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4th World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes Focuses on Barriers to Utilization of Bariatric/Metabolic Surgery and Hosts the First-Ever Joint Consensus Conference on Obesity & Diabetes Stigma

April 4, 2019 Off By BusinessWire

45 Leading Global Societies and 90 World-Renowned Experts to Gather
in New York City at the 4^th World Congress on
Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The 4^th World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2
Diabetes (WCITD), (April 8-10, 2019, Hilton Midtown in New York City),
organized in partnership with the American Diabetes Association (ADA),
will host the first joint consensus conference on obesity and diabetes
stigma. The initiative, which involves multiple scientific societies
from the USA and around the world, will develop a white paper that
analyzes the causes of stigma and proposes educational and policy
initiatives designed to eradicate it.

Participating organizations in the stigma conference include, in
addition to the ADA, the World Obesity Federation (WOF), The Obesity
Society (TOS), European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO), the
American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE), Diabetes UK,
Obesity Canada, Obesity Action Coalition (OAC), American Society for
Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), International Federation for
the Surgery of Obesity (IFSO), and many others.

People with obesity face increased risks of serious medical
complications in addition to a pervasive, negative social stigma. They
are often discriminated against in the workplace and education, and even
by healthcare professionals. Research has shown that obesity stigma can
cause physical and psychological adverse consequences among affected
individuals, who are less likely to seek and receive adequate care.
Despite scientific evidence to the contrary, the prevailing view in
society is that obesity is a choice – a condition, rather than a disease
– that can be reversed simply by voluntary decisions to eat less and
exercise more. These assumptions mislead public health policies, confuse
messages in popular media, undermine access to evidence-based
treatments, and compromise advances in research.

“Weight stigma represents a major stumbling block in the fight against
the pandemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. Francesco Rubino,
Director of WCITD 2019, Chair of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery at
King’s College London, and consultant surgeon at King’s College
Hospital, London, United Kingdom. “Tackling stigma is not only a matter
of human rights and social justice but also a way to advance prevention
and treatment of these diseases. It is time to put aside longstanding
preconceptions and unsupported beliefs through a new public narrative of
obesity that is coherent with modern scientific knowledge and respectful
of the rights of affected people,” he added.

Dr. William T. Cefalu, ADA’s Chief Scientific, Medical and Mission
Officer and program co-chair of the 4^th WCITD said, “It is a
milestone for major scientific organizations from the USA and around the
world are joining efforts to understand and challenge the stigma
associated with weight and diabetes. This is a unique opportunity to
speak with one voice to raise awareness of the negative consequences of
weight and diabetes stigma and address the misconceptions that
influence, cause, or reinforce it.”

Another highlight of WCITD 2019, a three-day forum entirely focused on
review and discussion of the latest scientific evidence on the use and
study of gastrointestinal (GI) interventions for type 2 diabetes, is a
consensus-development conference to appraise barriers to utilization of
bariatric/metabolic surgery in eligible patients with type 2 diabetes
and obesity.

Results of an international survey on utilization of bariatric/metabolic
surgery across more than 30 countries will be presented at 4^th
WCITD for the first time. This survey shows that in most nations,
including the USA, fewer than 0.9% of eligible patients have access to
surgical treatment of diabetes (metabolic surgery), despite compelling
evidence of its efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness. Procedures
such as Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, which have been shown to improve and,
in most cases, induce complete remission of type 2 diabetes, are now
recognized as a standard therapy for this disease by more than 50
worldwide scientific and medical organizations¹.

Experts representing many organizations will seek to understand the
obstacles that prevent use of surgery in appropriate candidates, and
they will develop a roadmap of education and policy initiatives to help
ensure implementation of these guidelines.

“It is worrisome that a highly effective, evidence-based treatment for
diabetes is being underutilized by the vast majority of patients in
need. Lack of patients’ and physicians’ awareness of new evidence and
guidelines, inadequate insurance coverage, and misperceptions about
risks or aims of metabolic surgery negatively impact access to this
approach”, said Dr. Philip Schauer, Professor of Surgery at the
Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Director of the Cleveland
Clinic Bariatric & Metabolic Institute, and program co-chair of the 4^th
WCITD 2019. “Addressing such barriers should be a priority for
healthcare providers and policy makers.”

The program of WCITD will also provide an update about the mechanisms by
which surgery on the gastrointestinal tract improves diabetes.
“Metabolic surgery works in ways that are only partially understood,”
said Dr. David Cummings, Professor of Medicine at the University of
Washington, Director of the VA Puget Sound Healthcare System’s Weight
Management Program, and program co-chair of the 4^th WCITD.
“Understanding how surgery works can inform the search for novel and
less invasive interventions and/or new drugs, and it might facilitate
further recognition of the underlying mechanisms of diseases,” he added.

Type 2 diabetes and obesity represent a major public health challenge
for the 21^st century and are the leading causes of
preventable death in the United States. Diabetes is currently the
seventh-leading cause of death, globally and nationally, and prevalence
of these two diseases continues to rise simultaneously. An estimated 39
percent of people worldwide live with both diseases. Despite this, type
2 diabetes and obesity still receive far less research funding compared
to other diseases, relative to their prevalence and the financial burden
they impose on society. Projected costs of diabetes, both direct (e.g.,
prevention, diagnosis, treatment) and indirect (e.g., workplace
absenteeism) was $327 billion in 2017 in the United States and over $1.3
trillion globally.^2,3

The 4^th WCITD seeks to change policies, practices, and the
way healthcare providers, policy makers, and the general public think
about diabetes and obesity.

Event Highlights:

Results of the Attitudes Stigma & Knowledge (“ASK”) Study will be
presented for the first time at WCITD. This online survey of more than
3,000 subjects conducted by King’s College London and University of
Leeds, UK, investigated prevalence of obesity stigma among the lay
public in the U.S. and the U.K., as well as among healthcare
professionals from around the world. The study sought to determine
possible causes of stigma and the influence of such stigma in shaping
attitudes toward available treatments for obesity. (Data will be
presented on April 10, 2019.)
Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic, Ohio, will present new data
from the STAMPEDE randomized clinical trial on April 8 2019, comparing
the long-term effects of metabolic surgery vs medical and lifestyle
interventions on the quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes.
Four consensus-development conferences:
1. Stigma as a stumbling
block in type 2 diabetes and obesity care, research, and policy.
2.
Barriers to implementation of metabolic surgery guidelines.
3.
Remission of diabetes: update from a joint consensus conference for
the definition of “diabetes remission” and its implications for care
and policy, with discussion from the ADA, EASD, Diabetes UK, & DSS –
April 9, 2019.
4. Establishing safe standards for development of
novel procedures and device-based therapies to treat type 2 diabetes
(a joint consensus conference with participation by ADA, AACE, SAGES,
ASMBS, ASGE, & IFSO – April 9, 2019.

For more information about the event program, visit http://www.wcitd.com.

For media-approved promotional tools, check out the WCITD tool kit at https://wcitd.com/promotional-toolkit/

References

1. Rubino F. et al. Metabolic Surgery in the Treatment Algorithm for
Type 2 Diabetes: A Joint Statement by International Diabetes
Organizations. Diabetes Care 2016 Jun;39(6):861-77. doi:
10.2337/dc16-0236
2. American Diabetes Association. Economic Costs
of Diabetes in the U.S. in 2017. Diabetes Care 2018; https://doi.org/10.2337/dci18-0007
3.
Bommer C. et al. Global Economic of Diabetes in Adults: Projections from
2015 to 2030. Diabetes Care 2018 May; 41(5): 963-970.https://doi.org/10.2337/dc17-1962