At the opening of the ANZMOSS (Australian and New Zealand Metabolic and Obesity Surgery Society) meeting today, we had the unique privilege of helping people peer into the future of obesity care. Endocrine surgeon Juan Pablo Pantoja presented a view of the future of bariatric surgery in the era of a medical frenzy. The frenzy, of course is the wide public interest in GLP-1 agonists and related medicines for obesity treatment. While Pantoja spoke specifically about implications for metabolic surgery, ConscienHealth’s Ted Kyle spoke more broadly about the impact of the environment into which metabolic surgery fits.

Great Changes in Play

Pantoja explained that terminology like “morbid obesity” is obsolete, not just because it is so stigmatizing. It is also rooted in an era when obesity was simplistically understood as a problem of excess body weight. The future he told us will see different clinical states of obesity defined as different phenotypes of this chronic neurohormonal disease. Diagnosing people based on weight status is unhelpful.

Kyle spoke more broadly about the elevation of the lived experience with obesity and the social, economic, and health system changes this is bringing. With more options for obesity care, shifting dietary behaviors, changing food market dynamics, and pressures on health systems, many cross currents are at work.

But perhaps the most important result is that the public understanding of obesity is going through a profound evolution. It is catching up with scientific insights that have made these remarkable new medicines possible.

We still have inadequate systems for delivering obesity care at a scale that matches the medical need. But that means there is a great deal of room for comprehensive, chronic obesity care to grow. This is good news for metabolic surgery and everyone who offers patient-centered and sound approaches to obesity care.

At ANZMOSS 2025 we saw ample evidence that surgeons and integrated health professionals are ready to adapt to this new environment.

Click here for Kyle’s slides and here for the slides from Pantoja’s presentation.

Juan Pablo Pantoja, photograph by Ted Kyle / ConscienHealth