Innovation Anthology #160: Land Stewardship Coordinator
There are many roads to obesity. And unfortunately, there is no cure.
That’s the stark reality which motivates Dr. Arya Sharma in his mission to change the way we think of obesity and how we treat it.
A professor of medicine at the University of Alberta and scientific director of the Canadian Obesity Network, Dr. Sharma is considered Canada’s foremost expert on the subject.
DR. ARYA SHARMA: Well I think the first thing that you realize when you deal with obesity is that no matter what is causing obesity, once you have obesity, you essentially have a chronic disease. It’s one thing to lose weight, but it’s a completely different story trying to keep that weight off. And I often say that obesity is a disease that has a hundred percent recidivism, which means that if you once have it, you pretty much have it for life, And that’s where things then become difficult because you’re really thinking how do I manage a chronic disease for which we have no cure, and how do we get patients to actually stick with treatments essentially for life.
According to Dr. Sharma, this new perspective on obesity has wide ranging implications for medical treatment, health policy and even how we design our cities.
Thanks today to the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
Learn more at InnovationAnthology.com
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Robert Albricht,
ConocoPhillips Canada, Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
Sponsor
Canada Foundation for Innovation
The Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) is an independent corporation created by the Government of Canada to fund research infrastructure—state-of-the-art equipment, laboratories, databases, and the buildings necessary to conduct research. The CFI’s mandate is to strengthen the capacity of Canadian universities, colleges, research hospitals, and non-profit research institutions to carry out world-class research and technology development that benefits Canadians.
Since its creation in 1997, CFI investments in research infrastructure have lead to breakthroughs in areas such as health, natural resources, information and communications technology, energy, and the environment.
La Fondation canadienne pour l’innovation (FCI) est un organisme autonome créé par le gouvernement du Canada pour financer l’infrastructure de recherche—l’équipement de pointe, les laboratoires, les bases de données de même que les bâtiments nécessaires pour mener des travaux de recherche. Le mandat de la FCI est de renforcer la capacité des universités, des collèges et des hôpitaux de recherche, de même que des établissements de recherche à but non lucratif du Canada de mener des projets de recherche et de développement technologique de calibre mondial qui produisent des retombées pour les Canadiens.
Depuis la création de la FCI en 1997, les investissements qu’elle a faits dans l’infrastructure ont mené à des percées dans des domaines tels que la santé, les ressources naturelles, les technologies de l’information et des communications, l’énergie et l’environnement.
Program Date: 2008-08-14