Improving Patient Decisions About Bariatric Surgery

At least 15 million Americans are morbidly obese, or more than 100 pounds overweight. Medical treatments including drugs and behavior modification have proven ineffective in producing significant and lasting weight loss in this group. While bariatric surgery is extremely effective for most patients, it also carries risks for both short and long-term complications. There are currently four different types of bariatric surgery available and the risks and benefits of these procedures vary widely and are strongly affected by patient and clinical characteristics.

Decision making under these circumstances should reflect informed patient's values and preferences regarding these trade-offs. Instead, the choice of bariatric procedure is more often driven by the beliefs and experiences of the bariatric surgeon that a patient happens to see. Variability in the type of surgery recommended to patients likely results from some combination of surgeons' subjective opinions and personal experiences with regard to the risks and benefits of the treatment options and delegated decision making on the part of patients.

The goals of this research proposal are to develop, implement, and evaluate an informed decision support tool for treatment of morbid obesity. This project will be conducted within the context of the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative (MBSC), which is a statewide clinical registry and quality improvement program that has the participation of virtually every bariatric surgeon and program in the state of Michigan. The MBSC registry now includes externally audited clinical data for more than 80,000 consecutive bariatric surgery patients. MBSC outcome measures include complications occurring within 30 days as well as weight loss, comorbidity resolution, quality of life and satisfaction at 1, 2, and 3 years after bariatric surgery.