Obesity Institute - Education and Training

Providers face a number of important barriers when they seek to treat and care for obese and overweight children effectively. These barriers include lack of awareness of the importance of the problem among patients and their families, their own lack of knowledge about and experience with effective treatments, and a lack of training for communicating sensitively with patients and families about weight problems.   In short, providers need tools and resources, and also a network of health care professionals and community leaders in order to participate in the solution to the obesity epidemic.

The Obesity Institute will develop a multi-level comprehensive education and training program for health care professionals in the Washington metropolitan area, starting with the hospital itself. Only through concerted and coordinated effort can we as a society hope to bring this epidemic to a halt and reverse its progress. The Obesity Institute is poised to provide the leadership needed for that effort to succeed.


Today at Children’s National 
Michele Mietus-Snyder, MD, our newly arrived Co-Director of the Obesity Institute, is leading the development of an obesity curriculum for residents and medical students in collaboration with Mary Ottolini, MD, MPH, Vice-Chair of Education at Children’s National.

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Meet the team

• Yolandra Hancock MD
• Mohsen Saidinejad MD

Related links

• Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome Research
• More about childhood obesity and treatments
• Bariatric Surgery Program
• Obesity Clinic
• Article: Childhood Obesity and the Primary Care Provider (Medical Currents, Summer 2007)
• CNN highlights Children’s Obesity Institute: Children’s National’s bariatric surgery program, featuring Evan Nadler, MD, and one of his patients appeared on CNN (March 2010)
• Children's National's weight loss surgeon, Evan Nadler, is featured in the New York Times. (February 2010)
• Article: Pediatrician and obesity researcher Nazrat Mirza and her successful patients are featured in the Washington Post (May 2008)

For more information, contact Evan Nadler, MD at 202-476-2151 or ObesityInstitute@childrensnational.org.


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