Ihuoma Eneli, MD, MS, medical director for the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, was recently named as a member of the Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight Steering Committee by the American Academy of Pediatrics. She will serve on the committee for at least two years.
Dr. Eneli’s research, clinical work and collaboration at the local, regional and state levels, in addition to the programs she has initiated at Nationwide Children’s, made her the ideal candidate for the steering committee.
“I am honored to serve the Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight and look forward to the ways we can continue to help translate pediatric obesity prevention, assessment, management and treatment to affect positive policy and research from theory into practice,” said Dr. Eneli. “I’m excited to join my colleagues from the American Academy of Pediatrics in this initiative to help children and families lead healthier lives.”
The Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight is dedicated to addressing obesity prevention, assessment and treatment at the point of care, in communities and with families. In her role, Dr. Eneli will be crucial in helping to translate the strategic priorities of the institute into fruition through programs and initiatives to help pediatricians and patients.
As medical director at the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s, she oversees the assessment clinics and medical weight management programs. Dr. Eneli also serves as an associate professor of clinical pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Her clinical interest and research focus is medical interventions for overweight children, particularly from the health care providers’ perspective.
About Nationwide Children’s Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition
The Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is engaged in wide-ranging childhood obesity initiatives including participation in the national Children’s Hospital Association obesity focus group, the Ohio Healthy Weight Outcomes Coalition and the “Collaborate for Healthy Weight” nationwide initiative led by the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The Center offers a comprehensive approach to weight management with programs for prevention and treatment of overweight children, ranging from community-based intervention and physician private practices to intensive multidisciplinary lifestyle programs, medical assessment clinics and bariatric surgery. In addition, Nationwide Children’s has collaborated with Columbus Public Health on an “ACHIEVE” grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to enhance local communities’ abilities to develop and implement policy, systems and environment change strategies to prevent or manage health-risk factors focusing on pregnancy through birth to five years. The hospital was also one of the first businesses in the state to be awarded the Healthy Ohio Breastfeeding Friendly Employer Award by the Ohio Department of Health.
NOTE TO THE EDITOR: Dr. Eneli resides in Dublin, Ohio (43017).
Ihuoma U. Eneli, MD, medical director for the Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition at Nationwide Children’s Hospital