Dominique Durrer

Languages Spoken: English, French

Country: Switzerland

A woman with long curly hair smiling for the camera.

I am a medical doctor (General Practitioner), as well as a Human Nutritionist (University of Lausanne, Faculty of Medicine) and an Obesity specialist, working in Switzerland since 1989 (in Vevey) and at the University Hospital of Geneva.

My husband, Yves Schutz is a Professor of Human Physiology at the University of Fribourg (formerly Univ. of Lausanne) in Switzerland. I spend a fraction of my time for research with my him in the field of obesity. I was President of the Swiss Association for the Study of Obesity until 2021. I’m still a member of the board.

We have also obtained an accreditation as EASO Collaborative Center for Obesity management in Vevey with a multidisciplinary team.

Moreover, I am involved in different projects about obesity with the Swiss Federal Office of Health, in particular a project whose aim is that, in the future, Switzerland, as other European countries, would acknowledge that “obesity is a disease”.

These last 10 years, we have published 3 books on obesity in French (respectively for MDs’, school teacher and health educators) and we prepare a 4th one for doctors. In 2019, we have just published in the Official Journal of EASO (Obesity facts) an article on « European guidelines on obesity management for GPs ».

Finally, I am president of Eurobesitas, a Swiss Association for Patients suffering from Obesity. Our aims are to work hard to change the image of people with obesity, decreasing obesity stigmatisation and to develop tools, patient sheets and guidelines to the GPs to improve obesity management in primary care.

I have 2 daughters, my elder one is Raphaëlle and she is a MD doctor and Alexandra is Medical Veterinary and she has her own practice.

I love music, paintings, dancing, psychology and zoology and travelling around the world discovering wildlife.