EASO Position Statement identifies an “Integration Paradox” in European obesity care and proposes five priorities for the responsible integration of incretin-based therapies into health systems
4 September 2026 – The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) has published a new Position Statement setting out how European health systems should integrate rapidly advancing incretin-based therapies into comprehensive, long-term obesity care.
Published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, Integrating incretin-based therapies into comprehensive obesity care: an EASO position statement argues that the scientific and therapeutic advances represented by medicines including semaglutide and tirzepatide have progressed faster than many health systems’ ability to deliver access to these obesity management tools effectively, equitably and sustainably.
The authors describe this mismatch as the “EASO Integration Paradox.” While incretin-based therapies have substantially expanded what is possible in obesity management, European health systems continue to face significant variation in providing access to multidisciplinary services, and in trained workforce capacity, reimbursement, long-term monitoring and access pathways.
The Position Statement makes clear that obesity is a chronic, relapsing, adiposity-based disease requiring long-term management. Incretin-based therapies can deliver substantial weight reduction alongside important cardiometabolic benefits, with evidence increasingly demonstrating benefits across cardiovascular, renal and hepatic disease. But medication alone cannot provide comprehensive obesity care.
From therapeutic innovation to accountable integration
To address this challenge, EASO proposes a new Integration Framework, organised around five interdependent pillars:
- Right Patient – ensuring evidence-based, individualised selection and prioritisation, considering obesity severity and complications, clinical phenotype, treatment history, overall health, patient preferences and anticipated benefit rather than BMI alone.
- Right Care – embedding pharmacotherapy within comprehensive multidisciplinary obesity management, including nutritional care, physical activity, behavioural support, therapeutic patient education and management of obesity-related complications.
- Right Workforce – ensuring health and community professionals have appropriate obesity-specific knowledge and competencies, supported by multidisciplinary training and continuing professional development.
- Right Data – establishing harmonised monitoring, pharmacovigilance and real-world evidence systems that assess outcomes beyond body weight alone.
- Right Access – developing equitable, affordable and sustainable approaches to reimbursement and access while reducing disparities between populations and healthcare systems.
The framework places these five pillars within a wider system of policy and governance, multidisciplinary collaboration, patient and public involvement, equity and inclusion, and economic sustainability and value. Its intended outcome is improved health, reduced complications and sustained benefits for people living with obesity across Europe.
Medication is only one part of comprehensive obesity care
A central message of the EASO statement is that incretin-based therapies should not be delivered as stand-alone interventions.
Obesity has biological, behavioural, psychological, social and environmental determinants. EASO therefore calls for pharmacotherapy to be integrated with nutritional care, physical activity promotion, behavioural support, therapeutic patient education and appropriate management of obesity-related complications. Multidisciplinary care should support outcomes beyond weight reduction, including health, function and quality of life.
The Position Statement also warns that successful pharmacological innovation must not lead health systems to narrow obesity care around medicines alone. Continued investment is needed in prevention, health promotion, therapeutic patient education, stigma reduction and action on the broader determinants of health.
Europe needs an obesity-ready healthcare workforce
EASO highlights another major implementation challenge: therapeutic innovation has moved considerably faster than formal education and training in obesity medicine.
The authors call for competency development across obesity pathophysiology and assessment, pharmacotherapy, shared decision-making, behavioural support, therapeutic patient education, adverse-event management, long-term care, communication and weight-stigma reduction.
EASO proposes movement towards a common European obesity competency framework across healthcare professions, building on existing EASO educational initiatives and its emerging Obesity Care Certification programme.
A European agenda for evidence, safety and equity
The Position Statement also proposes a coordinated European research and implementation agenda.
Priorities include real-world studies comparing different models of obesity care; harmonised monitoring standards and core outcome sets; long-term pharmacovigilance; development of workforce capacity; and research into reimbursement, affordability, cost-effectiveness and inequalities in access.
EASO argues that outcomes should extend beyond weight loss to include cardiometabolic health, body composition, physical function, treatment persistence, quality of life, patient experience and long-term maintenance of health benefits.
The European Health Data Space could also provide an important opportunity to connect healthcare systems, registries and research networks, enabling coordinated real-world evidence generation and pharmacovigilance across Europe.
People living with obesity must themselves be actively involved in the development of access and prioritisation frameworks, service design and implementation strategies, the statement stresses.
The next challenge for European obesity care
The authors conclude that the central question has moved beyond whether incretin-based therapies should be used. The challenge is now how these therapies can be implemented in ways that strengthen rather than fragment obesity care.
The new EASO Integration Framework provides a roadmap for doing this within chronic, person-centred and comprehensive obesity care, supported by EASO’s existing clinical frameworks, education programmes and network of Collaborating Centres for Obesity Management.
Professor Volkan Yumuk, EASO President and co-author, said:
“We are entering a new era in obesity management. The extraordinary progress in obesity medicines gives us opportunities to improve health that would have been difficult to imagine only a few years ago. But innovation in medicines must be matched by innovation in the systems that deliver care. Europe now needs to ensure that the right patient receives the right care, from the right workforce, supported by the right data and with equitable access. Our goal must be comprehensive, sustainable obesity management that improves health and quality of life for people living with obesity.”
Professor Zoltan Pataky, co-author, said:
“The EASO Integration Framework shifts the discussion from simply making new therapies available to ensuring that they are integrated responsibly into long-term obesity care. Medicines are an important part of this transformation, but they cannot operate in isolation. We need skilled multidisciplinary teams, appropriate patient education, robust monitoring and evidence, and health systems designed around the long-term needs of people living with obesity.”
Paper: Integrating incretin-based therapies into comprehensive obesity care: an EASO position statement
Authors: Jorge César Correia, Jennifer Lyn Baker, Emma Boyland, Luca Busetto, Lubomíra Fábryová, Tryggvi Helgason, Paolo Sbraccia, Euan Woodward, Volkan Yumuk and Zoltan Pataky, on behalf of the European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO).
Journal: The Lancet Regional Health – Europe
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2026.101840
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