Obesity is linked to more than 200 chronic conditions, decreased quality of life, and worse outcomes for patients with this disease. Let’s Go! is a community engagement initiative focused on creating environments that support healthy behaviors that reduce obesity. Let’s Go! provides educational programming for all medical learners and provider staff throughout Maine and Carroll County, New Hampshire.

Recently, Let’s Go! partnered with Maine Medical Center’s Department of Medical Education to evaluate the current state of obesity education and develop a standard obesity curriculum. Evidence from learning science literature suggests that active, periodic learning in “small chunks”, spaced over time, can be more effective than passively receiving information all at once.

To that end, a broad range of educational programs and initiatives were developed including: a Let’s Talk About Obesity Care Podcast, an ECHO program, a culinary medicine initiative, and spaced-repetition recall “games.” A video series, Let’s Go Shorts, was also created and comprised seven brief, animated clips which were well received.

These programs improved obesity education access for all MaineHealth care team members. The research team received many insightful comments from participating providers about what works, and for whom, as they implement obesity prevention efforts in their clinical practices.