Mega Doctor News
Edinburg, Texas: DHR Health’s Continuing Medical Education Department is set to host the 2025 Obesity Summit, a leading conference designed to provide medical professionals of South Texas with cutting-edge insights into obesity management, metabolic health, and the latest advancements in patient care.
The event will take place at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance on February 28 and March 1, 2025, the summit will bring together physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, and medical students for an in-depth discussion on evolving treatment strategies for obesity-related conditions, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
This year’s summit will feature a host of distinguished guest speakers from the Cleveland Clinic of Ohio and from UT Health San Antonio. Considered foremost experts in their respective fields, Dr. W. Scott Butsch, Director of Obesity Medicine at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and Dr. Ralph DeFronzo, a professor of medicine at UT Health San Antonio will share their expertise on the complexities of obesity treatment and metabolic disorders.
About Dr. W. Scott Butsch
Dr. W. Scott Butsch is an internationally recognized obesity medicine physician, educator, and policy leader, who has served as Director of Obesity Medicine at the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute (BMI) at the Cleveland Clinic since 2018. The one of two inaugural physicians in the U.S. to complete a subspecialty fellowship in obesity medicine at Harvard in 2008, and completed a clinical nutrition fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2007. He is a certified Physician Nutrition Specialist and a Fellow of The Obesity Society.
Dr. Butsch’s clinical interests focus on the medical management of obesity, specifically the use of combination pharmacotherapy in patients with severe obesity, bariatric surgical patients and special populations with obesity.
Outside of his clinical work, Dr. Butsch has focused on obesity education and advocacy. He has shaped obesity education and training nationally and internationally, from the creation of obesity core competencies in 2019 to development of subspecialty training for physicians and advanced practice providers. He has spearheaded policies to reduce weight bias and stigma in Massachusetts and Ohio as well as national policies (which were recently signed by the Biden administration) to improve obesity treatment coverage and access to obesity care. He has authored numerous publications, delivered over 250 lectures worldwide, and appeared in major media outlets, including CNN, Fox News, and National Geographic, and as a special guest on “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution” on ABC and Hulu. He is presenting the last topic on February 28, on “Update on the Pharmacotherapy: The GLP-1 Pipeline.”
About Dr. Ralph Anthony DeFronzo
Dr. Ralph A. DeFronzo, is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute, San Antonio, Texas. His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the central role of insulin resistance in the metabolic-cardiovascular cluster of disorders known collectively as the Insulin Resistance Syndrome. For his work in this area, Dr. DeFronzo has received many national and international awards including the Banting Award from the ADA (2008), and the Claude Bernard Award from the EASD (2008). These represent the highest scientific achievement awards given by the American and European Diabetes Associations, respectively. Dr. DeFronzo also has received the Hamm International Prize (2017), and most recently The Prince Mahidol Award (2023) which recognizes a person worldwide in medicine and science who has made major discoveries leading to advances in global health. With more than 850 articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals, Dr. DeFronzo is a distinguished clinician, teacher, and investigator who has been an invited speaker at major national and international conferences on diabetes mellitus.
He is presenting the last topic on March 1, on “New American Diabetes Association Standards of
Care.” Dr. DeFronzo has received many national and international awards including the Banting Award from the ADA (2008), and the Claude Bernard Award from the EASD (2008). These represent the highest scientific achievement awards given by the American and European Diabetes Associations, respectively. Dr. DeFronzo also has received the Hamm International Prize (2017), and most recently The Prince Mahidol Award (2023) which recognizes a person worldwide in medicine and science who has made major discoveries leading to advances in global health.
Additionally the summit will offer essential updates on managing obesity-related conditions, including diabetes, metabolic dysfunction, and cardiovascular diseases. The conference will also cover new ADA standards of care for Type 2 diabetes, advances in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD), and strategies for evaluating and treating cardiometabolic diseases. With interactive sessions and dynamic discussions, attendees will gain valuable insights and practical approaches to enhance patient care.
For further information about the 2025 Obesity Summit, call the DHR Health Continuing Medical Education Department at (956) 362-3240.
