Nearly 75% of Americans are overweight, including 42% who have obesity. The pandemic has heightened the problem, since many of us find comfort in food, and delivery services like Door Dash and Uber Eats make it easier than ever to consume calories while barely getting off the couch to answer the door.  This obesity epidemic has huge implications on value-based care due to the impact it has on chronic morbidity, increased mortality, and unrelenting demands on the utilization of limited healthcare resources. Chronic conditions associated with obesity include, but are not limited to, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and heart disease. These diseases have a destructive effect on the US healthcare system, and leaders in value-based care must start thinking about lifestyle medicine and evidence-based nutrition interventions.  While there are many apps and tools for consumers or patients to use to lose weight on their own, programs that incorporate medically-assisted weight management and obesity care yield the best outcomes.
Rather than weight loss as a sidebar suggestion once a disease state is diagnosed, weight loss can be a potent catalyst for disease prevention within value-based care. Dr. Jamy Ard is the Co-Director of the Weight Management Center at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist. Joining him this week in the Race to Value is Rich Steinle, CEO of Carium – a technology company that partners with clinicians to offer a complete, virtual care platform ensuring every person – regardless of location, demographic or disease state – has access to quality, personalized care, education, and tools to support health and wellness goals. In this episode, we discuss the importance of partnerships between healthcare providers and technology companies to empower clinicians, patients, and their caregivers. Do you want to learn more about how real-time, aggregated health data and analytics can guide clinical decision-making in obesity? Well, this is an interview that you will not want to miss. Within a platform-enabled, virtual care ecosystem, weight management care teams can achieve positive outcomes that deliver on the promise of value-based care!
Episode Bookmarks:

01:30 An introduction to the concept of Virtual Weight Loss Management in Value-Based Care

02:00 Background on Dr. Jamy Ard (Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist) and Rich Steinle(Carium)

03:30 Subscribe to our newsletter and leave us a Review and Rating on Apple Podcasts!

04:00 Chronic conditions associated with obesity include type-2 diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and heart disease.

04:45 Direct medical costs attributed to obesity account for $147 billion. Lost productivity due to obesity cost $303 billion. Adding chronic diseases make obesity a $1 Trillion problem!

06:00 Dr. Ard speaks to the economic challenges of obesity – “Obesity is a multifocal chronic relapsing disorder. It is a disease epidemic that can be addressed through patient engagement.”

07:00 The limitations of medical education in training doctors on nutrition and how to effectively treat and manage patient obesity.

08:30 Dr. Ard discusses the Weight Management Center at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist and the challenges with patient engagement in an obesogenic environment.

09:00 The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on societal obesity and how technology empowers an effective patient engagement strategy.

10:00 Rich discusses the diametrically opposed reality that treating obesity is typically conducted as a prescription upon the onset of chronic disease (instead of as a prevention).

11:30 How technology can extend team-based care to provide a conduit for meaning patient engagement and treatment interventions.

12:00 Technology can be leveraged to address community health and equity, especially for patients living in food deserts.

13:00 How can a trusting business partnership between a care delivery organization and a technology company...

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