Andres Acosta, MD, Discusses the Challenge of Heterogeneity in Response to Obesity Treatment

"When we have one-third of patients who are not responding to obesity treatments, including bariatric surgery, we have to ask ourselves if the way we are currently managing obesity is appropriate."

In an interview with Patient Care, Andres Acosta, MD, whose widely recognized research focuses on precision medicine in management of obesity, says that given the extensive body of knowledge about the pathophysiology of obesity and wide range of interventions avaialable to address the ubiquitous disease, the era of the trial and error approach to treatment selection should be coming to a close.

In the conversation below he discusses the broad heterogeneity in response to obesity intervetions and his focus on making them more effective, and more effective for more people.

For more conversations with Dr Acosta:

Obesity Phenotypes Explain What Drives the Disease and How to Target Intervention: Expert Interview
How to Build an Obesity Phenotype Step-by-Step, with Andres Acosta, MD, PhD

Andres Acosta, MD, PhD, is a physician-scientist at Mayo Clinic's campus in Rochester, Minnesota, specializing in bariatric surgery, upper endoscopy, nutrition, and obesity. He is also an assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Acosta's primary research focus is on the mechanisms and regulation of appetite, satiation, and satiety, including the role of gastric function, gastrointestinal hormones, taste preferences, bile acids, and enterohepatic regulation and gut energy utilization. Additionally, Dr. Acosta studies the effect of genetics, pharmacology and endoscopic devices on food intake regulation.

Twitter @dr_aac