Prime Time for Primary Care?



Yesterday, I attended a meeting in Montreal, co-sponsored by the Canadian Obesity Network and a grant from CIHR, that brought together researchers and decision makers from Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, Nova Scotia and Alberta to discuss strategies on improving access to obesity prevention and management in primary care.

Marie-France Langlois (University of Sherbrooke) convened this meeting called “Networking and Partnership Development for Cost-Effective Management of Obesity in Primary Care”.

The meeting was also attended by David Haslam (Chair, National Obesity Forum) and Paula Regan from the UK, who shared their experience with the CounterWeight program, which has researched clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of obesity interventions in primary care.

As one can imagine, the views were quite diverse, but there was clearly consensus on one isssue: obesity management belongs in primary care. 

However, given health professionals’ weight-bias, lack of self-efficacy and training, as well as limited incentives for obesity management, getting primary care practitioners to begin addressing obesity in their practice will remain a challenge.

AMS
Montreal, Quebec