The numbers are as disheartening as ever. More than 66 percent of adults are now overweight in Texas. With 29 percent of those falling into the obesity category, Texas was recently named the 13th heaviest state in the country – a standing that is worse than it seems considering Mississippi won the No. 1 spot by only four measly percentage points.
Childhood obesity rates are even worse. Topping 20 percent, Texas now has the 7th highest obesity rate among children in the United States.
Weight-related health problems, including diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, sleep disorders, asthma and infertility, are also on the rise, along with health insurance premiums, which have grown by an average of 68.2 percent since 2001. The annual economic impact of obesity in Texas alone is expected to top $15.6 billion – yes, that’s billion with a B – this year alone. If this trend continues, state officials anticipate that number will skyrocket to $39 billion by 2040. By that same year, up to 75 percent of Texans could be overweight or obese.
Though grim, these numbers are not expected to decline anytime soon unless this country takes an aggressive stance to change our sedentary, fast-food habits and provide weight-loss solutions that are both easily accessible and affordable.
“Obesity is still the elephant in the exam room nobody wants to talk about,” says Dr. Nilesh Patel, renowned surgeon and founder of Texas Bariatric Specialists (TBS).
Frustrated with insurance companies that won’t even cover medicine-based weight-loss solutions; family practitioners who fail to inform overweight patients about available treatment options; and state leaders who fell short in their recent efforts to expand state employees’ health insurance to include weight-loss procedures, Patel sees no end to the obesity epidemic anytime soon.
“Do I think the prevalence of morbid obesity will change in the near future? Sadly, no,” he says. “Many people struggling with their weight are either not provided any options by their practitioner, or those options are not easily available or they can’t afford it. So where does a patient go? Right now, their resources are Google and billboards and TV commercials or those fly-by-night procedures that taint bariatric surgery.”
In the meantime, our waistlines continue to expand, and two out of every three Texans have now lost their individual battle of the bulge. “The number of people overweight is not frustrating, but motivation to push forward,” says Patel, adding that the statistics would be depressing “if I thought we could not make a difference. And by God, are we going to make a difference.”
One of the most passionate and vocal advocates for those suffering from obesity, Patel is waging war against this serious epidemic one patient at a time. Fellowship-trained and nationally recognized, Patel specializes in minimally invasive weight-loss procedures, including gastric bypass, gastric band, gastric sleeve and revision surgeries.
In the past five years, he has performed nearly 1,900 weight-loss procedures with success rates that surpass the national average. In half that time, he has also expanded his TBS practice to six cities across South Texas in order to provide easily accessible care to surrounding underserved communities that have an equal if not greater problem with obesity.
The success of TBS, which is one of a few bariatric practices to offer a single-visit program where a patient can meet with the surgeon, psychologist and nutritionist all in one day, stems from Patel’s ability to fully treat patients before, during and long after their surgery coupled with plenty of hard work, 18-hour days and an overwhelming passion for his profession.
“This is more than just a job,” he says. “I consider this a vocation. The monetary awards have to be and are a side effect if you are really following your heart. The premise behind medicine is optimal patient care, and then business recognition and the appropriate amount of gratitude will always come hand-in-hand with that.”
His achievements have recently paid off in a momentous way. Several weeks ago, downtown’s Metropolitan Methodist Hospital became the first such facility to partner with TBS to offer a fully comprehensive bariatric care program. Patel has already moved the majority of his San Antonio practice to Metropolitan Methodist, which has developed a dedicated, nine-bed ward reserved for patients undergoing weight-loss procedures. Together, Patel and Metropolitan Methodist anticipate treating between 300 and 500 patients during this first year alone.
“Dr. Patel is actually a top-notch surgeon, and it is pretty impressive what he’s been able to accomplish in the five years since completing his fellowship,” says Dr. Brent Bell, who joined TBS in July.
Patel is equally amazed. “I am absolutely bedazzled that we actually have a facility. This partnership between a hospital and our practice is the nirvana,” he says, adding that Metropolitan’s alliance will help expand his reach in the San Antonio market, as well as patients’ access to successful weight-loss treatments.
“The opening of this unit is an extremely positive step forward,” he says. “This is all about improving access to patients and research and outcome.”
Dr. Rene Jaso, who helped facilitate the alliance between Metropolitan Methodist and TBS, says Patel was recruited for this partnership because of his phenomenal expertise in minimally invasive weight-loss procedures and his proven track record of successful outcomes.
While TBS’ involvement allows the hospital to offer a complete bariatric program that will ultimately be good for the patients, the hospital and growth, Jaso and Patel will continue to partner together to form even more cooperative alliances throughout San Antonio and beyond.
“This is for San Antonio and the south side of San Antonio and South Texas and Texas and the southern half of the United States and however far we can go with this,” Jaso says. “Dr. Patel impressed me. Technically, he’s an excellent surgeon with an excellent vision with the way he wants to go. I can appreciate his enthusiasm and am probably one of his biggest fans.”
Born and raised in New Jersey, Patel was first drawn to medicine because he was certain he could build a longitudinal relationship with patients. He first tried family practice, then general and colorectal surgery, but none of those avenues matched his aggressive personality and overwhelming desire to affect immediate change with tangible results.
“I wanted to be able to help people, but I wanted to be able to watch the aid or care that I’m providing make an effect on a person,” he says.
At the urging of his mentor, Dr. Joseph Colella, Patel agreed to a one-year fellowship at a Pittsburgh-based bariatric clinic and immediately found his calling. “Weight-loss surgery is the perfect combination for me because it allows me to have a relationship with patients on the moral basis of which I was raised,” he says. “It allows me to provide that longitudinal care so I can see their progress and vicariously enjoy their success as they meet certain life goals – and at the same time, do some really wild surgery.”
Now well-established as a leading bariatric surgeon capable of drastically improving people’s lives and well-being on an individual basis, Patel is beginning to focus on a larger mission. With business partner Ron Duperrior, Patel has formed Clarity Bariatrics, a for-profit bariatric surgery management company, and Clarity Health Alliance, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving access to care, research and outcomes related to obesity and obesity-related conditions.
Between these two efforts, Patel hopes to develop an obesity care alliance within San Antonio by the end of the year, initiate two new weight-loss campaigns targeting specific demographics, sponsor the first Walk From Obesity in Corpus Christi in November and by 2011, kick off an ambitious effort to curb childhood obesity.
In the meantime, Patel continues to strengthen and expand his hub-and-spoke model of care, which includes establishing bariatric offices in major cities that in turn, provide direct health care to smaller, surrounding communities.
“I am regularly told we are mimicking ‘The Art of War’ with this kind of approach: war-like tactics of surrounding the enemy and then attacking to the center from the perimeter,” says Patel.
Ironically, Bell, Jaso and several others who work within Patel’s practice all have military backgrounds. “It wasn’t by design, but it speaks to the type of character that is going to be able to relate to what we are trying to do,” Patel says. “We are the pacer bunny, and all eyes are on us.”
So while those statistics are tough to hear, and Texans’ expanding waistlines are further proof today’s battle against obesity is lost, the war is not yet over. And with Patel leading the charge, victory will be ours.
For more information about Texas Bariatric Specialists, visit www.bypassdoc.com.
