OnDemand: September 2025 Grand Rounds - Pediatric Obesity: Current Obesity Medication Options and a Vission for the Future

This session will provide a comprehensive update on the current state of obesity medication use in pediatric populations, highlighting real-world barriers faced in terms of medication access, including use of compounding. Dr. Bomberg will then explore obesity pharmacotherapy options currently in the pipeline, and how in the future we may be able to better match individuals to therapy choices using precision-medicine based approaches including, phenotyping, EHR-derived predictors, and emerging biomarkers and genomic signals. The presentation will integrate current science with considerations for clinical practice, offering a nuanced perspective that is directly applicable to clinicians, educators, and researchers working to advance the care of children with obesity.

Summarize 3 recent developments in pharmacotherapy for pediatric patients living with obesity, including currently available medications, pipeline therapies, and real-world barriers such as access to therapies and compounding therapies.

Analyze and categorize emerging precision medicine approaches - such as phenotyping, EHR-derived predictors, biomarkers, and pharmacogenomic signals - to explain how these may help match each child or adolescent living with obesity to the most appropriate therapy.

Integrate knowledge of medication access challenges and individualized treatment strategies by developing a clinical decision support plan for pediatric patients affected by obesity, ensuring person-centered care.

Identify two ways that advances in obesity pharmacotherapy and precision-based tools can be translated into clinical practice, education, and research to improve health outcomes for pediatric patients living with obesity.

Eric M. Bomberg, MD, MAS

Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota

Dr. Eric Bomberg is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Director for Research Informatics for the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota. He earned his MD from the University of Southern California, followed by a Medicine/Pediatrics residency at the University of Minnesota and fellowships in both Adult and Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He research primarily focuses on the treatment of obesity, including use of obesity medications. Specifically, his research program focuses on the use of electronic health record enabled clinical discovery to understand “real-world” response to obesity interventions, and on the use of precision-made based approaches for the treatment of obesity including clinical informatics, genomics and pharmacometrics.

The Obesity Society is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The Obesity Society designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

ACCME Activity ID 203304940

Date of Release: October 1, 2025
Date of Termination: December 31, 2027

No commercial support was received for this activity.

Eric Bomberg, MD: Researcher relationship with Novo Nordisk. (Pharmaceuticals)

Monica Agarwal, MD, MEHP, FACE: No relevant financial relationships

No members of the TOS CME Oversight Committee, charged with the resolution of all relevant conflicts of interest, had any relevant financial relationships while serving on the committee.

1. Bomberg EM, Ryder JR, Brundage RC, Straka RJ, Fox CK, Gross AC, Oberle MM, Bramante CT, Sibley SD, Kelly AS. Precision medicine in adult and pediatric obesity: a clinical perspective. Ther Adv Endocrinol Metab. 2019 Jul 27;10:2042018819863022. doi: 10.1177/2042018819863022. PMID: 31384417; PMCID: PMC6661805.

2. Bomberg EM, Clark J, Rudser KD, Gross AC, Kelly AS, Fox CK. Effectiveness and predictors of weight loss response to phentermine plus lifestyle modifications among youth in a paediatric weight management clinical setting. Pediatr Obes. 2024 Aug;19(8): e13143. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.13143. Epub 2024 Jun 17. PMID: 38886982; PMCID: PMC11239309.

3. Bensignor MO, Bramante CT, Bomberg EM, Fox CK, Hale PM, Kelly AS, Mamadi R, Prabhu N, Harder-Lauridsen NM, Gross AC. Evaluating potential predictors of weight loss response to liraglutide in adolescents with obesity: A post hoc analysis of the randomized, placebo-controlled SCALE Teens trial. Pediatr Obes. 2023 Sep;18(9): e13061. doi: 10.1111/ijpo.13061. Epub 2023 Jun 1. PMID: 37264767; PMCID: PMC10926323.