Policy Committee Meeting 9_28_2023

Policy/Procedure Analysis re: Development and Publication of Position Statements Among Medical Societies/Associations

Date: 07/21/2023 Prepared by: Teresa Fraker Background:

Dr. Ethan Lazarus, Immediate Past President of the OMA and Chair of the OMA’s Policy Committee convened the Policy Committee in 7/2023 for discussion surrounding the current processes by which the OMA currently utilizes for the development and dissemination of its various position statements in the OMA’s scholarly journal, Obesity Pillars . The current process that the OMA follows for such publications as position statements and proposals is enumerated by the Editor-in-Chief of Obesity Pillars as outlined below: • Suggestions of potential Position Statement topics can occur from any OMA Board of Trustee (BOT) member who in turn, can suggest ideas based upon discussions of OMA members. • The choice of topics for OMA Position Statements that move forward occurs via a discussion between the OMA President and the Editor-in-Chief of Obesity Pillars. • Authorship of OMA Position Statements is determined by the OMA President (who has likewise been tasked with selecting OMA Task Force members), based upon inviting authors with known expertise or interest in the topic, past willingness to work within a team approach, and a past record of timely completion of authorship tasks. Additionally, BOT members can also volunteer. • Obesity Pillars is allotted a finite number of free slots per year for OMA Position Statements and other Announcements. The number of slots per year is determined by Elsevier (the publisher). The topics for these limited number of potential OMA Position Statements is determined by the OMA President and the Editor in Chief of Obesity Pillars . If there is no room in the journal, the position statement will reside on the website and an email to membership can be sent. • Once the authors have completed an initial draft of an OMA Position Statement, it is then sent to the OMA BOT members via email for their review, comment, and suggested edits with a review time no less than one week. • If no OMA BOT member objects to the OMA Position Statement via email correspondence, then the OMA Position Statement can move forward toward publication without a formal OMA BOT meeting. • If any OMA BOT member objects to the OMA Position Statement via email correspondence, then a formal OMA BOT meeting will be required to discuss the Position Statement. If during this BOT meeting, the OMA Position Statement is approved by a majority vote, then the Position Statement will move forward toward publication. If during the BOT meeting, the OMA Position Statement does not receive a majority vote, then the Position Statement will not move forward toward publication with the potential for further edits and potential re-evaluation by the OMA BOT at a later date. • The final wording of the Position Statement publishing proofs are the responsibility of the authors of the Position Statement(s). Upon the request of the Policy Committee, select societies/associations were contacted in order to identify their “best practices” surrounding publications of their various position statements, clinical practice statements, clinical practice guidelines, etc. Of note, not all societies/associations use the exact same verbiage as the OMA does as it relates to these various processes and procedures. For example, one society/association may refer to their publication as Clinical Practice Statements versus Position Statements, when at first glance, the documents may read as one in the same.

Page | 1