As Obesity Canada (OC) continues to work to make the Canadian Adult Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) the standard of care in this country, efforts in Chile and Ireland to translate the CPGs are nearing completion.
Teams from all three countries met in the Netherlands at Zoom Forward 22, the joint congress on obesity organized by the European Association of the Study of Obesity (EASO) and the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity’ European chapter, for a workshop on May 4th, 2022.
There, the OC delegation discussed their experience with developing and launching the guidelines, and how the organization is aligning its professional education, public outreach and advocacy work with the CPGs toward building a national obesity care framework. Representatives of the Chilean and Irish teams shared their processes to customize the CPGs for use in each country’s unique contexts. Variations in available treatments, health systems design, regulatory environments, levels of professional training in obesity care, and other factors required each country to adopt different frameworks to assess published evidence and clinical consensus, and to formulate country-specific recommendations.
Chile and Ireland were selected in August 2021 as part of an international CPG adaptation pilot project led by OC and EASO, through a research grant provided by Novo Nordisk global. In Ireland, the project is led by the Association for the Study of Obesity Ireland and the Irish Coalition for People Living with Obesity. In Chile, five organizations are participating, under the leadership of the Sociedad Chilena de Cirugía Bariátrica y Metabólica (Chilean Society of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery).
“The Canadian CPGs represent perhaps the most thorough assessment of published evidence to date, and in that respect we have created a valuable body of knowledge in a living document,” said Dr. Mary Forhan, OC’s Scientific Director, who remotely chaired the workshop all the way from Vancouver, BC. “That’s a solid foundation on which other countries can build their own guidelines – and our hope is that, as other countries follow suit, we can all support them to save time and resources.”
Both translations are expected to be published this fall. Once the Irish and the Chilean guidelines are published, dissemination and implementation activities will start. Together, Canada, Chile and Ireland will engage healthcare professionals, people living with obesity and policy makers through targeted dissemination activities to create action that can improve access to evidence-based and person-centred obesity care. “The Canadian, Chilean and Irish guidelines represent a shared road map to create action on obesity. We strongly believe that having a shared obesity road map that includes evidence-based clinical practice guidelines can support advocacy efforts locally, nationally and globally.”, Dr. Ximena Ramos Salas, Research Consultant, CPG Adaptation Pilot Project.
Stay tuned for more.
