Over 40% of the US is living with obesity. It affects the workplace through higher health-care costs and lost productivity. The most common challenges employers face in implementing effective programs are a lack of awareness of the impact of obesity and significant stigma and bias about weight. "Worksite wellness" programs have not adequately demostrated improved health outcomes - so what's next? An internal assessment and refresh on how comprehensive obesity management strategies can improve overall health, wellness and productivity of the workforce and reduce current and future healthcare costs.

Attend the symposium to learn:

• The science and pathophysiology of obesity
• The clinical and financial impact of obesity on the workforce
• Obesity clinical guidelines
• How to analyze health plan data for making value-based benefits determinations
• How to do an ROI assessment of health plan coverages 
• How to implement a clinically efficacious obesity management strategy 

12:00 pm Registration, Exhibit Hall with Sponsors, Lunch & Networking
  1:00 pm Welcome & Opening Remarks 
  1:15 pm The Truth About Obesity: Clinical Guidelines & Optimizing Care
  1:40 pm Obesity Management Initiatives: ROI & Implementation  
  2:05 pm Employer Case Studies, Reaction & Discussion  
  2:35 pm Audience Q&A 
  2:55 pm Thank You & Closing Remarks
All are invited to attend additional networking following the event.  

PRESENTERS

Niki Patel, PharmD, MBA, CDCES
Medical Accounts Director
Novo Nordisk 

Dr. Niki Patel is currently a Medical Accounts Director with Novo Nordisk, focused on education and access to therapies in cardiometabolic diseases across the NorthEast. In this role, Dr. Patel spends her time consulting employers, health plans and state government (Medicaid/Medicare) organizations responsible for drug formulary decisions impacting millions of patients throughout the country. In addition, Dr. Patel engages with large employer and coalitions such as Chubb, Quest, GPBCH, NEBGH, and LVBCH who are attentive to the clinical crisis of obesity and diabetes in employees.  Her aim is to assist organizations in improving employees’ health via appropriate medical management.  She served as keynote speaker at multiple conferences and roundtables over the past few years. 

More recently, Dr. Patel has been an advocate on health equity and its impact on patients with chronic conditions. Over the years, Niki has received many honors including: 2015 NorthEast Customer Engagement Award, the 2015 and 2016 Take Action Challenge Grants, 2018 Medical Affairs Circle of Excellence the highest award given to clinical employees in the organization, and a company innovation challenge.

In addition, she serves as Adjunct Professor at Long Island University where she founded the first Intro to Pharmaceutical Industry course, serves as advisor for a pharmacy student leadership organization and as preceptor for pharmacy rotation students. She also serves on the Education Committee for the Pharmacy Quality Alliance, and previously was on the board of NYCSHP where she organized their 1^st Medical Mission to her hometown in India. She also volunteers at a non-profit in Community and Public Affairs to support charitable work including health fairs, educational seminars and programs for underserved communities. She is passionate about patient advocacy, health equity, and education.

Aaron Davis
Founder and CEO
Switchbridge, LLC 

Aaron Davis is the Founder and CEO of Switchbridge, LLC – a healthcare data activation platform – where, in addition to managing the company, he leads innovation, product development, sales and strategic partnerships.

Aaron gained a rich understanding of employee benefits, healthcare delivery and data analytics through his education, personal life experiences and a broad and successful career serving employers and healthcare-related organizations having 100-250,000 members.  For the last 37 years, Aaron has been involved in virtually all aspects of employee benefits administration and consulting and is recognized as an expert in self-funding, health risk management, and the activation of healthcare data and analytics.  He began his career in health information systems as Management Information Systems (MIS) Manager and Assistant Director of Operations and for Heritage Healthplan (an HMO) in Miami and Philadelphia.  He held positions of increasing responsibility at Cigna, Group Benefit Services and FirstHealth and co-founded Integrated Healthcare Resources Group, Mather Benefit Administrators and Our Clinical Team.  Aaron was the Founder and President of NextLogical Benefit Strategies, an employee benefits broker/consulting firm, that was acquired in 2016 and left the acquiring firm in 2021 to focus full-time on Switchbridge.

In 2013, Aaron was named Broker of the Year by his peers nationally in BenefitsPro magazine and was featured in the book Cracking Health Costs by Tom Emerick and Al Lewis, Esq. as one of the top 10 most competent brokers in the nation.  Since 2014, Aaron has been one of only three (3) advisors nationally to receive validation as an Advanced Advisor by the Validation Institute (formerly Intel/GE Care Innovations) for adherence to the highest standards of validity, integrity and performance.  In 2015, Aaron received the Circle of Excellence award from SmartCEO magazine as the top CEO in the Baltimore healthcare market. 

Aaron graduated from Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science/Pre-law and Business Administration and pursued advanced degrees at Florida International University and Villanova.  Aaron enjoys spending time with his wife, four grown sons, two daughters-in-law, and two grandsons, as well as, reading, exercising and playing indoor soccer.

Lizzy Hawk, MS, RDN, CDCES
Manager of Chronic Care and Health Outcomes
Bell & Evans 

Lizzy Hawk is a Registered Dietitian and Diabetes Care and Education Specialist with over 12 years of experience in evidence-based health and wellbeing programming in clinical, community and corporate environments. Current, Lizzy is the Manager of Chronic Care and Health Outcomes at Bell & Evans where she works in the Health and Wellness Department assisting their team members to engage in their health and own lives through dedicated resources, training, community connections, and coordinated efforts. Lizzy is active throughout the community to improve access, cost, and quality of care across the healthcare continuum. She passionately works to scale chronic care education and lifestyle change programs to underserved areas serving under-enrolled populations and creating solutions to barriers that prevent people and programs from achieving their desired outcomes.

COVID-19 REQUIREMENTS

This event is being held on Lehigh University's campus, and will be in compliance with Lehigh University's COVID-19 Visitor Policy. These guidelines may be updated, current information is located at: https://coronavirus.lehigh.edu/campus-visitors

At this time there are no COVID restrictions for general day visitors, however, those who feel sick on the day of the event are advised to stay home and not come to campus.