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Big Data, Consumer Technology, and the Obesity Epidemic: Emerging Science and Ethical Considerations

Big Data, Consumer Technology, and the Obesity Epidemic: Emerging Science and Ethical Considerations

Friday, September 16, 2016

The New York Academy of Sciences

Presented By

The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science

The New York Academy of Sciences

 

Researchers, health professionals, and a growing wellness-conscious public use technology to monitor health status, particularly weight and energy balance. Big Data harnessed from electronic medical records, smart phone applications and consumer purchasing behaviors have created a foundation for focused research targeting obesity, but at what cost?

This event aims to address two questions: Can Big Data tell the whole story? This will explore whether notoriously hard-to-measure factors like nutrition can be included and integrated with analysis of physical activity and sleep. Are there risks to personal privacy and social equity? Ethical aspects are intertwined in the efforts to collect data that can be used to translate research into enhanced health across population groups.

This one-day conference will address:

  • Big data and its role in obesity intervention development
  • Advances in consumer and medical technology targeting obesity and nutrition
  • The ethical implications of using data in interventions

Registration Pricing

By 08/05/2016After 08/05/2016Onsite
Member$25$30$35
Member (Student / Postdoc / Resident / Fellow)$20$20$25
Nonmember (Academia)$55$65$70
Nonmember (Corporate)$80$85$90
Nonmember (Non-profit)$55$65$70
Nonmember (Student / Postdoc / Resident / Fellow)$35$45$50

This event will also be broadcast as a webinar; registration is required.

Please note: Transmission of presentations via the webinar is subject to individual consent by the speakers. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that every speaker's presentation will be broadcast in full via the webinar. To access all speakers' presentations in full, we invite you to attend the live event in New York City where possible.

Webinar Pricing

By 08/05/2016After 08/05/2016Onsite
Member$15$20$20
Member (Student / Postdoc / Resident / Fellow)$10$15$15
Nonmember (Academia)$25$30$30
Nonmember (Corporate)$40$45$45
Nonmember (Non-profit)$25$30$30
Nonmember (Student / Postdoc / Resident / Fellow)$20$25$25

Agenda

* Presentation times are subject to change.


Friday, September 16, 2016

8:30 AM

Breakfast and Registration

9:00 AM

Welcoming Remarks
The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science

Session 1: Big Data, Obesity, and Health — Is Nutrition the Missing Link?

9:15 AM

Biological Discovery through Data Mining and Data Science
Nicholas Tatonetti, PhD, Columbia University

9:45 AM

Leveraging Electronic Health Records, Genomics and Mobile Apps to Improve Bariatric Surgery Outcomes
Tooraj Mirshahi, PhD, Geisinger Clinic
* Presenter slides will not be included as part of the webinar broadcast

10:15 AM

Chain Restaurant Calorie Posting Laws, Obesity, and Consumer Welfare
Michael K. Price, PhD, Georgia State University

10:45 AM

Panel Discussion Session 1

11:15 AM

Networking Coffee Break

Session 2: Technological Advances Exploring New Variables Linking Diet, Nutritional Status and Health — Implications for Intervention

11:45 AM

Timing of Food Intake and Human Metabolic Health
Ruth E. Patterson, PhD, University of California San Diego

12:15 PM

Circadian Rhythms in Health and Disease
Satchidananda Panda, PhD, SALK Institute

12:45 PM

Translating Expert Guidelines on Overweight and Obesity: Web & Mobile Innovations for Personalized Clinical and Public Health Services
Barbara E. Millen, DrPH, RD, FADA, Millennium Prevention, Inc.
* Presenter slides will not be included as part of the webinar broadcast

1:15 PM

Networking Lunch

2:45 PM

Panel Discussion Session 2

Session 3: Big Data and Public Health — Access, Ethical, and Equity Considerations

