IEEE S.F. Bay Area Council e-GRID's
BayAreaTech

WEDNESDAY May 16, 2012
SCV Engineering in Medicine and Biology Chapter
Speaker: Rose Province, Principal Scientist, IntraPace, Inc
Time: Optional dinner at 6:15 PM; Presentation at 7:30 PM
Cost: none, for talk
Place: Optional dinner location: Stanford Hospital Cafeteria, 6:15 PM (no host, no reservations); Presentation in Room M-114, Stanford University Medical School, Stanford
RSVP: not required
Web: www.ewh.ieee.org/r6/scv/embs

Obesity is a chronic disease which has become pandemic.  The prevalence of worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980.  In 2008, 1.5 billion adults were overweight.  Of these 500 million were obese.  While non-surgical management of obesity is favorable, numerous studies have shown that it is ineffective in producing and maintaining clinically significant weight loss.  Surgical approaches are thus considered the only viable options for long term success in weight loss.  There is a need for alternatives that are less invasive and devoid of severe complications.  Gastric electrical stimulation (GES) has been recently introduced as an obesity treatment, and while clinical outcomes have been mixed, significant reductions in food intake and weight loss have been demonstrated.  This talk will present the abiliti® system which was developed by Intrapace, Inc to treat obesity with GES, and in addition promotes behavioral change by providing consumption and physical activity data to patient and physicians.  The intragastric and activity sensor technology will be discussed, as well as the clinical evaluation.