Awards Committee 3.14.24

Dr. Weber's title across the state of WI is as follows: **Bariatric Medical Director--Ascension Wisconsin

**Obesity Medicine Director--Ascension Columbia St Mary's Bariatric Center **Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics--Medical College of Wisconsin

MD, FAAP, FACP, CSCS, FOMA, DABOM

Dr. Weber has been involved (& continues to be) intimately involved in the Bariatric Medical-Surgical (BMS) Committee since its inception, having chaired the committee for the past two years (1/2022-12/2023). He is a subject matter expert in combined BMS programs, & he offers deep insights to his colleagues on the BMS Committee.

He is highly regarded both inside & beyond the OMA having served as a faculty presenter & moderator for OMA Conferences, & he is active in his community as well. Dr. Weber is a kind, collaborative, & supportive leader & he embodies a spirit of collegiality & professionalism for all whom work with him.

Teresa Fraker

Christopher Weber

Dr. Andrick helped "train up" committee members to be effective advocates on the local and national level providing sample resources to comitte members and patience when bringing new members up to speed.

Rebecca M. Andrick

DO

Provided exceptional leadership as Chair of the Adovacy Committee pushing for better recognition and treatment of obesity as a disease on the individual state level and national level.

Anthony Auriemma

Dr. William H. McCarthy Clinician of the Year

Explain any significant contributions by the nominee to the community or the nominee's affiliations within the community:

Nominator

Nominee

Nominee's Credentials Explain any significant contributions by the nominee to OMA and the field of obesity medicine:

Dr. Rita Kathawa is an Obesity Medicine specialist. She is a dual board certified physician in Internal Medicine and Obesity Medicine. As a bariatrician, she is an expert in the diagnosis, treatment and overall medical management of obesity and weight related comorbidities. She utilizes FDA approved medications along with lifestyle modifications and surgical referral when appropriate. Additionally, she works closely with bariatric surgeons to help augment surgical weight loss results and avoid/treat weight regain in the setting of bariatric surgery. Dr. Rita Kathawa completed her undergraduate and graduate training in Nutritional Sciences at Wayne State University. She earned her MD degree at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and completed residency at Ascension Health. She then pursued additional post graduate training in the field of Obesity Medicine through Harvard Medical School. She is an active public speaker on various radio shows and podcasts on Obesity Medicine for her highly regarded expert opinion. She is a researcher for clinical trial studying MC4R pathway via Rhythm Pharmaceuticals. Her collaboration with healthcare providers in the Detroit Metropolitan Area help to contribute in bridging the healthcare gap and the care needed for patients her community.

Dr. Rita Kathawa is successful mentor to students and a wonderful employer. She cultivates a learning environment in her practice that is unmatched. She volunteers her time with a focus on education to various organizations within her community. She is also an active member of the Chaldean American Association for Health Professionals and is a trusted healthcare leader within. She has built a reputation in the Detroit Metropolitan Area as a go-to provider for Weight Loss Management guidance and consistently leads innovation in Obesity Medicine.

Rana Papale

Rita Kathawa MD

MD

Has served on the OMA Advocacy Committee for the past several years. She has been a panelist on the Advocacy Committee’s webinar Getting Anti-Obesity Medications Covered: A Primer In Patient Advocacy

She has been a staunch advocate for the coverage of AOMs in Pennsylvania. She volunteered as a consultant with the Pennsylvania DHHS Medicaid program and was instrumental in crafting language regarding the coverage of AOMs in Pennsylvania by this entity. This language includes standard FDA BMI criteria, but also makes provision for the treatment of those patients with normal weight, metabolic obesity. This is the only medical assistance program that recognizes that obesity is not solely BMI centric. As the result of this work, she was invited to and was subsequently appointed to the Pennsylvania DHHS P&T committee as well as the PA Drug Utilization Review Board. She continues to have input in regards to anti-obesity medications as supply has represented a challenge. She has been invited to speak at the American Association of Medicaid Pharmacists in Fargo ND in August 2024. (ii) Advocacy in the state of CT – testified along with Chris Gallagher before the Black and Puerto Rican Caucus to garner their support for Senate Bill 977. The bid for support was successful. She joined a delegation petitioning the Governor of CT to sign the bill. This bill allowing access to AOMS for Medicaid in CT was passed. (iii) Advocacy in the state of NY for Medicaid coverage of AOMs – she also has a practice in this state (iv) Chair of the PA Advocacy group – currently working on getting AOM coverage for state employees in PA; will be speaking at an OAC organized legislative briefing at the Pennsylvania Capitol in March 2024 in this regard. (iv) Advocacy in education – advocated for, and in partnership with primary care residencies at Guthrie, established a required rotation in Obesity Medicine for family medicine 3rd year residents; in addition to elective rotation opportunities for students and primary care residents (v) Advocated for and in partnership with FM residency established an Obesity Medicine tract where resident will have a longitudinal experience in Obesity Medicine over the 2nd and 3rd years. The tract also allows for conference and review course funding, and preparation of the resident to take ABOM certification by the completion of residency. This innovation was presented as a poster at the most recent Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. (vi) Ongoing education and obesity initiatives in primary care network of her organization

As Director of Obesity Medicine within the Guthrie Medical Group provided the local community with access to best clinical practices in obesity care Participated in community wide activities, webinars and health fairs to increase food intelligence and positive lifestyle changes to decrease community obesity burden Local media on nutrition and obesity Established and oversees a community garden which functions as a outdoor classroom for community members, a modality to involve schools in nutrition and gardening as well as environmental science; teaching nutrition to the community and donating food to local pantries, school back pack programs and food insecure patients