3:10 PM

Health Data for New York City (HD4NYC): Promoting Population Health Research Through Data Sharing and Collaboration
Charon Gwynn, PhD, New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
David Siscovick, MD, MPH, The New York Academy of Medicine

3:25 PM

Panel Discussion Session 3 
Improving Patients' Engagement in Research with Technology
Gary Bennett, PhD, Duke University
 
Ethical Issue of Data Collection and Data Sharing: Implications for Informed Consent and Privacy — Legal Implications
Lori B. Andrews, JD, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology
 
Evaluation of Mobile Applications for Use in Obesity
Karandeep Singh, MD, MMSc, University of Michigan

4:30 PM

Closing Remarks

4:45 PM

Networking Reception

6:00 PM

Conference Adjourns

Organizers

Jason Block, MD, MPH

Harvard Medical School

Jason Block is an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of the Obesity Prevention Program of the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School/Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. He completed an internal medicine residency and chief residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar. Dr. Block's primary research interests are in neighborhood-level determinants of weight gain and obesity and the evaluation of governmental and institutional policies and other novel interventions to improve diet. He is a primary care physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and a clinician in the Brigham and Women's Weight Management Clinic.

Matthew Harding, PhD

University of California Irvine

Matthew Harding is an Economist and Data Scientist who uses Big Data to answer economic questions related to individual consumption and choices in areas such as health, energy, and transportation. He is an Associate Professor of Economics and Statistics and UC Irvine. He holds a PhD in Economics from MIT and an MPhil in Economics from Oxford University. As a data scientist he develops cutting edge econometric methods for the analysis of "deep data", large and information-rich data sets derived from many seemingly unrelated sources to provide novel economic insights. He is particularly interested in the role of technology and automation to induce behavior change and help individuals live happier and healthier lives. At the same time his research emphasizes solutions for achieving triple-win strategies. These are solutions that not only benefit individual consumers, but are profitable for firms, and have a large positive impact on society at large.

John G. Kral, MD, PhD

SUNY Downstate Medical Center

With an MA in Psychology, Dr. Kral attended medical school at the University of Göteborg, Sweden, specializing in Surgery and Medicine, completing PhD studies and initiating the obesity surgery program there. In 1981 he started the Division of Surgical Metabolism, St. Luke's–Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia University and in 1983 co-founded the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. Dr. Kral initiated and co-organized the 1991 NIH Consensus Development Conference: "Gastrointestinal Surgery for Severe Obesity". With studies of body composition, adipose tissue receptors and lipid and carbohydrate metabolism his current interests include ingestive behavior, determinants of metabolic obesity, effects of gestational stress on urban health, the importance of the intrauterine environment and epigenetics. In 2012 The Obesity Society awarded Dr. Kral the AJ Stunkard Lifetime Achievement Award. He is past working group chair of the Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science "Obesity, Diabetes and Nutrition-Related Diseases" at the New York Academy of Sciences.

Kristina H. Lewis, MD, MPH, SM

Wake Forest School of Medicine

Kristina H. Lewis, MD, MPH, SM, is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Public Health Sciences at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. She is an internal medicine physician practicing in the field of bariatrics. Dr. Lewis' research focuses on developing and evaluating interventions for obesity and related comorbidities. This work ranges from comparative effectiveness studies of bariatric surgical procedures, to trials of novel behavioral interventions for diet, to studies of policy interventions for improving diet at the population-level. Dr. Lewis is currently serving as Chair for the Health Services Research Section of The Obesity Society, and Chair of the Obesity, Diabetes and Nutrition-Related Diseases Working Group for the Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science.

