Increase your confidence in providing counseling and treatment to patients with overweight and obesity with these innovative educational materials. The resources below include a 3-part, CME-eligible series that helps you proactively address obesity in a respectful, non-stigmatizing way that can foster patient engagement with life-changing therapies and an AI-powered obesity counseling conversation tool (member resource) that provides you with opportunities to practice having conversations about weight with patients in simulated scenarios.
The ACP Obesity Management Learning Series
Fully updated in 2024
Audio version now available
These interactive learning activities address lifestyle modification, pharmacologic therapy, and surgical intervention to provide physicians and their teams with the latest evidence-based guidance in treating patients with obesity.
Activities can be completed independently, or you can progress linearly.
The learning series and CME credit/MOC points are free to ACP Members. Nonmembers may purchase access to claim CME credit/MOC points for each module for $25.
Module 1: Lifestyle Modification
1 CME
Assist patients in establishing lifestyle modification goals, monitoring diet, engaging in physical activity, and achieving desired weight loss.
Obesity Management Conversation Tool
Member Exclusive
ACP Members: join us for a unique AI-powered learning opportunity with the Obesity Management Conversation Tool! Be a part of a pilot program developed to help you practice applying concepts learned in Obesity Management 1: Lifestyle Modification. Test your skills at applying the 5A framework by conversing with a simulated online patient using either speech or text in a ten-minute simulation, designed to approximate a busy clinical environment. Receive customized, evidence-based feedback on your performance with opportunities to practice again with other patient scenarios. After your conversation, please help us in improving this activity by sharing your feedback on this brief survey.
Module 2: Pharmacotherapy
1 CME
Safely pursue pharmacotherapy for obesity by supporting evidence-based prescription of medications, avoiding medication-induced weight gain, and initiating medication-facilitated weight loss as part of a complete treatment plan.
Module 3: Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery
1 CME
Optimize pre- and postoperative care for patients considering common metabolic and bariatric procedures like sleeve gastrectomy and the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Learn to evaluate surgery as an appropriate therapy option, and discuss short-term and long-term management considerations with your patients.
ACP Obesity Patient Education Materials
Share these ACP-produced handouts with your patients to bolster your recommendations and support patient success.
Lifestyle and Nutrition Handout
This handout includes information for your patients on what it means to have obesity and how it can negatively affect their health, lifestyle and nutrition modifications they can make, and additional treatment options they may need to pursue.
Lifestyle and Nutrition Checklist
This “You Can Do It!” checklist enables patients to select from a menu of self-management techniques and healthy habits as they commit to pursue weight loss actions and a healthier lifestyle. There is also free space for patients to write in their own ideas. Encourage your patients to commit to a few habits in each area, and review this checklist with them at follow-up visits to see how they are progressing.
Weight Loss Surgery
This handout includes information on weight loss surgery for your patients. It covers the 3 most common surgical procedures for weight loss, general prerequisites for surgery, risks and benefits of surgery, and considerations for after surgery.
Medication and Weight Loss
This handout includes information on medications and weight for patients. It addresses how some medications for other medical conditions can cause weight gain, information on how weight loss medication works, who might benefit from taking it, and what to expect when starting a new prescription for weight loss medication.
Who’s Who on the Obesity Care Team
Advancing Equitable Obesity Care
ACP has begun to address obesity and its many related challenges systemically and through a health equity lens, through education and advocacy, and by addressing systemic factors that influence chronic health conditions, particularly those that disproportionately impact underserved populations.
Annals of Internal Medicine's Overweight and Obesity Special Collection
Annals of Internal Medicine features a comprehensive collection of articles, such as this In the Clinic article, providing valuable insights into the management, treatment, and health outcomes of obesity and overweight. To access most articles, you will need to have a subscription to the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Accreditation
The American College of Physicians is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Learn more
Accreditation
The American College of Physicians is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American College of Physicians designates each enduring material for the number AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™ listed below. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Successful completion of each CME activity, which includes participation in the evaluation component, enables the participant to earn up to the indicated number of medical knowledge MOC points in the American Board of Internal Medicine’s (ABIM) Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. Participants will earn MOC points equivalent to the amount of CME credits claimed for the activity. It is the CME activity provider’s responsibility to submit participant completion information to ACCME for the purpose of granting ABIM MOC credit.
- Lifestyle Modification: 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™
- Pharmacotherapy: 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™
- Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery: 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™
The obesity management learning hub and its contents are supported by an educational grant from Novo Nordisk Inc.