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meals. In addition to the projects led by Drs. Schmidt, Goldberg, and Sevick, the research plan will contain a rigorous training program, overseen by Ira Goldberg, MD, leader of the clinical project in the AHA Center and director of the division of endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism at NYU. The Comprehensive Program on Obesity, led by Associate Professors of Medicine and Population Health Brian Elbel, PhD, MPH, director of the program, and Melanie Jay ’00, co-director of the program, also plays a significant role in the AHA project. The program, which launched in September 2016, was spearheaded by Dafna Bar-Sagi, PhD, senior vice president and vice dean for science, chief scientific officer at NYU Langone, to integrate multidisciplinary research, including data science, with the hope of preventing and curing obesity within one generation. “Such large, synergistic, institution-wide collaborations help further establish NYU Langone as a center of true excellence in the fight against obesity,” says Dr. Bar-Sagi. “We’re taking scientific discovery from the lab bench all the way to affected communities.” The core mission of the Comprehensive Program on Obesity is to discover treatments that target each patient’s unique biology; to develop methods and strategies that can help stop obesity in its earliest stages; and to pioneer solutions that can scale up to reach entire communities. NYU Langone is home to the first program on obesity in the United States that intertwines breakthroughs in basic science, clinical interventions, and population health through a new initiative called DataBridge. “There are physiological, psychological, and environmental reasons for obesity,” Dr. Jay says, “and they all interact. It’s clear that we need intentional collaboration to make leaps and bounds in terms of how we’re going to deal with this epidemic.” Dr. Jay, an expert in obesity-related health services research and collaborative science, studied behavioral science as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania and then focused on primary care at NYU School of Medicine. She stayed on for her residency, during which time she founded a weight management clinic at Gouverneur Hospital that continues today at Bellevue, and has since extended her career at NYU. One of her most recent collaborative research projects is a longitudinal study of bariatric surgery outcomes, which she is leading in partnership with Dr. Schmidt; Christine Ren-Fielding, MD, chief of bariatric surgery; and Dr. Segal. This study, which is currently enrolling patients at Tisch Hospital and Bellevue Hospital, will offer a unique opportunity to investigate how environmental factors, interactions with the microbiome, and other variables affect the dramatic weight loss prompted by bariatric surgery. INCENTIVIZING PATIENTS “I’ve learned a lot about basic science from Dr. Schmidt,” Dr. Jay says. “If new drugs can be discovered through NYU’s work on obesity, it is a fact that such drugs can help only those who have access to it. My research tends to be about how we get a treatment or a solution to as many people as possible, and how they can use it in the most effective way.” In addition to co-directing research through the Comprehensive Program on Obesity, Dr. Jay still sees patients once a week at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center and runs a lab called MOTIVATE (Managing Obesity Through InnoVATion and Effectiveness), where the focus of her research is on how to improve the treatment and prevention of obesity in primary care settings. “OUR COMMITMENT TO MENTORSHIP AND TO BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER IS HOW WE INCREASE THE ODDS OF MAKING IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES.” Melanie Jay ’00 Above: Dr. Jay with the Photo courtesy of Melanie Jay MOTIVATE lab’s research team 16 | NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE Her current studies on health services include “Goals for Eating and Moving (GEM),” which examines technology-centered health coaching interventions; “Peer Assisted Lifestyle and Weight Management Study (PAL),” which adds peer coaches to primary care teams; and “Financial Incentives for Weight Reduction (FIreWoRk) Study,” in partnership with Joseph Ladapo, MD, PhD, at UCLA, which compares goal-directed financial incentives to outcome-directed financial incentives for low-income primary care patients with obesity. “All the patients in the financial incentives study receive resources,” Dr. Jay explains. “They all get free Weight Watchers memberships, a Fitbit, and a scale. We teach them how to self-monitor their diet and increase physical activity, and we provide brief counseling about ways to improve their lifestyle. That’s the baseline. Participants in a process-based group are also paid for participating in the program and doing their own self-monitoring. And finally, in the outcomes-based group, people get paid for losing weight. We’re trying to see if it’s better to incentivize the process or the outcome, or if it matters to incentivize people at all.” Throughout all her research, Dr. Jay likes to involve students and residents from NYU School of Medicine. This year, she has 22 interns who volunteer approximately 15 hours a week in her MOTIVATE lab, some of whom train to become health coaches, as well as post-docs, graduate-level researchers, and junior faculty. She is also working with Dr. Holly Lofton to start an obesity
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