Satchidananda Panda, PhD

SALK Institute

The key to healthy long life may lie in changing a light bulb or deciding when to eat. Dr. Satchin Panda's circadian rhythm research has discovered that light and meal time have profound health impact. He found a new light sensor in our eye measures blue light to tune brain functions ranging from falling asleep to throbbing migraine pain in a sunny day. This simple discovery has triggered a new field of light therapeutics in which phones have come up with features to flip a button to "night shift", blue filtering glasses are new sleeping pills, and healthy lights are new antidepressants. Dr. Panda also discovered that the number of hours between our breakfast and dinner may be as important as day's calorie counts. Just by eating all food within 8–12 h every day can sustain the primordial circadian rhythm and prevent obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, poor sleep. Dr. Panda grew up in India, did his doctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute, and postdoctoral training at Novartis before starting his independent research lab at the Salk Institute, La Jolla. He is a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Research, an American Federation of Aging Research mid-career scientist.

Gilles Bergeron, PhD

The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science

Dr. Gilles Bergeron has worked in international nutrition for more than 25 years. He has extensive experience in nutrition in the life cycle, food security, agriculture/nutrition linkages and monitoring and evaluation. A founding member and Deputy Director of the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) project, he spent 18 years overseeing FANTA's work in policies and programs; nutrition and infectious diseases; maternal and child nutrition; agriculture/nutrition linkages and emergency nutrition response. Prior to joining FANTA, he spent 6 years as Research Fellow with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and 3 years with the Institute of Nutrition for Central America and Panama (INCAP) in Guatemala. He has operated in Africa, Latin America and Asia, and his work has been published in leading scientific journals such as The Lancet, Advances in Nutrition, World Development, the Journal of Development Studies, and Food and Nutrition Bulletin. He received his PhD in development sociology from Cornell University in 1994.

Mireille Mclean, MA, MPH

The Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science

Mireille Seneclauze Mclean joined the Sackler Institute for Nutrition Science at the New York Academy of Sciences in 2011 as a Program Manager, and was later promoted to Director. Her activities include managing the growing pool of research grants issues through the Sackler Institute's Research Funds, organizing multi-disciplinary workshops and symposia in the field of nutrition, and supporting the dissemination of research. Prior to this, she spent over 10 years doing fieldwork for several international NGOs intervening in crisis situations. In that role, Ms. Mclean defined and directed the implementation of programs in nutrition, health, food security and sanitation for vulnerable population groups in South East Asia, Africa and the Middle East; managed large grant programs for displaced populations and conducted a number of participatory research assessments and nutritional surveys. She also worked as a Program Coordinator at the Bureau of Public Health in Paris, France, successfully improving the uptake of tuberculosis screening among at-risk population groups. Throughout her work in nutrition and public health, Ms. Mclean is interested in highlighting the importance of implementation, delivery systems, and partnerships to translate science into better outcomes. She holds an MA in Development Economics and International Development from the University of Sussex and a Master of Public Health from the Liverpool Faculty of Medicine.

Speakers

Lori B. Andrews, JD

Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology

Lori Andrews is a law professor and Director of the Institute for Science, Law and Technology at Chicago–Kent College of Law. She is an internationally recognized expert on emerging technologies. Andrews is the author of 11 non-fiction books, including I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy, and more than 150 articles on health care policy, biotechnology, and digital technologies. She also writes mystery books (Sequence, The Silent Assassin, and Immunity). Andrews chaired the federal advisory committee to the Human Genome Project and has advised governments and professional groups ranging from the G8 science ministers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. She grounds her policy analyses in detailed empirical studies, for which she has received grants from NIH, NSF, U.S. Congress, U.S. Department of Energy, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Greenwall Foundation, and M.D. Anderson Foundation. Andrews has been a visiting professor at Princeton and at Case Western. She received her BA summa cum laude from Yale College and her JD from Yale Law School. The National Law Journal listed her as one of the "100 Most Influential Lawyers in America." The American Bar Association Journal describes Andrews as "a lawyer with a literary bent who has the scientific chops to rival any CSI investigator."

