Managing Obesity in Primary Care Webinar Series

Specialty Medicine (Focused Systems), Primary Care / Family Medicine

Obesity has been declared a chronic disease by national and international medical associations. Despite the urgency to improve provider education and training in obesity management, no widely recognized programs have been implemented to date. Many healthcare providers are left feeling ill-prepared and lacking the knowledge and confidence to effectively address weight concerns with their patients. Complicating this issue further, misinformation regarding the chronicity and complexity of obesity has led to negative attitudes and unrealistic expectations on the part of both the healthcare provider and patient. As a result, providers are not routinely discussing weight and many patients feel uncomfortable bringing it up. 

As part of our ongoing partnership with the Edmonton Southside PCN, we co-developed and delivered a pan-PCN quality improvement workshop series on managing obesity for primary care physicians and their teams. 11 different PCNs participated in the workshops, which featured a condensed version of the 5AsT toolkit, and the 5As Framework for Obesity Management in Adults. Participants also learned about the Edmonton Obesity Staging System Dashboard in the CPCSSN database which was co-developed with PLP. These flipped classroom events each included a live didactic education session with case-based discussions, and a data-driven quality improvement session with PCN improvement facilitators.