A within-trial cost-effectiveness analysis of primary care referral to a commercial provider for weight loss treatment, relative to standard care—an international randomised controlled trial

TLDR

Obesity is a global epidemic, yet specialized services are scarce and vary widely across Europe, prompting the EASO to establish criteria for a pan‑European network of accredited obesity management centres. The network aims to bring together university, public and private clinics to deliver holistic, state‑of‑the‑art care for obese and overweight patients. Participating centres, under EASO, collaborate on quality control, data collection, analysis, education, and research to advance obesity care and science.

Abstract

Obesity is recognised as a global epidemic and the most prevalent metabolic disease world-wide. Specialised obesity services, however, are not widely available in Europe, and obesity care can vary enormously across European regions. The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO, www.easo.org) has developed these criteria to form a pan-European network of accredited EASO-Collaborating Centres for Obesity Management (EASO-COMs) in accordance with accepted European and academic guidelines. This network will include university, public and private clinics and will ensure that the obese and overweight patient is managed by a holistic team of specialists and receives comprehensive state-ofthe-art clinical care. Furthermore, the participating centres, under the umbrella of EASO, will work closely for quality control, data collection, and analysis as well as for education and research for the advancement of obesity care and obesity science.