Gary Bennett, PhD

Duke University

Gary G. Bennett is the Bishop-MacDermott Family Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, Global Health and Medicine at Duke University. He directs the Duke Global Digital Health Science Center and the Duke Obesity Prevention Program. Dr. Bennett is President-Elect of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Bennett's research program designs, tests, and disseminates digital obesity treatments for medically vulnerable patients in primary care practice. Dr. Bennett developed the interactive obesity treatment approach (iOTA), which has been evaluated in several trials, both domestically and abroad. His recent work demonstrates the effectiveness of coach-led, digital health obesity interventions (delivered via text, smartphone, and interactive voice response) for medically vulnerable patients. Dr. Bennett has authored more than 125 scientific papers in the past decade and his research program has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Bennett has served on numerous NIH committees, grant review panels, editorial boards, and guidelines councils. He also co-founded two digital health startups: Crimson Health Solutions (acquired by Health Dialog in 2007) and Scale Down. Dr. Bennett has degrees from Morehouse College and Duke University; before joining Duke in 2009, he served on the faculties of the Harvard School of Public Health and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Charon Gwynn, PhD

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Dr. Gwynn is the Deputy Commissioner for the Division of Epidemiology at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) where she oversees the Divisions efforts to gather, analyze and disseminates information about New Yorkers' health. Prior to joining DOHMH Dr. Gwynn served as the Deputy Director the Strategic Information Unit at ICAP, Columbia University where she provided technical assistance and capacity building support for routine monitoring and evaluation (M&E), surveillance, and electronic health information systems in the context of US government-funded HIV programs in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia. Prior to ICAP Dr. Gwynn was a Research Scientist at the New York City Department of Health where she participated in the design, planning, implementation and publication of results from the first community-level Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in NYC (NYC HANES). Previously, as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer with CDC-Atlanta, Dr. Gwynn worked to evaluate and analyze data from the world's largest on-going telephone health survey system -the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Dr. Gwynn received her PhD in Environmental Health Sciences from New York University in 1999.

Barbara E. Millen, DrPH, RD, FADA

Millennium Prevention, Inc.

Dr. Barbara E. Millen is currently the President of the Boston Nutrition Foundation, Inc. (BNF), an academic consulting firm through which she is engaged in federal, academic and corporate consulting and public speaking. She is also President of Millennium Prevention, Inc. (MP), a private, research-driven life sciences company with a public health mission. Millennium conducts translational research and offers comprehensive web and mobile platforms under the registered trademark HealthMain (healthmain.com and myhealthmain.com) which focus on prevention in clinical medical practice and community public health settings. Until founding BNF and MP in 2009, Dr. Millen was Professor of Family Medicine and Graduate Medical Sciences at the Boston University School of Medicine, where she was also the founding Chair of the Graduate Programs in Medical Nutrition Sciences and the Director of Nutrition Research at the internationally-renown, Framingham Heart Study. Dr. Millen is an expert in the nutritional epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, obesity, metabolic syndrome, chronic disease risk, and population aging. She has led research teams examining the lifestyle etiology of chronic diseases; the causes and consequences of malnutrition in advancing age; and strategies to chronic disease risk in minority and immigrant populations. Dr. Millen earned her master's and doctoral degrees in public health from the Harvard University School of Public Health. Dr. Millen recently served (2008–2013) on the National Institutes of Health expert committees which developed the Guideline for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults and Lifestyle Management to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Risk. She also chaired the 2015 US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee which informed the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the basic framework for our Nation's nutrition and health policies. She has authored four books on health-related topics. She received the Elaine Monsen Award of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation which recognizes an outstanding "body of research that benefits the health professions and the world."

