Dr. Robert Dent, MD, FRCPC

Dr. Robert Dent is a specialist in Internal Medicine with academic appointments in Endocrinology and surgery at the University of Ottawa.

In 1992 he established the Weight Management Clinic at the Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa. This is a multidisciplinary clinic designed with these objectives: patient care, teaching health care professionals and research in the genotype phenotype associations of obesity. This clinic design has been adopted in several Canadian university centres.

With respect to research, he has 35 publications in peer-reviewed journals in the last seven years. These publications deal with the design and outcomes of the clinic; and the genetics of obesity. Since 2011, he and Dr. Ruth McPherson hold a CIHR grant entitled Metabolic and Genetic determinants of Obesity and Obesity-related Phenotypes.

During the years 2005 to 2007, he was a member of the Expert Committee for the Canadian Clinical Practice Guidelines on the management and Prevention of Obesity and contributed two chapters to that work which were published and contributed two chapters to that work which were published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2007.

Other memberships include: The Canadian Obesity Network (founding Membership), Bariatric Surgery panel to develop the Health Technology Utilization guidelines of Ontario, November 2005, Chairman for the working group on obesity for the Champlain Primary Care CVD Prevention Guidelines both in September 2006 and for the 2012 edition of the Ontario Bariatric Network.

Since 2009, he has worked with the Ministry of Health of Ontario as Chairman. The Ontario Bariatric Network Patient Assessment Working Group. The objectives of this committee were to develop criteria to identify appropriate candidates for bariatric surgery including those outside the usual BMI and age ranges; to develop a structured assessment process to allow fair and equitable access to obese patients requiring bariatric surgery.

His primary interests include, obesity treatment, psychosocial aspects of obesity, patient advocacy, and the genotype-phenotype associations of obesity.

David C.W. Lau, MD, PhD, FRCPC

President, Obesity Canada, Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Journal of Diabetes, Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Cardiac Sciences, Julia McFarlane Diabetes Research Centre Chair, Diabetes and Endocrine Research Group

Dr. David Lau is Professor of Medicine, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Cardiac Sciences at the University of Calgary. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Diabetes, President of Obesity Canada, and Vice-President, Canadian Association of Bariatric Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Lau is a practising endocrinologist who specializes in diabetes, obesity and lipid disorders. His research interests include fat cell biology in health and obesity, development of insulin resistance in obesity and diabetes, and cellular mechanisms of diabetic vascular complications. He is also involved in population health and clinical research programmes in diabetes, obesity and lipid disorders. Dr. Lau has published over 100 scientific papers in peer-reviewed medical journals, periodicals and books.

Dr. Lau was Chair of the evidence-based Obesity Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) Steering Committee and Expert Panel, and lead author of the 2007 CPG publication in the Can. Med. Assoc. Journal. Dr. Lau was a member of the 1998, 2003 and 2008 Canadian Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Guidelines Expert Panel, as well as the expert panel of the 2009 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of dyslipidemia and prevention of cardiovascular disease in the adult. Dr. Lau is a member of the expert panel committee on the 2013 CDA CPG as well as the 2012 Canadian dyslipidemia CPD update.

In 2004, Dr. Lau was honored as the top 20 notable Calgarians, and top 50 Albertans for his exemplary contributions to improve the health of Albertans.