Both scientific data and my own clinical experience tell me that the root cause of many chronic wound problems is obesity (and all the downstream health problems related to obesity such as diabetes, sleep apnea and edema). For decades I have been trying to figure out a way to tackle this issue. Before COVID, I tried to partner with bariatric surgery programs to get patients to attend their free seminars on bariatric surgery. However, many are not candidates for a major operation even if they could afford it, and surgery is not a panacea. Since the launch of new diabetes drugs which also cause weight loss, I’ve tried to figure out how to encourage better weight management through the endocrinologists. However, not all obese patients are diabetic and the cost of these drugs for weight loss apart from diabetes puts them out of reach for many patients. Now there may be a third pathway to obesity treatment… although I am not sure how I feel about that, either.
On Thursday, Eli Lilly and Co launched a website to enable people to directly order its weight-loss medicine Zepbound. The service is called LillyDirect.
The website will also connect patients to independent telehealth providers who can complement their current team of doctors or be an alternative to in-person care for certain conditions, and provide pharmacy services through third-party providers.
I am not advocating this process – I am only passing along the information because I know other clinicians are struggling, too. The connection between obesity and wound management has to be addressed somehow, and I am open to ideas about how to do that.
–Caroline
Dr. Fife is a world renowned wound care physician dedicated to improving patient outcomes through quality driven care. Please visit my blog at CarolineFifeMD.com and my Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/c/carolinefifemd/videos
