Disease Remission in Obesity Programs (DROP)

Do you need help “dropping” bad habits, pounds, inches, medicine, and obesity symptoms? The UPMC Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology and the UPMC Center for Obesity Medicine present DROP.

Like high blood pressure and high cholesterol, obesity is a chronic disease. So, we should treat it as a disease — early and actively.

Obesity can cause or worsen:

• Arthritis and chronic pain.
• Fatty liver disease and cirrhosis.
• Heart disease and stroke.
• High blood pressure.
• High cholesterol and triglycerides.
• Infertility and trouble getting pregnant.
• Many cancers in men and women.
• Sleep apnea.
• Type 2 diabetes.

If you're ready to lose weight and improve your health, DROP can help.

People have weight loss success when they create a goal and have positive reasons to achieve that goal.

Actions as small as making modest lifestyle changes and losing a few pounds can provide health benefits. Each step in the right direction is worthwhile.

Our Approach to Helping You Drop Weight

The DROP approach is to treat obesity as a chronic disease with you at the center of our care.

We do this through:

• A patient-centered model that uses shared medical appointments (SMAs) and group lifestyle visits for accountability and complete care.
• Our experts — including doctors certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine — to help with medicines, nutrition, and behavioral counseling.
• Aftercare and follow-up to help prevent weight regain.

Program Options

Stepwise: Building a healthy lifestyle and habits one step at a time for long-term weight loss success.

Weight loss programs often start out intense with a long list of new and sometimes hard things to do. Early success is often fleeting.

Stepwise:

• Focuses on building the foundation for long-term health, weight loss, and maintenance.
• Is for those who value the success of what the scale and check-up say in 2 years, not 2 months.
• Is a 1-year program with monthly group visits with a dietitian and psychologist.

Mediterranean life: Whole food, plant-heavy, healthy-fat diet derived from large heart disease and diabetes trials.

The Mediterranean diet consists of a range of whole foods, such as:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Beans
• Nuts
• Fish
• Olive oil
• Wine

The lifestyle also includes ways of living a longer, healthier, happier life like:

• Getting better sleep
• Being active
• Managing stress
• Improving social connections

This program:

• Can vastly improve your health — both symptoms and blood test results — and reduce your medicines, often without calorie counting and restriction.
• Is 1-year long with monthly group visits with a dietitian and psychologist.

OPTIFAST^®: Meal replacement low-calorie diet for extreme non-surgical weight loss and disease remission.

Certain health problems reach a severe stage where lifestyle changes and moderate weight loss is not enough.

OPTIFAST® is a medically supervised diet that begins with total meal replacement, followed by slowly building a new maintenance diet and habits.

It's for people who need to lose a large amount of weight fast to either:

• Get off medicine for type 2 diabetes.
• Safely have a needed orthopaedic surgery or infertility treatment.

It can also help others who have tried less intense diets or programs and only lost small amounts of weight.

The six-month OPTIFAST® plan can:

• Lead to diabetes remission.
• Reverse polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and fatty liver disease.
• Achieve an average weight loss of 18-20%.

OPTIFAST® requires:

• A one-on-one exam by one of our endocrinology doctors.
• Two group visits per month for six months with a doctor, dietitian, and psychologist.
• A monthly maintenance program for one year.

Follow-up visits are SMAs.

Our DROP Experts

The team at the UPMC Center for Diabetes and Endocrinology is here to help you on your weight-loss journey. We provide medical care, support, and nutrition counseling.

• David Rometo, MD
  • Endocrinologist
  • Endocrine Obesity Unit Leader, Clinical Director of Center for Obesity Medicine
  • Board-certified in obesity medicine
• Hussain Mahmud, MD
  • Endocrinologist
  • Board-certified in obesity medicine
• Milay Luis Lam, MD
  • Endocrinologist,
  • Board-certified in obesity medicine
• Carley Stoy, PA-C
  • Physician assistant
• Nicole Newingham, CRNP
  • Certified nurse practitione
• Heather Hardik, MS, RDN, LDN
  • Nutrition coordinator
• Lisa Germeroth, PhD
  • Assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh

Where to Find Us

Falk Medical Building (Oakland)

3601 Fifth Ave., Suite 3B
Pittsburgh, PA 15213

UPMC at Oxford Drive (Monroeville)*

400 Oxford Drive, Suite 100
Monroeville, PA 15146

*UPMC at Oxford Drive does not offer all three DROP options described above. But you can visit this location for your first exam with a doctor.

View our DROP brochure to learn more.

To make an appointment, call 412-586-9780.