This month in Berlin, Andreas Herdt, Patient Representative for the European Coalition for People Living with Obesity (ECPO), participated in a high-profile panel discussion titled “Comprehensive obesity care: connecting the dots across fragmented health systems”, organised by Economist Impact.
The session brought together voices from policy, therapy, industry and patient advocacy to explore how health systems can better support people living with obesity through truly coordinated care.
Core Challenges Faced
During the panel Andreas highlighted several pressing issues:
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Lack of access to care: many people living with obesity face barriers in getting appropriate support.
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Poor referral pathways: patients are sometimes sent home with only generic advice rather than a structured care plan.
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Stigma: both societal and within the health system. Andreas emphasised how internalised stigma prevents people from seeking help in the first place, even when services exist.
He said:
“The panel itself was all about well known challenges ranging from lack of access to care, bad referrals or sending patients home with just an advice. We have talked about stigma in society, as well as the health system, internalised stigma and how it prevents people from seeking help in the first place. Well known for us, but potentially not for the audience, so I hope we provided new insights to them.”
A Unified Voice Across Perspectives
One of the strongest take-aways came from the fact that, despite coming from different sectors, the panelists were remarkably aligned. As Andreas noted:
“What I really liked was that we all provided different perspectives policy, therapy, patient, industry, but have been pretty aligned on what the core issues were. It was a bit like a chorus of different voices, singing the same song.”
This unity matters because too often obesity care is fragmented, with disciplines speaking in different languages. The session aimed to shift that by finding shared language and priorities.
Why This Matters
Obesity is increasingly understood as a chronic, relapsing disease that requires structured, multi-disciplinary approaches rather than one-off interventions. Andreas’s participation underscores the value of including lived-experience voices in these high-level discussions. His presence helps bridge the gap between policy and real life.
By sharing the patient perspective alongside other stakeholder voices, the discussion shed light on gaps in everyday care pathways—and highlighted where systems need to improve. For people living with obesity, that kind of alignment across sectors can translate into better-designed services, clearer referral routes, and more compassionate care environments.
De cara al futuro
Andreas expressed hope that this alignment across sectors will lead to concrete changes in how obesity care is delivered. As ECPO continues to advocate for system-wide reform, conversations like the one in Berlin mark an important step. He emphasised that raising awareness of stigma and care-barriers is not enough: the next stage must be implementation of coordinated, patient-centred care models.