The prevalence of obesity has surged in the setting of the obesity epidemic. Among U.S. children and adolescents 2-19 years old, over the ten years between 2007-2008 and 2017-2018 the prevalence of obesity increased from 16.8 percent to 19.3 percent while severe obesity rose from 4.9 percent to 6.1 percent. Nationally, a greater percentage of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic children are

Obesity is a challenging and increasingly prevalent medical concern worldwide. The relationship between obesity and numerous other medical conditions including diabetes, cardiovascular concerns, and certain types of cancer is well established. The etiology of obesity is multifaceted; medical, biological, psychological, social, and cultural influences differentially contribute to its development and persistence. As such, it is important to approach obesity and weight loss with the aim of optimizing metabolic health through ...

Note: this piece is an update to the 2024 article Integrating Weight Management in Primary Care, published in this journal, which outlined practical methods to initiating and monitoring patient-centered weight management in a primary care setting. This article specifically addresses the use of GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonists. The availability and increasing popularity of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) ...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in health care refers to the use of advanced computational algorithms and technologies to analyze complex medical data and assist in clinical decision-making, diagnostics, treatment planning, and patient management. Using machine learning, natural language processing, and neural networks, AI can process large datasets, identify patterns, and make predictions based on data that are often beyond the capacity of human cognition, thereby

On April 16, 2024, I took night call for the last time, 64 years after I first took night call. For the last few months, I have been thinking about all of the changes I have seen relating to the nature and content of my time being on call. After my first year at Harvard College in 1959, my mother—the chief technologist in a hospital hematology lab—thought it would be useful for me to get training as a hematology technician during the summer so I could get a job when I returned to school in the fall. She arranged summer work for me in a hematology lab, and when I returned ...

The obesity prevalence among U.S. adults has increased at an alarming rate in the past several decades, reaching 42 percent in 2018 or about 110 million people based on census data. By 2035, the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. is expected to reach 58 percent, with the total ...

As a specialty that manages complex chronic conditions and preventive care, primary care has been shown to reduce cardiovascular, cancer, and respiratory mortality and extend the lives of patients. Yet the field of primary care faces an unmanageable physician workload, lower average salaries than most other medical specialties, and ...

Primary care is the first point of care for many. It has a direct impact on health equity and is uniquely positioned to help alleviate the impact of social determinants of health, manage chronic conditions, and help people live healthier lives. While there are physician shortages in the primary care field, there are still individuals who commit to this noble pursuit. Today, we honor recent recipients of the Robert H. Ebert, MD Student Achievement Award by sharing their insights on what makes primary care great. Congratulations to ...

To our community of readers and contributors of the Harvard Medical School Primary Care Review: It has been the pleasure of a lifetime to serve as the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Medical School Primary Care Review from April 2020 through December 2022, and it is with mixed emotions that I step down from this role as I pursue further family obligations. Throughout the past 2.5 years, we have grown this publication to become a key Harvard-affiliated publication where community members ...