Dear Fellow Members:

Please join me in congratulating Dr. David Allison, who was recently elected vice president of our society, and Drs. Nikhil Dhurandhar and Patrick O'Neil, who were elected to Council. All three of these individuals have ably served The Obesity Society in the past and will bring vital leadership to their new positions.

I am pleased to report that Council has approved the creation of a Task Force on the Reimbursement of Obesity Therapies, which is being chaired by Dr. Louis Aronne, past president of our society. Most health plans currently do not cover the behavioral (i.e., diet and exercise) or pharmacologic treatment of obesity, forcing patients to pay out of pocket. Too often, patients are only eligible for coverage once they have developed Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or related complications. Even then, coverage for weight management is usually inadequate, with most individuals left to pay significant out-of-pocket expenses. The task force will examine current reimbursement practices for lifestyle modification, pharmacotherapy, and surgery and determine if there are opportunities to push for improved coverage, at least with certain subsets of individuals. Morgan Downey, our new executive vice president, has a wealth of experience in this area which will contribute significantly to the task force's efforts.

Our Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston is fast approaching. As you know, the opening day of the meeting has been changed from our usual Saturday start to a Friday (October 20th). I hope you will be present for the Presidential Address on Friday at 5:30 PM. Dr. Kelly Brownell will kick off our meeting with a talk entitled "The Power to Prevent Obesity: Who Holds It, Who Needs It." Kelly's talk will be followed by four outstanding days of invited addresses, symposia, and poster sessions. Drs. Donna Ryan and Andy Greenberg, with the other members of the Program Committee, have assembled a superb program that I know all will enjoy.

I look forward to seeing you in Boston!

Best wishes,
Tom Wadden
President

Society elections for vice president and two positions on the Executive Council were recently completed. David Allison was elected vice president and Patrick O'Neil and Nikhil Dhurandhar were elected to Council. "This year's elections," said President Thomas Wadden, "were marked by an outstanding list of candidates for all positions. Our newly elected leaders, along with the rest of the Council, will have tremendous opportunities over the coming year to continue the Society's growth and development."

Plan your meeting schedule in advance to ensure you take best advantage of all this year's Annual Scientific Meeting offers! Log on to The Obesity Society Learning Center (no password required) to use the Itinerary Planner. Explore session details and organize your time at the meeting so you don't miss any important presentations. You can select sessions by date, time, speaker, or track (program changes are updated in this interactive planner). Then, download your personal itinerary to your calendar or PDA.

If you miss any lectures while you're in Boston, don't worry. After the meeting, all registered attendees will have access to recorded annual meeting sessions on the Learning Center. Book mark this page for your future use! Gain additional CME and view more sessions. Sessions will be available online, all year, and are free to registered attendees. Material on the Learning Center is scheduled to be available late 2006.

If you would rather take a quick look at the Program- at-a-Glance, the 2006 Annual Meeting Final Program brochure is now available online.

Registration materials have been mailed to all pre- registered attendees in North America. Watch your mail for your conference information and credentials. Remember to bring your conference badge with you to claim your registration materials onsite.

Advance registration closes Friday, October 13th. If you have not pre-registered for The Obesity Society's Annual Meeting, you can still register onsite in the Hall D Lobby, Hynes Convention Center in Boston, beginning Friday, October 20th at 7:00 am.

If you are not a member of The Obesity Society, now is a great time to join. Take advantage of Annual Meeting registration discounts and learn more about society membership.

Hear updates on the use of pharmacotherapy for obesity in a special pre-meeting session entitled Pharmacotherapy for Obesity: Overview, Approaches, and Update - 2006. Free to registered annual meeting participants, the session is scheduled for Friday, October 20th from 1:00-4:00 PM. For the session agenda and a complete list of learning objectives and presenters, visit the Itinerary Planner.

This session is sponsored by Merck & Co., Inc.

Two special sessions of interest to the obesity field are being offered on Saturday, October 21st. Plan to take advantage of the following offerings:

Developments in Obesity Management: Novel Lipase Inhibition
Saturday, October 21, 6:30 AM - 7:45 AM
Independence Ballroom, Sheraton Boston
Examine drug treatment and the role of lipase inhibitors in the management of obesity. Current and novel treatment modalities in development will be explored.
Registration will be onsite at the event.
This session is sponsored by Alizyme.

