This is an application for a Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24) for Improving the Effectiveness of Obesity Management. The award will provide the candidate 40% effort for each of the next 5 years to increase his mentoring of postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty and to continue his research to improve the treatment of obesity. Postdoctoral fellows will be provided both clinical and research training and will have the opportunity to collaborate on the candidate's current NIH-funded studies. These include two randomized clinical trials to improve the maintenance of weight loss. The first encourages obese individuals to increase their daily lifestyle activity (Lifestyle Activity for Weight Management, DK56114), while the second combines behavior modification with the long-term use of weight loss medication (Behavior Modification and Pharmacotherapy for Obesity, DK56124). A third trial is the Look AHEAD study that is assessing the long-term health consequences of intentional weight loss and increased physical activity in overweight individuals with type 2 diabetes (U01-DK57135). The candidate will assist postdoctoral fellows in initiating their own investigations and mentor them through the stages from formulating a suitable question to publishing their results. He will similarly facilitate the research of junior faculty who are supported by Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Awards (K23) and similar mechanisms. The present award will support the candidate's efforts to improve the treatment of obesity in primary care practice. Working with faculty in the Department of Family Practice and Community Medicine, he will develop a brief physician-delivered intervention for weight management. The success of this intervention will be assessed in a controlled pilot study conducted in the Department's outpatient practice. Thus, this award will help the candidate move beyond the customary efficacy trials of obesity therapies (conducted in research clinics such as his own) to examine the effectiveness of a weight management intervention delivered in the more challenging arena of primary care practice.
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