PRO:
Dr. Sean Wharton, MD, FRCPC
General Internal Medicine, Bariatric Medicine

Dr. Wharton has his doctorate in both Pharmacy and Medicine. Dr. Wharton graduated from UofT Pharmacy program in 1992, and his Doctorate in Pharmacy in 1997. He completed medical school at UofT, in 2001 and residency in Internal Medicine at McMaster University in 2005. His interest in ethnicity and medicine led him to the study of hypertension and then to obesity under the guidance of Dr. Arya Sharma, an international recognized leader in obesity research.

Dr. Wharton is the medical director of the Wharton Medical Clinic, a community based internal medicine weight management clinic.

Dr. Wharton research includes the clinical aspects of bariatric medicine and diabetes research. Peer reviewed articles include; feasibility of an interdisciplinary program for obesity management in Canada.

Diabetes management is a focus for Dr. Wharton, as 25% of overweight and obese patients have this chronic medical condition. Dr. Wharton is the lead author of the weight management chapter for the 2013 Canadian Diabetes Association Guidelines; his co-authors are Dr. Arya Sharma and Dr. David Lau.

Dr. Wharton is a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Canadian Obesity Network, the Canadian Association of Bariatric Surgeons and Physicians

CON:
Dr. Ronald V. Eliosoff, MD, FRCPC

Dr. Ronald Eliosoff graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1973 and did his internal medicine residency at the Montreal General Hospital.

He was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at McGill University from1979 until 1999 and was an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Louisiana State University from 1999 until 2006 when he returned to Canada. He currently has a practice in Internal Medicine in Ottawa.

He has had a long-standing interest in the medical treatment of obesity and in 2001 he and Dr. Tom Lavin were the co-founders of the bariatric surgical program of Surgical Specialist of Louisiana in New Orleans.