Hosts annual festival showcasing the area’s farmers and vendors of wellness services Mobilized community to participate in activities to increase physical activities at all ages. Works with schools in regards to nutrition curriculum and oversees program which provides clinical sports nutrition to local school athletes Extra curricular lectures on obesity to pre-clinical interest groups at the Geisinger School of Medicine Facilitates community support groups – diabetes and obesity

vivienne rose

Verlyn Warrington MD MD

Dr. Kathawa has filled a great need within our community in providing obesity medicine services to patients who have been struggling to find solutions. She has collaborated with other physicians from many other specialties (cardiology, dermatology, neurology, OBGYN, gastroenterology, family medicine and internal medicine) to provide care to patients across all ages, genders, ethnicities and socio-economic statuses. She is involved in a podcast to educate patients on various treatment options for obesity. Dr. Kathawa is highly respected and regarded within the community as evident by her Google reviews. OMA would be privileged to have Dr. Kathawa as their clinician of the year as she has been an ambassador in this field within our community. Single-handedly developed protocols , clinical guidance and developed the medical treatment division of our local Metabolic and weight management setting. Dr. Bonnecaze coordinated the opening and development of the center with the surgical group and local health system to create a multidisciplinary approach to treating Obesity

Dr. Kathawa has been a pioneer of obesity medicine treatment in the Metro Detroit area. She is evidence based and participates in clinical trials one of which is via Rhythm Pharmaceuticals to study clinical implications of MC4R pathway. She has also started a non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) clinic and collaborates with gastroenterologists in the area. Additionally, she was a guest speaker for Grand Rounds at our hospital system-Ascension Health Warren, MI site.

Jolian Kathawa

Rita Kathawa

MD, MA

MD, board certified in Endocrine and ABOM Excellent clinician and champion for Obesity patients. Medical director for our local Metabolic and Weight loss center

Julie Baugher

Dr Alex Bonnecaze

Muhammad Haitham AlmidaniMD MBA Dr.SC William H Mc Carthy

MD

great clinical Physician

Worked with OMA for good time

Dr. Kerry Traugott went to Washington State University (Go Cougs!) for her undergraduate degree in General Biology and worked in Intensive Care prior to attending Frontier Nursing University in Hyden, KY for her Doctorate in Nursing Practice. Dr. Traugott completed a fellowship in urgent care at MultiCare Health Systems in Tacoma, WA. She then went on to work at Yale Health Systems in Connecticut for a short period of time before settling into a family practice at Harrison Health Partners in Bremerton, WA. At this time she became more interested in obesity medicine and developed her unique patient curriculum. Dr. Traugott and her partner moved to Spokane a couple of years later to be closer to family. She has a certificate of advanced education from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the Obesity Medicine Association in medical weight management. She is board certified in Family Practice from the American Nurse Credentialing Center.

Member of: HIMSS, OMA, Obesity Society, AANP, ARNPs United WA State, GLMA Dr Traugott works with local like-minded clinicians to provide true wrap around care and holistic care for her patients. These include body work, pelvic floor, mental therapies, physical therapy, fitness, OBGYN and other support staff. She is a fierce advocate for her patients, honoring their stories and intuition, building bridges of care back where others have failed patients before. She meets her patients where they need to be, whether it's in person, hybrid or remote care and monitoring and creates community amongst patients with cooking classes and events. The accountability, teaching and positive habit forming behaviors make the difference in longer success and results.

Tiffany Mackie

Dr Kerry Traugott

DNP, APRN, FNP-BC

Dr. Vernon B. Astler Award

Nominator

Nominee

Nominee's Credentials Explain any significant contributions by the nominee to OMA and the field of obesity medicine:

Explain any significant contributions by the nominee to the community or the nominee's affiliations within the community:

The President of the OMA typically is on call to respond to press requests and support the OMA with outreach. In her term, however, interest from the media increased significantly. We used to have a media request every week or two. In 2023, we typically are fielding 2-3 requests per week. Dr. Fitch is not the only one to handle these requests, but she was often our first call. Thanks to her timely responses and diligence in responding to media requests, we have seen repeat requests from multiple outlets throughout the year. Her support in elevating the work of the OMA through the media has help built a momentum we hope to continue. Emily is in her 2nd year of membership on the OMA Advocacy Committee, & has been a stalwart for AOM access for the patients she serves in NC. In particular, she worked closely with the Advocacy Committee through Chris Gallagher & the OAC to draft a letter in addition to providing testimony in the fall of 2023 to assist with the NC State Health Plan (NCSHP) in being a leader for the patients she & other NC clinicians serve with the disease of obesity.

If the nominating committee is interested in presenting Dr. Fitch with this award, the marketing team would be happy to dig into the data of the number of articles in which Dr. Fitch was our spokesperson and provide examples of publications/instances from 2023 to support the nomination. Emily is sought after in her home state to speak on both clinical as well as advocacy-related issues, & she was instrumental in her work for advocacy-related work as published in this article: https://www-wral com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.wral.com/amp/21234068/

Katy Rudzinski

Angela Fitch

MD, FOMA, DABOM

Teresa Fraker

Emily Weaver

BSN, RN, AGPCNP

Thank you for your leadership on the Advocacy Committe as well as the service & expertise you provide to your patients as well!