New Strategies for the Management of Cardiometabolic Risk Factors
Saturday, October 21, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Room 302/304, Hynes Convention Center
Examine the role of conventional and novel pharmacotherapies in reducing both weight and cardiometabolic risk in obese and overweight populations.
Register here or call 888-919-3131 if you have registration questions.
This session is sponsored by sanofi-aventis U.S.

The Obesity Society encourages and welcomes media participation at our annual meeting. This is a unique event allowing media to report on innovative, late- breaking science and meet the foremost obesity experts. Please visit our Media Information Web page for registration and guidelines. Media representatives are also welcome to register onsite.

On September 13th, The Institute of Medicine provided an update of its 2004 report, Preventing Childhood Obesity: Health in the Balance. The new report, entitled Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity: How Do We Measure Up?, stresses that childhood obesity is an ongoing problem and projects that by 2010, 20% of children and youth in the country will be obese. Additionally, the IOM cited estimates that total health care spending for children diagnosed as obese is approximately $280 million per year for those with private insurance and $470 million per year for those covered by Medicaid. On average, medical costs for a child diagnosed as obese are about three times higher than for a child without the diagnosis.

The IOM panel was especially forceful in calling for greater evaluation of the numerous projects underway to address childhood obesity. Obesity Society Executive Vice President Morgan Downey expressed support for the call for more efforts at evaluation. Additionally, Downey asked the panel whether it included a call for funding a public health infrastructure to address the obesity epidemic, similar to the government's call earlier this year for a $7.3 billion investment in public health to prepare for an avian flu pandemic.

Jeffrey P. Koplan, director of the IOM panel and former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, replied that no recommendation about an infrastructure was made. He stated that obesity was receiving only a droplet of the funding it should when compared with other legitimate diseases such as the flu, other infectious diseases, and bioterrorism.

The report and a recording of the September 13th news conference Webcast are available here.

The Obesity Society has joined We Can!, a program established by four institutes of the National Institutes of Health, including the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. We Can! stands for Ways to Enhance Children's Activity and Nutrition. The program is designed as a resource for parents and caregivers looking for practical tools to help children 8-13 years old stay at a healthy weight. Society members are encouraged to explore the site and utilize their resources. Learn more at the We Can! Web site.

News from the East
By Kathleen Keller

Joseph R. Vasselli, PhD, of the New York Obesity Research Center, St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, was the winner of the Science Unbound Foundation's award for Best Paper in 2005 on obesity-related research by an investigator at the New York Obesity Research Center. The paper was entitled "Acute insulin-induced elevations of circulating leptin and feeding inhibition in lean but not obese rats." Dr. Vasselli was senior author on the paper. Other authors included Kimberly A. Singh MD, and Carol Boozer, DSc. The paper was published in the American Journal of Physiology 2005,289:R373-R379.

Rutgers University will be holding a symposium on November 3, 2006 from 12:45-3:50 PM, entitled "Comorbidities Associated with Obesity: Basic Science and Clinical Concerns." The symposium is sponsored by the New Jersey Obesity Group & The Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers University. The symposium will take place at Rutgers University, Douglass College Center, Trayes Hall B. Featured speakers will be Alan R. Tall, MD, Meredith Hawkins, MD, and Xavier Pi- Sunyer, MD. For more information and registration information, please contact Salome P. Rao, PhD

News from the West
By Judith Stern

California
Peter Havel's laboratory in the Department of Nutrition at University of California, Davis has been awarded a grant from the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine to investigate the effects of fish oil and alpha-lipoic acid (a potent antioxidant) on the progression of insulin resistance and dyslipidemia in obese rhesus monkeys at the California National Primate Research Center on the U.C., Davis campus.

T. Anthony Don Michael (Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCLA) with his research student Yasmeen Sultana will be presenting two abstracts titled "An unexpected cardia complication of bariatric surgery" and "Regression of metabolic syndrome and diabetes following weight loss surgery".

Washington
David Cummings (Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Washington) was inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ACSI) in April of this year.