivity increased by 65,000 in the year 2000 (instead of the previous reported 100,000 increase).

Obesity Related to Higher Breast Cancer Recurrence and Mortality
In a January 31 publish ahead of print article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers found that women who were overweight prior to breast cancer diagnosis or gained weight after diagnosis were almost twice as likely to experience disease recurrence or die from the disease. Weight,Weight Gain, and Survival After Breast Cancer Diagnosis JCO published January 31, 2005,10.1200/JCO.2005.01.079

NIH Announces Final Policy on Public Access
Beginning May 2, 2005, NIH-funded investigators are being requested to submit an electronic version of the author's final manuscript to the NIH National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central. The policy defines the author's final manuscript as the final version accepted for journal publication, including all modifications from the peer-review process. Authors will specify the timing of manuscript posting for public access through PubMed Central and encouraged to post as soon as possible and within 12-months of the publisher's official date of posting. The final Policy is available on the NIH Website.

Free Professional Education Service
Consumer Magazine Digest, edited by Kristen McNutt, Ph.D., J.D., is an 8-page monthly publication for nutrition scientists and health professionals summarizing selected articles related to nutrition, food safety, functional foods and health- related topics from 50 current U.S. and Canadian consumer magazines. This publication is now available without charge as a professional education service at www.mcnuttwebsite.com. To receive a monthly notification and hyperlink to each issue, please send an email with Subject "NAASO Members Digest Notification Request" to KristenMcNutt2@cs.com.

Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee Update
Harvey J. Sugerman, MD, President of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery reported on the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee (MCAC) that met on November 4, 2004 in Baltimore to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of bariatric surgery.
"The panel concluded that bariatric surgery in all of its forms (gastric bypass, adjustable gastric banding and biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch), performed open and laparoscopically, were safe and effective procedures. However, it was felt that more data were needed on providing the surgery for patients 65 years and older. It was noted that the vast majority of Medicare patients who have undergone the surgery have been those deemed permanently disabled. These are clearly the highest risk bariatric patients. Despite this, the MedPAR data show that the 90 day mortality rate for Medicare patients after bariatric surgery was 0.8% in 2003. It was also recognized that coverage for bariatric surgery is quite uneven throughout the United States in terms of who and what procedures are covered."

Since the launch of Obesity Online in mid November, visitors have downloaded close to 56,000 obesity- related slides. The slide talk seeing the most activity is "Medical Complications of Obesity." Bookmark wwww.obesityonline.org. Sign up for automatic notifications - you'll receive a notice when new material is added to the site. Watch your mail for upcoming notices regarding new slide decks and virtual meetings - both coming soon!

You'll notice that we've renamed "Regional Notes" on our Website to "NAASO News" in an effort to keep you better informed of NAASO Member activities across North America. If you have information about yourself or a colleague that you would like to share, please contact the NAASO News Editorfrom your region.

The West
Judith Sterns reports
California
Sami Alskaf, founder and director of the Metabolic Obesity and Nutrition Center in Kaiser Permanente (Panorama City), received the Leon Cohen Award (Physician Appreciation Award of Kaiser Permanente) in Fall 2004. Sami was also nominated to be the regional obesity lead for SCPMG (Southern California Permanente Medical Group). Lastly, US Consumer Research Counsel named him one of the American Top Physicians of 2003 and 2004. Way to go Sami!
Washington State
Frances Gough announced that Sound Health Solutions, Redmond, WA, has launched a web based program - eSoundhealth.com - which provides customized programs for individuals with obesity and related co-morbidities. The program tracks individual clinical progress and group based outcomes.
Beverly Green was recently awarded a 2.8 million dollar grant from NHLBI to study improving hypertension control using home BP monitoring, secure messaging, and pharmaceutical care. She is also a finalist for the Lifetime Achievement Award; Group Health Cooperative Seattle.
Wyoming
D. Enette Larson- Meyer, PhD, RD, FACSM, made the move from Pennington Biomedical Research to the University of Wyoming and accepted a position that involves 50% research and 50% teaching of dietetic students. She's also planning to continue her studies on the benefits of nutrition and exercise on overall health and obesity prevention.
Oregon
Dennis Hong, MD is a leading member in a trail looking at a new gastric pacemaker, placed laparoscopically, for the treatment of obesity. It is a safety trail for FDA approval. Good luck, Dennis.
Nevada
Gary A. Mayman, Ph.D., M.P.H., has taken part in the development of a new program in Las Vegas, NV. The Risk Factor Reduction Program at Children's Heart Center is a family-based treatment program for overweight children and children with heart disease.

South
Steven Smith reports
Congratulations to following NAASO Members from the University of Alabama:
Marie Pierre St Onge, PhD, Assistant Professor, Division of Physiology & Metabolism, Department of Nutrition Sciences, has been awarded the ILSI North America 2005 Future Leader Award.
Jamy Ard, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Nutrition Sciences, was recently awarded the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation' Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program which funds a 48 month fellowship.
David B. Allison, PhD, Director and Professor, Department of Biostatistics, was recently awarded an NIH R01 entitled "Effects of Intentional Weight Loss on Mortality Rate."

Midwest
Elizabeth Parks reports
Al Levine, Ph.D., has assumed the position of Head of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He continues to serve as Director of the Minnesota Obesity Center.
Dale Schoeller, Ph.D., was selected as the 2005 Atwater Lecturer by the USDA/ARS and will present the lecture at Experimental Biology 2005 in April in San Diego.
Zora Djuric, Ph.D. has relocated to University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Department of Family Medicine. Her two weight loss trials with African American breast cancer survivors are continuing at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Dan Weiss, M.D., has been appointed the Medical Director of the Joslin Diabetes Center Affiliate at St. Vincent Charity Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. He will continue as Director of Your Diabetes Endocrine Nutrition Group in Mentor, Ohio.

Canada
Paul Boisvert reports from the University of Laval
Fr=E9d=E9ric Picard from Laval Hospital Research Center and associate to the DB Brown Research Chair on Obesity has been awarded one the 10 major scientific discoveries in Quebec by the magazine Quebec Science (February 2005).