Tooraj Mirshahi, PhD

Geisinger Clinic

Dr. Tooraj Mirshahi received his PhD in Pharmacology from Virginia Commonwealth University. After a post-doctoral fellowship at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, he joined the faculty at Geisinger, where he is an Associate Professor at the Weis Center for Research. Dr. Mirshahi is also a member of the Geisinger Obesity Institute. His current work is funded by grants from the NIH (NIGMS and NIDDK) as well as a collaboration with Regeneron Pharmaceutical. Dr. Mirshahi's training is in cell biology and signal transduction. A major interest of his has been signaling in the leptin-melanocortin pathway that controls feeding, satiety and energy expenditure. At Geisinger, we have extensive longitudinal clinical data on a large cohort of patients, many of whom are obese and a large number of whom have undergone bariatric surgery. In addition, we have collected genetic data both genotyping and whole exome sequencing from over 60,000 patients. He has combined his understanding of cellular and molecular basis of obesity with the available genetics data to look at factors that play critical roles in obesity as well as outcomes after bariatric surgery.

Satchidananda Panda, PhD

SALK Institute

The key to healthy long life may lie in changing a light bulb or deciding when to eat. Dr. Satchin Panda's circadian rhythm research has discovered that light and meal time have profound health impact. He found a new light sensor in our eye measures blue light to tune brain functions ranging from falling asleep to throbbing migraine pain in a sunny day. This simple discovery has triggered a new field of light therapeutics in which phones have come up with features to flip a button to "night shift", blue filtering glasses are new sleeping pills, and healthy lights are new antidepressants. Dr. Panda also discovered that the number of hours between our breakfast and dinner may be as important as day's calorie counts. Just by eating all food within 8–12 h every day can sustain the primordial circadian rhythm and prevent obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, poor sleep. Dr. Panda grew up in India, did his doctoral research at The Scripps Research Institute, and postdoctoral training at Novartis before starting his independent research lab at the Salk Institute, La Jolla. He is a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Research, an American Federation of Aging Research mid-career scientist.

Ruth E. Patterson, PhD

University of California San Diego

Dr. Ruth E. Patterson, PhD is professor in the UCSD Department of Family Medicine & Public Health; as well as Associate Director of Population Sciences and leader of the Cancer Prevention Program at the Moores Cancer Center. She spent 12 years at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, where she was Co-PI of the Coordinating Center for the Women's Health Initiative nationwide study of 161,808 postmenopausal women. Dr. Patterson also served as Co-PI of a study of 75,000 Washington State residents examining vitamin supplement use and cancer risk. After moving to UCSD, Dr. Patterson was awarded one of only four-in-the-nation NCI designated Transdisciplinary Centers on Energetics and Cancer (TREC). The objective of the UCSD TREC Center is to assemble transdisciplinary scientific collaborators to address questions regarding insulin resistance and inflammation underlying the association of energetics with breast cancer carcinogenesis, from the cell to the community. Her current research interests are focused on the hypothesis that prolonged nightly fasting can reduce the risk of chronic diseases, including some cancers, by improving multiple metabolic parameters.

Michael K. Price, PhD

Georgia State University

Michael Price is an Associate Professor of Economics in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research interests include experimental and behavioral economics, the economics of charity, environmental economics and health economics. His research focuses on the use of experimental methods and, in particular, the use of field experiments to test economic theories and understand the factors that influence individual decision-making. To collect data for his research, he has partnered with various utilities, government organizations, private firms, and non-profit organizations to implement large-scale field experiments.

Karandeep Singh, MD, MMSc

University of Michigan

Karandeep Singh, MD, MMSc, is a physician, researcher, and educator interested in studying learning health systems, making new discoveries about disease, and improving patient care through technology. His research areas include natural language processing of clinical notes, risk prediction using high-dimensional data, mobile health apps, and wearable technologies. He is an assistant professor of Learning Health Sciences in the Division of Learning and Knowledge Systems and an assistant professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology at the University of Michigan Medical School. Dr. Singh completed his internal medicine residency at UCLA Medical Center, where he served as chief resident, and a nephrology fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He completed his medical education at the University of Michigan Medical School and holds a master's degree in medical sciences in Biomedical Informatics from Harvard Medical School.

