Pennington Biomedical and Ochsner Health are taking part in a study of Black patients with Type 2 Diabetes to determine if telemedicine can be used successfully in the battle against obesity. Dr. Peter Katzmarzyk, the project’s principal investigator, says the study will take place in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. “Have the patients log in through their patient portal of their clinic and do the coaching through that mechanism, see if we can get the same type of weight loss,” said Katzmarzyk.
The goal is to learn the effectiveness of offering remote health coaching through primary care clinics.
Dr. Katzmarzyk says the researchers are looking to recruit about 350 Black patients for the study who will be randomly assigned for two years to either a weight-loss group or a group that receives traditional care for their diabetes. He says, “traditionally they have certainly been at higher risk for obesity and Type 2 Diabetes and a host of cardiometabolic conditions.”
Dr. Katzmarzyk says the study is focusing on Black patients because “we just wanted to put an emphasis on that population because we know they are at higher risk and we also know from our previous studies that they can really benefit from the weight loss.
He says that even modest weight loss of five to ten percent of a person’s body weight can significantly lower the risk of heart disease and have other beneficial health impacts.
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