Adherence
Increasing primary care provider (PCP) referral rates for weight loss surgery (WLS) significantly increases the volume of WLS procedures performed, with simulated interventions predicting up to a 24.1% increase in surgeries over 3 years.
If you are eligible for weight loss surgery, your primary care doctor's willingness to refer you is the biggest hurdle. This study suggests that simply encouraging your PCP to refer you to a specialist (endocrinologist or surgeon) significantly increases your chances of eventually having the surgery. If your PCP is hesitant, ask for a referral to a subspecialty obesity clinic, as this is a common stepping stone to surgery.
A simulated intervention to increase referrals among PCPs would generate about 49 additional WLS procedures over 3 years.
Why this rating
Based on a large retrospective cohort (n=5876) with robust Bayesian multistate modeling and simulation, though the intervention itself is simulated (in silico) rather than a randomized controlled trial.
Source
A machine learning framework for optimizing obesity care by simulating clinical trajectories and targeted interventions
Jacob Nudel et al. · Obesity · 2023
DOI 10.1002/oby.23911
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