David Siscovick, MD, MPH

The New York Academy of Medicine

David Siscovick, MD, MPH, is Senior Vice President for Research at the New York Academy of Medicine. He is Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, and was formerly the Co-director of the University's Cardiovascular Health Research Unit and Director of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Training Program. For more than three decades, he was a practicing general internist and clinical epidemiologist who had a commitment to impacting the health of the public, with a focus on bridging clinical medicine and public health. Dr. Siscovick has a highly successful track record of research related to chronic disease prevention, health disparities, and successful aging, with more than 650 peer-reviewed publications and multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health. His research has focused broadly on the epidemiology and prevention of cardiovascular disease across the lifespan. He has led interdisciplinary teams and large-scale multi-institutional collaborations, and he has mentored young investigators from multiple institutions. He has been the principal investigator or a co-investigator on multiple NIH grants. He recently completed a two-year term as the Chair of the American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention.

Nicholas Tatonetti, PhD

Columbia University

Dr. Nicholas Tatonetti is assistant professor of biomedical informatics in the Departments of Biomedical Informatics, Systems Biology, and Medicine and is Director of Clinical Informatics at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University. He received his PhD from Stanford University where he focused on the development of novel statistical and computational methods for observational data mining. He applied these methods to drug safety surveillance where he discovered and validated new drug effects and interactions. His lab at Columbia is focused on expanding upon his previous work in detecting, explaining, and validating drug effects and drug interactions from large-scale observational data. Widely published in both clinical and bioinformatics, Dr. Tatonetti is passionate about the integration of hospital data (stored in the electronic health records) and high-dimensional biological data (captured using next-generation sequencing, high-throughput screening, and other "omics" technologies). Dr. Tatonetti has been featured by the New York Times, Genome Web, and Science Careers. His work has been picked up by the mainstream and scientific media and generated hundreds of news articles.

Abstracts

Biological Discovery through Data Mining and Data Science
Nicholas Tatonetti, PhD, Columbia University

Heritability is a fundamental characteristic of human disease essential to the development of a biological understanding of the causes of disease. Traditionally, heritability studies are a laborious process of patient recruitment and phenotype ascertainment. Electronic health records (EHR) passively capture a wide range and depth of clinically relevant data and represent a novel resource for studying heritability of many traits and conditions that are not typically accessible. In addition to a wealth of disease phenotypes, nearly every hospital collects and stores next-of-kin information on the emergency contact forms when a patient is admitted. Until now, these data have gone completely unused for research purposes. We introduce a novel algorithm to infer familial relationships using emergency contact information while maintaining privacy. Here we show that EHR data yield accurate estimates of heritability across all available phenotypes using millions familial relationships mined from emergency contact data at two large academic medical centers. Estimates of heritability were consistent between sites and with previously reported estimates. Inconsistencies were indicative of limitations and opportunities unique to EHR research. Critically, these analyses provide a novel validation of the utility of electronic health records in inferences about the biological basis of disease.

Leveraging Electronic Health Records, Genomics and Mobile Apps to Improve Bariatric Surgery Outcomes
Tooraj Mirshahi, PhD, Geisinger Clinic

Bariatric surgery is the most effective treatment for weight loss and reversing co-morbidities such as insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The ability to distinguish between patients for whom bariatric surgery will and will not induce significant weight loss or remission of their T2D can help to facilitate a more tailored approach to treatment. In addition understanding the mechanism by which bariatric surgery leads to rapid reversal of co-morbidities will guide us to design non-invasive approaches to treat these diseases. We have collected detailed data on over 3,000 patients who have undergone various bariatric procedures at Geisinger over the past 10+ years. Use of electronic medical records in a non-transitory population has allowed collection of longitudinal data to develop a deeper understanding of mechanism of bariatric surgery and implementation of best practices. We have discovered readily available clinical predictors for remission and cure of T2D after gastric bypass surgery. We have identified a group of clinical predictors of surgical weight loss. We have linked genetics to the clinical outcomes to identify common and rare genetic factors that contribute to surgical outcomes. Finally, we have developed a mobile app that combines many of these findings and presents them in an accessible manner to patients and providers in order to help them decide the likelihood of achieving specific outcomes after surgery. Using our clinic as an efficient learning health care system has allowed us to not only improve outcomes in our own surgery program, but also deliver eHealth tools to help others to improve their outcomes.

