Obesity is still a misunderstood condition by both patients and health care providers. It is one of the most stigmatized and most patients dealing with obesity experience significant biases from family, employers, health care professionals, and even among persons with obesity themselves. Pharmacists are in the ideal position to help educate people about obesity and be an important manager of this very important chronic disease. With physician shortages becoming more problematic, patients will look to pharmacists to increase their involvement once again in management of this increasing health burden. We are already experienced in helping support patients struggling with obesity by working collaboratively with other health care professionals. But with expanding scopes of practice, pharmacists are also ideally positioned to initially prescribe weight loss agents to assist patients in improving their metabolic profile.

With the new 2022 Canadian Adult Obesity Clinical Practice Guidelines, pharmacists are provided with evidence-based recommendations to support and manage patients with obesity. During this presentation we will review practical aspects of the guidelines that can be used in community pharmacy practice. We will focus on pharmacotherapy and how pharmacists can help with initial decision making and prescribing of weight loss medications. Effective pharmacotherapy requires pharmacists to not only understand mechanisms of action of agents but effectively manage both patients’ expectations of therapy and mitigation of common side effects. We will review various side effect management and how to address certain myths and misconceptions prevalent in the new “google” information age. We will also review more current evidence for available medications and review promising options on the horizon.

Sponsored by: Novo Nordisk