Speaker: Zvi
Perry MD, PhD1
Title:
The obesity epidemic and the role of telemedicine and smartphone apps as an adjunct to surgical treatment.
Abstract:
Obesity is considered a chronic disease that is increasingly common in adults, adolescents and children, and is now considered a global epidemic. Obesity is defined as excess fat tissue. In contrast, overweight is defined as excess body weight. These two definitions were termed by the World Health Organization (WHO) using BMI, which is defined as the weight (kg) / square height (in meters). Overweight according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Is defined as BMI> 25 and obesity is defined as BMI> 30. Studies show that health expenditure is significantly higher for people who are overweight and obese. It is well known that obesity is associated with a significant increase in mortality and a risk for many diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, heart disease, stroke, sleep apnea, cancer, and many others. In contrast, weight loss is associated with a decrease in morbidity associated with obesity. For overweight and obese patients there are many therapeutic options, but among all treatment options, surgery is the only proven efficacy in obesity, including its associated morbidity including hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and more.
In the current lecture we will explore the burden of obesity worldwide, the available therapies and the growing need for a public health perspective and involvement to better treat this growing health problem, mainly through the use of tele-medicine and smartphone apps.
Bio:
Zvi H. Perry, M.A. (Ed. Psyc.), M.D.,Ph.D. (Epi.)
Surgery A ward, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel
I graduated from Ben-Gurion University, Israel. I also have a PhD. in Surgical Epidemiology and an M.A. in Educational Psychology. I had done my residency at Soroka University Medical Center in General Surgery. In addition I did a research fellow at Tuft New-England Medical Center in the Surgical research lab, under the supervision of Prof. Shikora in 2008-9. I finished my fellowship in Bariatrics at McGill University Hospital (2017-8). I did another fellowship in Surgical Simulation at the Steinberg-Bernstein Centre for Minimally Invasive Surgery & Innovation, McGill University (2018-9).
I am a senior lecturer at the Ben-Gurion University, where I have been teaching Surgery and Epidemiology for the last Decade. I am also active in promoting General surgery education and Bariatrics at the state level in Israel, and am a member of the Israeli surgical society, and of the Israeli Endoscopic Society. My academic activities in the national level include improving health quality measurements in Israel, as well as being a part of the Clalit simulation center for the surgical professions.
My research interests include bariatric surgery, medical and surgical simulations and improving health quality measurements on the state level. These days I am taking part of the Israeli bariatric registry committee on how to utilize that registry to better understand health care utilization in the Israeli field of bariatrics. Also, I have research students who are evaluating the impact of bariatrics upon kidney functioning, and the impact of bariatric procedures upon the incidence of cancer.
