Multistakeholder Consortium Unveils Systems-Level Roadmap to Transform Obesity Disease Management

Cross-stakeholder initiative addresses why 96% of adults with obesity don't receive medical care, a $1.4 trillion healthcare gap

BOSTON, June 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Center for Biomedical System Design (CBSD) program at Tufts Medical Center's Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies today released a comprehensive roadmap for transforming obesity disease management in the United States. The framework, developed over 18 months in a collaboration including healthcare providers, insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and patient advocates, addresses the challenge of a $1.4 trillion health crisis affecting 40% of American adults – 96% of whom do not seek medical care.

The "Roadmap for Transforming Obesity Disease Management" presents a systems-level approach to obesity care, recognizing it as a chronic disease rather than a lifestyle choice. Obesity's complex challenges span from societal stigma and provider bias to fragmented care delivery and misaligned payment systems cannot be addressed by a single organization or point solution. System-level coordinated changes must occur simultaneously across the entire healthcare ecosystem. The framework outlines three solution areas with 36 specific action components designed to improve US health systems readiness to treat obesity as a disease.

"This roadmap shows the way to a fundamental shift in how our healthcare system approaches obesity," said Marc-Andre Cornier, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina, current President of The Obesity Society and a contributor to the work. "By bringing together diverse stakeholders who historically worked in silos, we've created a unified framework that addresses not just medical treatment, but the systemic biases, infrastructure gaps, and misaligned incentives that have prevented millions from receiving care."

The three solution areas identified in the roadmap are:

1. Patient Identification, Engagement & Diagnosis: Addressing stigma and bias through comprehensive communication plans, provider education, and normalized outreach processes
2. Shared Capability Building: Developing infrastructure that supports accountability, provides objective measures of progress, and enables knowledge sharing and continuous learning
3. Integrated Care: Delivering comprehensive, integrated care that is evidence-based and that meets patients where they are

The roadmap was developed in CBSD Design Labs, in which multi-stakeholder teams iterated and evaluated solutions against real-world constraints.

"This roadmap is distinctive for recognizing that real change requires stakeholders to understand each other's pressures and work together," noted Joe Nadglowski, President & CEO, at the Obesity Action Coalition. "Providers face time constraints and reimbursement challenges, payers must balance costs across conditions, and policymakers navigate competing priorities. By mapping how these motivations intersect, we've identified 36 specific actions that only succeed when stakeholders meaningfully come together to change the system – creating a path forward that works for everyone, not just individual organizations."

The Center for Biomedical System Design, an international think and do tank at Tufts Medical Center, has previously led initiatives in precision medicine and financing innovation for cell and gene therapies. The obesity roadmap continues this tradition of bringing together diverse stakeholders to solve complex healthcare challenges that no single organization or stakeholder segment could address alone.

The full roadmap report is available at http://newdigs.tuftsmedicalcenter.org/obesity/. Organizations interested in learning more about this project can contact [email protected].

About the Center for Biomedical System Design

The Center for Biomedical System Design in the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies at Tufts Medical Center is dedicated to improving health outcomes by accelerating appropriate and timely access for patients to biomedical products, in ways that work for all stakeholders. The Center designs, evaluates, and catalyzes the real-world implementation of system innovations that are too complex and cross-cutting to be addressed by a single organization or market sector. Its members include global leaders from patient advocacy, payer organizations, biopharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies, clinical care, academic research, and investment firms. https://newdigs.tuftsmedicalcenter.org

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SOURCE CBSD at Tufts Medicine