Geisinger Education Intervention Study in Obesity Protocol
Geisinger Education Intervention Study in Obesity Protocol
Overweight and obesity has become an epidemic which warrants more aggressive treatment.
 However, few primary care physicians (PCPs) address this issue or do not possess adequate
 education regarding treatment modalities such as nutrition counseling or bariatric surgery.
 The primary goal of this study will be to determine whether the referrals for weight
 management can be influenced through obesity education.
Evaluation of educational interventions focusing on the treatment of obesity will include in
 person CME sessions, interactive game/virtual patient computer software and two 30 minute
 DVD/Web-based CME opportunities that the physicians can review at their leisure. These
 educational interventions were not completed as part of this research.

 A control group will be comprised of those healthcare professionals who did not complete the
 CME survey.

 Completion of the post education survey would be completed even if there was no study. The
 reward given to PCP's (free enrollment in CME session and either lab coat or $40 CME credit)
 was given for clinical purposes only and not for research. The study consists of the
 collection of PCP referral rates prior to the educational opportunity and then after the CME
 looking for a change to referral rates.

 In June of 2009, an Obesity Educational Intervention Summit was attended by PCPs. This
 research seeks approval to perform data pulls consisting of referrals from their practice to
 the GI/Nutrition Clinic for potential bariatric surgery evaluation.

 The information to be collected regarding the primary care providers' referral rates will be
 collected by a CDIS data pull by a data broker. The biostatistician will link survey
 responses to referral patterns and education type and will be true, only individual to have
 access to direct identifiers and in turn will provide PI and study team with de-identified
 summary data.
Inclusion Criteria:

 Geisinger General Internal and Family Medicine PCPs (include physician, physical assistants
 and CRNP):

 -  PCP must be active between May 2008 - May 2009

 -  Average patient age between 30-60 (no individual patients will be identified using
 personal identification)

 -  Minimum of 100 patients assigned to PC

 Exclusion Criteria:

 -  PCPs from clinics/departments other than General Internal Medicine or Family Medicine
 will be excluded from the analysis