Dr. Devika Umashanker is the Medical Director of Obesity Medicine at Hartford HealthCare Medical and

Surgical Weight Loss Program . She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and fellowship trained in

Obesity Medicine at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medicine. She is an Associate Professor of

Clinical Medicine at Frank Netter School of Medicine and the Program Director of the Obesity medicine

Fellowship at Hartford healthcare. Dr. Umashanker obtained her MBA in Healthcare Management and

MS degree in Healthcare Finance at Fox School of Business , Temple University prior to starting her

career in Medicine. While obtaining her MBA, Dr. Umashanker worked for Blue Cross Blue Shield the

Medicare and Medicaid division and gained a deeper understanding of the insurance industry. Shifting

her career to medicine and being able to use the skills set obtained from her MBA and MS has well

prepared her for her career in healthcare. Dr. Umashanker’s primary areas of expertise include post-

operative bariatric surgical care and nutrition management, optimizing preoperative weight loss with

different treatment modalities to optimize patients prior to surgery, and managing medically complex

patients in weight management. Her research interests focus on the impact of probable migraines on

patients seeking SWL and MWL, the acceptability and feasibility of nutrition programs prior to bariatric

surgery , and the impact of weight stigma and bias on weight loss outcomes. Dr. Umashanker has

several publications and book chapters on the topics of management and treatment of obesity,

pharmacotherapy for obesity, and weight stigma and bias.

This event will be recorded