TELEPHARMACOTHERAPY IN OBESITY CARE: INTEGRATING TELEMEDICINE, ANTI-OBESITY MEDICATION, AND AI-ENABLED CLINICAL SUPPORT

Nabanit Kumar Jha*, Marlene Zharan, Tan Phung, Merna Kirolos, Chika Ekezie, Gabriela Sosa

ABSTRACT

Obesity is a complex, chronic, relapsing condition associated with significant cardiometabolic morbidity, reduced quality of life, and increased healthcare use. Access to comprehensive obesity care remains limited by geographic barriers, a shortage of qualified healthcare providers, cost, stigma, and the need for frequent longitudinal follow-up, despite advances in lifestyle therapies, medications, and metabolic-bariatric surgery. Telemedicine has emerged as a key strategy for overcoming many of these constraints by enabling remote clinical assessment, behavioral counseling, dietary support, physical activity interventions, medication management, and longitudinal monitoring.
The scope of telemedicine-based obesity management has expanded with the rapid development of digital health technologies, including wearable devices, mobile health apps, videoconferencing, connected weighing scales, patient portals, and AI-assisted platforms. The growing use of highly effective anti-obesity drugs has increased the need for frequent evaluation of treatment response, dose titration, adverse-effect monitoring, adherence support, and long-term weight-maintenance measures, thereby expanding the potential role of telemedicine. An emerging model, telepharmacotherapy, supports the remote initiation, titration, and monitoring of anti-obesity medications while integrating lifestyle interventions and long-term weight management. Although results vary by intervention intensity, duration, level of clinician involvement, and patient characteristics, the available evidence indicates that telemedicine and e Health interventions can yield clinically meaningful improvements in body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, lifestyle behaviors, and patient engagement. Hybrid models that combine digital technology with frequent communication with medical specialists are particularly interesting. However, the digital gap, data privacy, fragmented care, pharmaceutical safety, regulatory variability, patient attrition, and uncertainty about long-term efficacy and cost-effectiveness remain significant obstacles. With a focus on multidisciplinary care, remote monitoring, behavioral interventions, anti-obesity medications, and new AI-enabled methods, this narrative review examines the development, clinical applications, efficacy, benefits, drawbacks, and future directions of telemedicine in obesity management.

Keywords: Weight management, Anti-obesity drugs, Telemedicine, Telehealth, Digital health, eHealth, Obesity, Telepharmacotherapy.