Don’t Miss the 2018 Diabetes, Obesity and Cardiology Summit

If you’re not sure how to measure waist circumference correctly, Philip Schauer, MD, will be glad to show you — with a tape measure around his own waist, on stage, in front of hundreds attending Cleveland Clinic’s 13th annual Obesity Summit this October. Dr. Schauer, director of the CME-certified event, and the event’s five co-directors all will step up to be measured and will award the attendee who most closely guesses the leaders’ average waist circumference.

Attendees also will be measured — and awarded for guessing the entire group’s average waist circumference.

“It’s entertaining and educational, but it also will help care providers empathize with patients,” says Dr. Schauer, Director of Advanced Laparoscopic and Bariatric Surgery at Cleveland Clinic. “It’s normal to feel hesitant about getting measured or stepping on a scale, even when you’re not obese.”

At last year’s summit, the focus was body mass index. This year, truncal obesity gets the spotlight, partly because of its link with cardiovascular disease. It’s this association, as well as obesity’s link to diabetes, that has led Cleveland Clinic to rename the annual conference the “Diabetes, Obesity and Cardiology Summit” (DOCS).

“Obesity is central to the summit,” says Steven Nissen, MD, Chairman of Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Cardiovascular Medicine. “But we also will discuss its comorbidities, such as atherosclerosis and atrial fibrillation, and identify strategies for their evaluation, prevention and treatment.”

Reaching caregivers in Mississippi and Louisiana

This is the second year the summit will be hosted in multiple locations: Cleveland, Ohio, and Biloxi, Mississippi, home of The National Diabetes & Obesity Research Institute. Both locations will have live presentations that will be shown by videoconference to attendees elsewhere.

Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, one of the nation’s premier obesity research centers, also is co-sponsoring this year’s summit and will host a private audience there.

Mississippi and Louisiana are among the states with the highest rates of obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thirty-five percent or more of adults living there are obese.

“We need to get information to more care providers there — not just those who can travel to Cleveland,” says Dr. Schauer. “Our long-term plan is to keep expanding the reach of this summit. Audio-visual technology is helping us do that.”

All healthcare professionals caring for patients with obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease should attend, he says.

Highlights not to miss

According to Dr. Schauer, among the 2018 DOCS highlights will be:

• Welcoming Remarks from Cleveland Clinic CEO and President Tom Mihaljevic, MD. Dr. Mihaljevic will share the importance of fighting obesity, not just for Cleveland Clinic as a healthcare provider but as an employer.
• Lunch Presentation by Alex Hurd, a Senior Director for Health and Wellness Transformation at Walmart. Hear how one of the largest employers in the world views the future of healthcare management.
• Lipoprotein Lipase: How Tissue-Specific Lipid Partitioning Impacts Insulin Sensitivity, Energy Balance and Body Weight Regulation. Renowned endocrinologist Robert Eckel, MD, of the University of Colorado School of Medicine will explain his recent groundbreaking research.
• Debate: Fatness v Fitness. Scientists Steven Blair, PEd, of the University of South Carolina, and Leanne Redman, PhD, MS, of Pennington Biomedical Research Center, will present opposing views on an individual’s ability to counteract the effects of obesity with physical fitness.
• Obesity Research: New Directions and Opportunities. Susan Yanovski, MD, of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, will discuss how the National Institutes of Health is investing in obesity research.
• Obesity and Atherosclerosis. Hear from renowned Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Dr. Nissen.
• Live Surgery Demonstration. Watch by videoconference as surgeons Ali Aminian, MD, and John Rodriguez, MD, perform bariatric operations at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Schauer will moderate the hour-long demonstration and conduct a question-and-answer session in real time.
• Patient Panel. Patients will share their successful experiences with weight loss thanks to a variety of methods, including diet, exercise, medications and surgery.
• Breakout workshops. Choose from more than a dozen interactive small-group sessions on healthy cooking, exercise, perioperative management of bariatric patients, obesity pharmacotherapy and more.

This year’s Diabetes, Obesity and Cardiology Summit will be Oct. 11 and 12, 2018, at the InterContinental Hotel and Bank of America Conference Center in Cleveland and at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Hospitality Management Center in Biloxi, Mississippi. Register at ccfcme.org/18docs.

This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.