Evaluating the implementation of a primary care weight management toolkit.

OBJECTIVE: With over one-third of adults in the United States classified as obese, new recommendations call for screening all adults for obesity at outpatient visits. The UW Health Fox Valley Clinic does not actively screen for obesity. The objective of this project was to test the feasibility of an obesity screening and brief intervention protocol. PROCESS: A modified version of the Promoting Healthier Weight in Primary Care toolkit was implemented into a family medicine practice for 6 weeks. Patients (N = 88) were asked about visit satisfaction and acceptability of weight-focused conversation. Providers (N = 22) were asked about acceptability and feasibility of use. OUTCOME: Almost all patients (97.7%) found the conversation acceptable. Providers found the toolkit helpful, not confusing for their patients, and easy to use. Time was the greatest barrier.

Peptidomimetic competitive inhibitors of protein tyrosine phosphatases.

This review discusses the development of the active site-directed protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) inhibitors based on peptides and some closely related nonpeptidic scaffolds. A straightforward approach is to substitute various nonhydrolyzable analogs for the phosphotyrosine (pTyr) of optimal or physiological phosphopeptide substrates of PTPs. The advances in small molecule peptidic PTP inhibitors and their nonpeptidic derivatives have been greatly aided by X-ray crystallographic and NMR spectrometric studies. Given the importance of PTPs in disease-associated signal transduction and the continuing progress in PTP drug discovery, some clinically useful PTP inhibitors may emerge in the near future.