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National Institutes of Health Releases Strategic Plan for Obesity Research

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Posted March 31, 2011

NIH Strategy PlanPreventing or treating obesity may seem simple, but it is actually quite complicated.

That's why the National Institutes of Health(NIH) supports many obesity-related research projects, and develops programs like We Can!® to help translate research findings into programs that communities can use.

Today, the NIH released its 2011 Strategic Plan for NIH Obesity Research, which maps out a range of research opportunities designed to discover the causes of, and find solutions to, obesity.

As part of a video discussing the plan, NIH Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., highlighted the need for programs like We Can!. Watch the clip below.

Note: Screen reader users should disregard the embedded instructions in the player and use this short instruction guide.

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Top-tier print, broadcast, and online media were notified about the plan. So were members of the local media in the following 10 cities, who were informed that there were registered We Can! community sites in their areas and encouraged to write about them:

  • Atlanta, GA
  • Boston, MA
  • Chicago, IL
  • Dallas, TX
  • Lexington/Louisville, KY
  • New York, NY
  • Philadelphia, PA
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • San Diego, CA
  • Washington, DC

As of March 2011, We Can! had nearly 1,500 registered community sites in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and a dozen other countries. To find out more about these sites and their programming, click through this website, review the archive of quarterly eNewsletters, and sign up to receive one.

If you are a member of the media, please contact the following individuals for an interview with Dr. Collins or another obesity expert:

Amy Reiter
NIDDK Office of Communications and Public Liaison
301-496-3583
NIDDKMedia@mail.nih.gov

Morgan Jones
NHLBI Office of Communications
301-496-4236
NHLBI_news@nhlbi.nih.gov

Last Updated: February 13, 2013