Obesity and Eating Disorder

Malgorzata Wojcik is a pediatrician, endocrinologist, as well as a pediatric endocrinologist and diabetologist. She has completed her PhD in 2009. She has published more than 50 papers in reputed journals and book chapters, and has been serving as a reviewer and an editorial board member. She is a co-author of a paper awarded with The ESPE Scientist Prize for the best Pediatric Endocrinology Publication in 2009 in ‘Hormone Research’ in the category of Novel Insights from Clinical Practice. The major scientific interests of Dr. Małgorzata Wójcik are childhood obesity and its complications.

Pediatric and Adolescent Endocrinology

Dr. de Graaff works as consultant Internal Medicine-Endocrinology at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Leiden in 2001. She finished her PhD in 2008, based on genetic studies in patients with congenital hypothalamic and/or pituitary disorders. After her medical training, in 2015, she launched a multidisciplinary outpatients clinic (OPC) for adults with Rare (endocrine) Genetic Syndromes (ReGS). Its multidisciplinary team takes care of adults from five national reference centers: • Expert Center Prader-Willi Syndrome • Expert Center Rare Growth Disorders • Expert Center Disorders of Sex Development • Expert Center Turner Syndrome • Expert Center for Neurodevelopmental disorders ENCORE The aim of the OPC is to improve quality of care for adults with ReGS by treating and investigating health problems in these adult patients. This is extremely important as life expectancy in children with these syndromes used to be limited. Due to improved pediatric care, these patients do reach adulthood nowadays. However, many doctors don’t know which problems to expect in adults with these syndromes, nor how to treat them. There are no guidelines for adults, in the majority of syndromes. By treating and investigating health problems in these adult patients, Dr. de Graaff aims to improve patient care for this vulnerable patient group. The ReGS-OPC is unique in the world of Internal Medicine and plays a key role in improving care for adults with Rare Genetic Syndromes. In order to help these patients during transition from pediatric to adult endocrinology, Dr. de Graaff also launched a Young Adult Clinic in 2016. She leads a research line involving clinical and fundamental studies in congenital pituitary and hypothalamic disorders, including Prader-Willi syndrome. The above mentioned centers of Reference are part of international networks like the Endo-ERN and ERN-ITHACA (Intellectual Disability and Congenital Malformations).

Internal Medicine-Endocrinology

Dr. Chowdhury S. Ferdous has completed her MBBS from University of Rajasthan, India and completed MD in Internal Medicine from East Tennessee State University, USA. She is currently working as Professor in Internal Medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital, North Carolina, USA. She has great interest in Obesity Medicine and has presented multiple papers within USA. She is currently pursuing further specialisation in the field of obesity medicine.

Internal Medicine

Mona Fouad, MD, MPH is Professor of Medicine, Director of the Division of Preventive Medicine, and Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the School of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Founding Director of the UAB Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Center. She is recognized nationally as a leader in health disparities research and served as a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She obtained her MD from Alexandria University School of Medicine in Alexandria, Egypt, and her MPH from the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. Dr. Fouad serves as PI of the NIH/National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) U54 Obesity Health Disparities Research Center (OHDRC), previously funded since 2003 as an NIMHD P60 Center of Excellence. The OHDRC focuses on the theme of obesity and obesity-related health disparities across the Life Course. She is also PI of the NIMHD-funded Policy, System and Environment Changes: A Comprehensive Approach to Reducing Obesity, to examine the impact of a comprehensive intervention including evidence and practice-based policy, environmental, and systems changes strategies on improving healthy eating, and increasing physical activity in a high risk population – African Americans, and the CDC-funded Birmingham REACH for Better Health to reduce the disparities in chronic disease and associated risk factors by addressing the two major drivers of such disparities – nutrition and physical activity.

obesity and obesity-related health disparities | Preventive Medicine | nutrition and physical activity