Boston Area’s Only Specialized Weight Loss Physician Joins Lahey Clinic’s Weight Loss Center
Lahey Clinic’s Medical and Surgical Weight Loss Center Exclusively Provides Board Certified Surgical and Nonsurgical Weight Loss Services at One Location
Burlington, Mass. (Vocus/PRWEB) January 05, 2011
Lahey Clinic announced today the addition of Theresa Piotrowski, MD, one of only two board certified bariatricians in Massachusetts, to its medical staff. A bariatrician specializes in the nonsurgical treatment of weight loss, an extremely important component to the comprehensive treatment of obesity. Dr. Piotrowski will join Lahey’s multidisciplinary clinical team in its newly named Medical and Surgical Weight Loss Center. This comprehensive weight loss center is the only one of its kind in Eastern Massachusetts that provides board certified specialized physicians to treat obesity both surgically and non-surgically, all in one location.
In addition to the current bariatric surgery options available, the expanded service will offer patients a full range of nonsurgical weight loss options, including a physician-monitored weight loss program, behavior modification programs, medications and supplements, dietary and nutritional counseling, and ongoing support and maintenance.
Dr. Piotrowski will now serve as medical director of the program, alongside David Brams, MD, who currently serves as director of surgical weight loss.
Dr. Piotrowski is a renowned bariatrician with more than six years experience, specializing in obesity. Her areas of expertise include metabolic syndrome, behavior cognitive therapy in weight loss and cardiometabolic risk reduction. She is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine and holds board certification in bariatric medicine and family practice.
“We address all of the eating habits; it is a multidisciplinary program where we have multiple backup support,” Dr. Piotrowski said. “We have dieticians and behavioral cognitive therapy, so all of the components of weight loss are addressed.”
Dr. Piotrowski also places a great deal of emphasis on addressing the underlying behaviors associated with weight disorders. As she says, it is not what patients eat, but rather why they eat it.
“We help patients change their lives,” she said. “By recognizing the behaviors and changing the behaviors, the patients will lose their weight, and the most important thing is they will be able to maintain that weight loss. That is our focus, helping patients lose weight and maintain that weight loss so they change their lives.”
Dr. Piotrowski’s past professional experience includes leading the Weight Management Center at Mount Auburn Hospital and serving as medical director of Lehigh Valley Hospital’s Weight Management Center in Allentown, Penn., as well as holding a similar role in a private practice setting.
The implementation of this comprehensive program will differentiate Lahey Clinic as the only hospital in Eastern Massachusetts to provide this type of service -- something that Richard W. Nesto, MD, chief medical operations officer and chair of cardiovascular medicine, has long anticipated.
“Our recently reaccredited surgical weight loss program has a terrific reputation as one of the area’s best for weight management and weight loss,” said Dr. Nesto. “And now we are proud to become Boston’s only truly comprehensive weight loss center by adding a specialist who is a board certified expert in nonsurgical weight loss treatments. Dr. Piotrowski will work with the surgeons to select patients for surgery and to provide care after surgery. Now patients struggling with their weight can get the full spectrum of clinical weight loss treatments all at one location.”
Dr. Piotrowski will see patients at Lahey Clinic Medical Center, Burlington and Lahey Clinic Medical Center, North Shore in Peabody.
Patients with a Lahey Clinic primary care physician do not need a referral in order to make an appointment. However, patients with a primary care physician outside of Lahey Clinic require a referral in order to obtain an appointment.
For further information or to make an appointment, please call 1-855-WEIGHT-8.
About Lahey Clinic
Lahey Clinic, a physician-led, nonprofit group practice, is world-renowned for innovative technology, pioneering medical treatment, and leading-edge research. A teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine, the Clinic provides quality health care in virtually every specialty and subspecialty, from primary care to cancer diagnosis and treatment to kidney and liver transplantation. For more information please visit our Web site at http://www. lahey. org.
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