The Canadian Obesity Peer Support Program (COPS) launched in Vancouver in November, 2016 as a means to educate doctors and nurses in a “hands on” experience in obesity medicine.
How a patient feels about a therapy directly influences their adherence to it. More importantly, how a doctor feels about a disease directly influences their prescribing practices and treatment of that disease.
Ali Zentner is a national leader in this field and someone who has practiced obesity medicine for almost two decades. In order to change the practice in this field, Ali is adamant that we must change the culture of practitioners.
“When a doctor, nurse or health care provider sits in front of patient with obesity, they need to have a framework with which to work. Many clinicians don’t know where to begin. The COPS program is designed to provide that starting place. This is a place where any clinician can gain the knowledge and confidence to start the conversation with their patients. It is the goal of this program to start a treatment paradigm shift in our practices and in our clinical beliefs. Once we start a different clinical experience, it changes us as clinicians, for the better. Many significant changes in thought and practice have begun with small conversations and grass roots initiatives.
We have seen it.”
Obesity Peer Support began as a two day “observorship” in our clinic in Vancouver, Canada. Clinicians would sign up, take time away from their practices and see how an office based obesity practice can function.
ABOUT REVOLUTION MEDICAL CLINIC
Revolution Medical Clinic is a multidisciplinary centre in Vancouver. It is completely funded through the Medical Service Plan of British Columbia. There is no private pay. Patients are referred by their family doctors.
We offer motivational communication based therapy along with pharmacotherapy and surgical referrals when warranted. In short we are a full service government funded obesity clinic.
In addition to Ali, Revolution has a staff of two nurses and a dietician, all trained in cognitive behavioural therapy and motivational communication. We have three obesity specialists all with a background in Internal Medicine and Psychiatrist on site. Our nurses are also trained in diabetes education. We have a practice base of over 6000 patients.
This program trained more than 150 doctors through this phase of learning. The question after two days in the clinic was always the same. “How do I learn more?”
It became very clear that clinicians wanted a greater base for Obesity education. And so COPS University was born.
COPS UNIVERSITY
Canadian Obesity Peer Support University began in 2017 as a small monthly class of doctors who wanted to start obesity-based practices in their clinics. These were doctors who already had thriving practices in internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology or family practice. They wanted to incorporate obesity medicine into their clinics. The goal was to teach them how in a practical way. We gathered once a month and held classes on the pathophysiology of obesity, the treatment of the disease and the practical application of starting obesity medicine in a practice. The goal was that within the 12 months of class these doctors would start an “obesity day” in their clinic, one day a week.
Over the course of a year the class of 16 doctors met monthly. Word spread quickly and more doctors wanted to join. In January 2019, we began a new class of 12 sessions. The small class of 16 was now 2 groups of 32 in total.
This course can now be delivered online, giving rise to COPS University Online.
