SILVER SPRING, MD – Lilly USA, LLC has awarded $189,100 to the National Medical Association (NMA) to address the knowledge and disparity gaps in weight management in Black Americans. With this funding, the NMA has developed and begun offering a high-impact education model to educate healthcare professionals of the need to prioritize obesity as a chronic, progressive disease.
This investment by Lilly aligns with NMA’s mission to eliminate health disparities and improve health outcomes for patients of medically underserved communities, particularly those of African descent. Helping medical professionals understand the link between health disparities and obesity enables professionals to partner with and empower their patients to achieve improved health outcomes. Through evidence-based, clinically relevant content, providers’ knowledge, competence, and performance will increase, positively impacting patient care.
Two live lecture and panel discussion sessions were held earlier this year in two NMA Regions, covering Eastern states the West Coast. The learning series will conclude with a live meeting and panel discussion at the 2023 Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly Wednesday, August 2, 2023, 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, LA. This panel will grapple with the development of culturally sensitive strategies and training to effectively address obesity, engage patients in sustainable weight management, and/or properly prescribe anti-obesity medications to help mitigate some of the negative health outcomes associated with the disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 70 percent of adults in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Predominantly impacting socioeconomically disadvantaged persons and more than half of the Black community, obesity can lead to a variety of other medical conditions. Despite this disease burden, the management of obesity in clinical settings has greatly lagged behind that of other chronic conditions. These educational opportunities provided by the NMA will address barriers to effective treatment caused by providers’ misperceptions about causes and contributors to weight gain and obesity. These long-held, biased views of obesity prevent formal diagnosis of obesity and effective obesity management and can lead to blaming and shaming patients for their weight difficulties, which undermines productive conversations, and interferes with provider-patient relationships. The NMA asserts that understanding the complexity of obesity is a critical prerequisite for productive conversations about weight, obesity, and improved health outcomes. “As the organization serving as the leading force for parity and justice in medicine and the elimination of disparities in health, the National Medical Association supports measures to achieve effective, equitable, and respectful provision of health care services to diverse populations,” said Dr. Garfield Clunie, 123rd president of the NMA.
Lilly USA, LLC
Founded in 1876, Lilly is committed to supporting high-quality education that provides healthcare professionals with evidence-based, clinically relevant content that advances learners’ knowledge, competence, and performance in order to ultimately impact patient care. Lilly does not support Independent Medical Education, or any medical activities, for the purpose of encouraging off-label use of our products.
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The NMA promotes the collective interests of physicians and patients of African descent. We carry out this mission by serving as the collective voice of physicians of African descent and is a leading voice for parity in medicine, elimination of health disparities and promotion of optimal health.
Garfield Clunie, MD Contact: Michael Peery
President (312) 217-2260
Joy D. Calloway, MBA, MHSA
Executive Director
