The Los Angeles County Medical Association sponsored two Obesity Prevention Champion Training Sessions held by the California Medical Association Foundation on Nov. 1 at LACMA's downtown headquarters and Nov. 3 at Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center in Glendale.

"More than 90 percent of the people who participated and filled out evaluation forms said that they were more likely to become involved in obesity prevention activities based on the training," says Christine Maulhardt, director of the CMA Foundation Obesity Prevention Project.

The two training sessions each drew about 40 participants comprised mostly of physicians, but including other health professionals, such as nurses, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and medical students. Doctors attending earned three continuing medical education credits.

In the session held at LACMA headquarters, Wendy Slusser, MD, a pediatrician at the Venice Family Clinic and an assistant clinical professor in the UCLA Department of Pediatrics, delivered a presentation on preventing and detecting childhood obesity. "She discussed combined community-based approaches to addressing obesity, and she also shared a lot of her experiences in working with low-income and ethnic [minority] patients," Maulhardt says. "She provided a lot of very practical approaches for clinicians to use to educate patients and improve their health."

In Glendale, Amy Porter, MD, a Kaiser Permanente pediatrician and regional lead for the system's Pediatric Weight Management Program, gave the main presentation. "Her emphasis was on preventing obesity and the importance of community and policy advocacy," Maulhardt says. In Dr. Porter's overview of advocacy, for example, she presented a hierarchical diagram of school officials and explained their impact on health programs.

Both sessions also had two speakers in common. Representatives from the Los Angeles Unified School District spoke about the district's efforts and programs aimed at fighting childhood obesity. And Suzanne Bogert, the Los Angeles-region program director for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health's Network for a Healthy California, discussed the approaches her agency is taking to address the city's obesity problem. Those efforts include advertising, student projects, and educational materials targeted at parents and decision makers.