Media Center
Press Release
Experts from Mubadala Health’s Imperial London College Diabetes Centre (ICLDC) and Healthpoint have again been actively involved in the organization of the third UAE Obesity Conference, which was held virtually this weekend (18-20 November).
The conference, endorsed by the Abu Dhabi Public Health Center (ADPHC), was supported by the World Obesity Federation. The three-day event was attended by medical professionals including nurses, pharmacists and doctors.
This year’s event was also attended by World Obesity President, Prof. John Wilding, and world-expert Prof. Carel Le Roux (Dublin, Ireland), alongside healthcare leaders from the UAE and GCC. The theme this year was “When two pandemics collide: Obesity and COVID-19”, with the overall objective of highlighting the challenge of obesity and its complications, the underlying causes, as well as the scale of the issue and ways to tackle it, including advances in technology, specific diets, and newer medical and surgical interventions.
The event was chaired by ICLDC consultant endocrinologist and diabetologist Dr. Sara Suliman, with Healthpoint consultant bariatric surgeon Dr. Mohammed Al Hadad serving as co-chair of the organizing committee. In addition to Mubadala Health experts serving on the organizing committee, several Mubadala Health physicians were speakers at the event.
Chairperson Dr. Suliman, said: “After the tremendous success of the past two annual conferences, we again focused on solutions, and on multidisciplinary insights into the management and prevention of obesity. We planned a comprehensive program that makes an important contribution to the continuing professional development of healthcare professionals who treat people with obesity.”
Co-chair Dr. Al Hadad, who is the head of Healthpoint’s Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Center, said that given the fact that about a third of the population of the UAE is classified as obese, it is very important that we focus on harnessing our resources and efforts to find new solutions to this phenomenon and share knowledge with international experts on obesity prevention and management.
ICLDC consultant endocrinologist and diabetologist Dr Matthew Allum, one of the speakers, said that obesity is also associated with many chronic health problems, and therefore has a significant impact on the quality of life of individuals. He delivered a presentation discussing research on the use of newer medications to address the problem of weight gain after bariatric surgeries such as gastric sleeve procedures.
During the course of the conference, speakers covered topics such as UAE-specific aspects of obesity; regional guidelines for treatment; the impact of COVID-19 and technology on obesity; the role of diets, medication and bariatric surgery; childhood obesity; how obesity affects fertility; and management of weight regain following bariatric surgery.