Chain Restaurant Calorie Posting Laws, Obesity, and Consumer Welfare
Michael K. Price, PhD, Georgia State University

The 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced a mandate requiring chain restaurants and eating establishments with twenty or more outlets in the country to post calorie counts on menus and menu boards. Several localities implemented similar laws prior to the ACA. This paper investigates the effects of these local calorie posting laws on body mass index (BMI), obesity, and consumer well-being. Using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, we compare changes in outcomes of five localities (New York City, Albany County, Schenectady County, Philadelphia County, King County) and the state of Vermont — the locations that fully implemented calorie posting laws between 2008 and 2011 — to those of neighboring locations without such laws. We find that calorie mandates lead to small but statistically significant reductions in BMI of 0.2 kg/m2 (1.5 pounds) and in the probability of obesity of 0.7 percentage points. The estimated effects are stronger among women, non-whites, non-college graduates, those aged 50 years and older, those in the right tail of the BMI distribution, and residents of New York City and Philadelphia. However, the presence of calorie mandates leads to reductions in self-reported measures of life satisfaction that are greater for people with healthy weight and for several subgroups that experienced the largest weight losses. The overall pattern of results is consistent with an economic model in which calorie labels influence consumers both by providing information and by imposing a welfare-reducing moral cost on unhealthy eating.

Timing of Food Intake and Human Metabolic Health
Ruth E. Patterson, PhD, University of California San Diego

Landmark studies demonstrate that a recurring, prolonged fasting regimen during the sleep phase protects mice fed a high-fat diet against abnormal glucose metabolism, inflammation, and weight gain. This fasting regimen is hypothesized to influence metabolic regulation via effects on circadian biology, gastrointestinal microbiota, and modifiable lifestyle behaviors. Our team has published large-scale human investigations into nightly fasting and human health. Studies using NHANES data suggest that a longer nightly fast can reduce HbA1c levels as well as C-reactive protein. Our recent analysis of 2413 breast cancer survivors found that women who fasted <13 hours per night had a 36% increased risk of breast cancer recurrence compared to women who fasted ≥13 hours (HR: 1.36; 95% CI, 1.05 – 1.76). These survivors also reported more sleep and had lower concentrations of HbA1c. From a feasibility standpoint, the nightly fasting interval is a simple behavior to self-monitor. In pilot studies, participants used an SMS texting program to record the START/STOP of their nightly fast and to receive reminders and supportive texts. Smart-phone APPs have the potential to collect data on this dietary behavior and integrate it with data on physical activity and sleeping patterns. Improvements in these 3 health behaviors have potential to meaningfully reduce chronic disease risk.

Circadian Rhythms in Health and Disease
Satchidananda Panda, PhD, SALK Institute

Sleep and circadian rhythm disruption is a hallmark of modern societies. While reduced sleep correlates with the growing epidemic of metabolic diseases, the accompanying erratic eating pattern has gained little attention. In animal models, pervasive erratic eating pattern with small meals spread over the 24 h causes severe metabolic disruption. Time-restricted feeding (TRF; 8–12 h food access in the active phase) without changing nutrient quantity improves daily oscillations in metabolic pathways and aligns them appropriately to the period of fasting or feeding. Subjecting rodents to TRF prevents excessive weight gain, adiposity, glucose intolerance, systemic inflammation, hepatosteatosis and hypercholesterolemia independent of diet type. Rodents on TRF also show increased endurance, motor coordination, and brown fat function. To test the translational potential of TRF in humans, we monitor daily eating pattern using a custom made smartphone app. We found that daily eating no longer follows three meals a day and is characterized by widespread incidence of a long daily eating duration, short nighttime fasting and a weekday/weekend shift. Healthy overweight individuals who at baseline displayed extended (>14 h) daily eating duration were encouraged to consume all non-water items within a self-selected 10–11 h window with no explicit advice concerning caloric content or exercise. This TRF led to reduced body weight and improvement on a subjective measure of sleep, and activity over a 16 weeks period, and benefits persisted at the end of one year. Our results demonstrate the importance of managing the daily duration of caloric intake, in addition to the quality of the diet itself.

