Nature Medicine
December 2025
Jodi Holtrop, PhD, MCHES, Vice Chair for Research Programs in the University of Colorado Anschutz Department of Family Medicine, is the corresponding author of a new original research article published by Nature Medicine, entitled "Implementation and effectiveness of a care process to prioritize weight management in primary care: a stepped-wedge cluster-randomized trial."
Other members of the Department of Family Medicine associated with this publication (listed alphabetically): Lauri Connelly, MS; E. Seth Kramer, DO, MPH; Carlos Rodriguez, PhD; Peter Smith, MD; Caroline Tietbohl, PhD; Lauren Tolle, PhD; and Johnny Williams, MPH.
To help address the lack of weight management prioritization in clinical settings, this study utilized existing resources and workflows to engage key stakeholders—patients, clinicians, and the broader health system—in a stepped-wedge cluster-randomized trial assessing patient weight trajectories over time. To achieve this, researchers implemented and evaluated Pragmatic Weight Management in Primary Care (PATHWEIGH), a primary care process endorsed by health system leadership, across Colorado primary care clinics to prioritize and streamline weight management.
From the article:
“Scalable, pragmatic approaches to obesity implemented in primary care have the potential to curtail population weight gain. In a stepped-wedge cluster-randomized pragmatic trial in the state of Colorado, USA, 56 primary care clinics were randomly assigned to three clusters with staggered start dates for a one-way crossover from usual care to the intervention phase. The intervention (PATHWEIGH) included three components: (1) health system primary care leadership endorsement; (2) an electronic health record-driven care process designed to prioritize, facilitate and expedite weight management; and (3) implementation strategies to support use of the care process and educate clinicians on obesity treatment. The coprimary outcomes were average patient weight loss at 6 months and weight loss maintenance from 6 months to 18 months. In total, 274,182 adults with a body mass index ≥25 kg m2 had at least 2 measured weights in one of the clinics between March 2020 and March 2024.”
Read more of this article from Nature Medicine.
