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ORLANDO -- For the first time in its 25 year history, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) will release guidelines for treating obesity.
"These are our first comprehensive guidelines for treating obesity," said the president of AACE, , in an interview with ľֱ. "They've been two years in the making."
The guidelines will be released on Friday at , May 25-29.
The association has previously advised doctors on how to treat obesity, but that advice came by way of "algorithms" or other formulations and not official guidelines.
There will also be a number of sessions further analyzing data from the landmark EMPA-REG trial, which found that empagliflozin (Jardiance), a sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease among patients with type 2 diabetes.
, at the Cleveland Clinic, will discuss efforts to analyze potential causal mechanisms by which empagliflozin reduces cardiovascular risk. And , at the University of Colorado, will address the emerging implications -- 8 months after the cardiovascular results were released -- for treating type 2 diabetes with empagliflozin. A separate trial will analyze the efficacy of empagliflozin among black patients with diabetes.
Other Research
There will also be a number of presentations and studies on transgender care, said Grunberger. "There are very many important issues within transgender care that endocrinologists need to be aware of," he added, and the association works closely with the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons so that those who aren't surgeons can understand the options of what is available.
A particular focus will the treatment of adolescent transgender patients, and researchers will be discussing the case of , a social media star who was one of the youngest public figures to become a transgender national figure.
Aging is another focus this year, said Grunberger, since there are many hot-button issues surrounding how endocrinologists should care for their aging patients. "This is a very exciting area," he said, and doctors need to better understand how metabolism and testosterone change as one ages and how they should be treated.
In addition, there will be discussion about the bionic pancreas, a closed-loop system that administers glucose and insulin to patients with type 1 diabetes. The association is making more time than past years for poster presentations so that more data can be presented.
But Grunberger said that though there will be new research, the focus of AACE has always been clinical. The members of the society are all practicing endocrinologists, and for some this is the only national meeting they go to, he added. "On the one hand there has to be enough new stuff to get people coming back," he said, "but on the other hand we need to make sure that the people who attend have something that they can take back with them and immediately apply."