Translating Expert Guidelines on Overweight and Obesity: Web & Mobile Innovations for Personalized Clinical and Public Health Services
Barbara E. Millen, DrPH, RD, FADA, Millennium Prevention, Inc.

U.S. population prevalence rates of overweight and obesity have plateaued at new highs, affecting more than two-thirds of American adults and one in three children and increasing their risks for major chronic diseases and critical metabolic consequences. Most adults qualify now as candidates for clinical interventions according to the 2013 American Heart Association (AHA)/American College of Cardiology (ACC)/The Obesity Society (TOS) Guideline for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. The AHA/ACC/TOS guideline and the 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGAs) recommend evidence-based, multidisciplinary nutrition and lifestyle-focused interventions for weight management; they also strongly urge the design of clinical and public health practice innovations that facilitate the design and delivery of personalized services that effectively target the needs and preferences of individuals and communities served. Emerging research indicates that web and mobile platforms offer great potential to increase access to evidence-based services, enhance patient-centered care, empower individuals and communities, and improve health outcomes. Powerful web analytics also facilitate real-time demonstration of program and service impact and enhanced quality of care. HealthMain is a HIPAA-compliant, entirely evidence-based web and mobile platform that supports the provision of personalized nutrition and lifestyle assessment, weight management, chronic disease prevention, and risk reduction clinical and public health services. Its comprehensive health appraisal and self-monitoring tools are rigorously peer-reviewed and certified by the National Committee on Quality Assurance (NCQA). Its abundant and sophisticated resources are compatible with translation of the AHA/ACC/TOS guideline, the DGAs, and other expert health guidelines into clinical and public health practice.

Health Data for New York City (HD4NYC): Promoting Population Health Research through Data Sharing and Collaboration
David S. Siscovick, MD, MPH, New York Academy of Medicine; and R. Charon Gwynn, PhD, New York City Department of Hygiene and Mental Health

To facilitate opportunities for new research collaborations, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), The New York Academy of Medicine (the Academy) and the New York City Epidemiology Forum have formed Health Data for New York City (HD4NYC): Promoting Population Health Research through Data Sharing and Collaboration. The goals of HD4NYC are to increase awareness of the unique DOHMH data resources on the health of New Yorkers, foster research collaborations among DOHMH, the Academy, and academic institutions and support investigations into key policy-relevant population health research questions using DOHMH datasets. DOHMH has several datasets that are publically available on its website, as well as two web-based interactive data tools — EPIQUERY and the ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH PORTAL; and many more datasets that are not publically available but can be accessed through data use agreements DOHMH data relates to chronic disease prevention and primary care, environmental health, maternal and child health, mental health, communicable diseases, and vital statistics. In this presentation, we will describe how HD4NYC seeks to promote population health research that impacts the health of New Yorkers through data sharing and collaboration.

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Club Quarters, World Trade Center
140 Washington Street
New York, NY 10006
Phone: 212.577.1133

The New York Academy of Sciences is a member of the Club Quarters network, which offers significant savings on hotel reservations to member organizations. Located opposite Memorial Plaza on the south side of the World Trade Center, Club Quarters, World Trade Center is just a short walk to the Academy.

Use Club Quarters Reservation Password NYAS to reserve your discounted accommodations online.

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