Precision Bariatrics: Toward a New Paradigm of Personalized Devices in Obesity Therapeutics

The prevalence and complexity of obesity and its associated metabolic complications highlight the importance of building a rigorous investigative framework for the development of novel weight loss therapies. Device-based interventions in particular constitute a market poised for rapid expansion in the coming years. Optimizing outcomes for this new class of therapies requires attention to an evolving taxonomy of subdivisions within the broader obesity phenotype and a means for stratifying patients toward maximally effective interventions. Extant bariatric devices implicitly prioritize anatomic variables as surrogates for physiology, a somewhat arbitrary assumption that merits empiric validation. Utilizing the governing principles of systems biology and recent innovations in clinical trial design, a robust and precise research infrastructure can and should be developed to more effectively mitigate this contemporary epidemic.