July 29th, 2016 – Obesity PPM has become a Founding Champion of the World Obesity Federation’s (WOF) Action Initiative, next to industry leaders from the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors.  With the aligned global objectives of preventing and treating obesity and its related conditions, recent discussions between the two organizations revealed shared strategic visions defined by evidence, collaboration, innovation, and action.

 

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to join the collective, powerful force led by World Obesity Federation. Not only is obesity a disease that devastates individual health and quality of life, it continues to drain economic resources on a global scale,” says Heather Flannery, Obesity PPM’s Founder and CEO.  “We’ve focused on enabling organizations to improve population health through targeted and sophisticated engagement of people affected by obesity and its related metabolic diseases such as type II diabetes,” she goes on to state.  Unlike traditional healthcare consultancies, Obesity PPM operationalizes and administers the strategic interventions they collaboratively design with their customers.

 

There are a number of projects within WOF’s Action Initiative, jointly identified to support the aims of both organisations, which will deliver additional resources not only to the global membership of WOF, but also to other critical stakeholders, including the media. Obesity PPM facilitated the delivery of the Obesity Image Bank, creating a platform for the public to access a broad range of obesity imagery for free.  Because both organizations are committed to breaking down societal weight bias, they prioritized this initiative to deliver images that represent people with obesity in a positive light rather than in negative, stereotypical roles.  The pictures are free to download and may be used to accompany online or print media.

 

“Through our Action Initiative, the World Obesity Federation hopes to drive awareness and understanding of practical and effective actions that can be taken to combat the obesity crisis." states Chris Trimmer, Executive Director of WOF. She goes on to say, “The Action Initiative promotes a comprehensive view of tackling obesity, covering a range of individual, environmental, social, and physiological issues that can have an impact – from diet to physical activity, from infrastructure to sport, from public health interventions to medicine. Our Founding Champions help us take leaps towards our goals.”

 

Foundational to combating the obesity pandemic, WOF and Obesity PPM both support research, education, and translation of the latest scientific evidence into practice. “This partnership with World Obesity Federation opens a number of opportunities to enhance the learning process about obesity and its treatment.  Also, this will help multiple types of organizations to enhance their chronic disease management models in ways that are patient-centered, individualized, and multi-disciplinary,” says endocrinologist Richard Atkinson, MD, a pioneer in obesity research and treatment, and Chief Scientific Officer at Obesity PPM. “We believe there is no limit on what we could accomplish through our collective efforts.”

 

Those interested in learning more about the new Obesity Image Bank provided by WOF and powered by Obesity PPM may visit http://www.imagebank.worldobesity.org. To learn more about the WOF Action Initiative, please visit http://www.worldobesity.org/what-we-do/action-initiative/.