Pitt physicians call for med-school training on obese patients
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LOS ANGELES -- Apparently, there is one bastion of American life that has not yet been touched by the obesity epidemic -- medical school.
So say a pair of University of Pittsburgh physicians. In a commentary published online this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, they argue that medical students should get a whole lot more formal training in how to treat obese patients.
More than 1 in 3 American adults is obese, and yet medical textbooks "almost exclusively display normal-sized models with obvious bony landmarks," writes Ann Willman Silk and Kathleen M. McTigue. Physical exams are usually practiced on healthy-weight patients. So when confronted with a patient whose internal organs are buried beneath a thick layer of fat, doctors are often ill-prepared to assess them.
For instance, the authors say that although excess weight is a known risk factor for breast cancer, obese women are less likely than others to get regular mammograms or Pap tests.
"Some physicians may be reluctant to perform breast and gynecological examinations on obese women because they believe these examinations are 'difficult' and 'inadequate,' " the doctors write.
Doctors should learn the techniques for improving accuracy of breast exams on women with large breasts, they said.
First Published December 31, 2010 12:00 am
