Whittier’s Hamilton draws on personal struggles to help patients

Dr. Rhonda Hamilton, the bariatric physician coordinator for quality and research at Winchester Hospital, has been named the physician champion for effective obesity treatments at Whittier Street Health Center.

As physician champion, Hamilton will counsel and advise patients on various weight loss options, including weight loss surgery, as part of the services offered by Whittier Street’s Healthy Weight Clinic.

“The knowledge and dedication Dr. Hamilton brings to our staff is immeasurable,” said Frederica Williams, president and CEO of Whittier Street Health Center. “Obesity affects more than just the person who is overweight. Her expertise in weight loss options will help our patients not only live healthier lives, but work toward creating healthier families and communities.”

Hamilton’s desire to improve the health of communities drove her to earn both a medical degree and a master of public health at Tufts University School of Medicine. She went on to gain her internal medicine residency training, serving a diverse population at Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge. After her residency, she became a hospitalist — a physician specializing in the care of sick hospitalized patients. During this time, she developed her expertise in caring for patients suffering from complications related to obesity, including diabetes, heart attacks, strokes and many types of cancer.

But she later realized that while she was spending her time and energy focusing on how to help her patients navigate those complications, she had neglected her own health, which had become jeopardized by weight increase. At one point, Hamilton weighed 250 pounds, a weight that fell into the medical category of morbid obesity.

Looking to improve her well-being, Hamilton began to research the medical and surgical scientific literature in the field of bariatrics, the branch of medicine that deals with the causes, prevention and treatment of obesity. She found what she felt was overwhelming evidence documenting the failure of traditional weight loss efforts — and the surprising life-saving benefits of surgical weight loss.

Armed with that information, Hamilton chose to undergo gastric bypass surgery. After losing nearly 100 pounds, her blood glucose level is now well under control without the use of any medications. For her, the surgery was liberating, and changed both her life and her attitude about the optimal treatment for obesity.

Working with the Healthy Weight Clinic at WSHC allows Hamilton to combine her desire to serve diverse communities and to advocate to both patients and physicians for weight-loss surgery and its life-saving benefits.

She speaks at a wide variety of venues, ranging from medical grand rounds, community groups, churches and health seminars; and has written a book, “A Guide to Weight Loss Surgery: Professional and Personal Perspectives,” in which she describes the risks and benefits, life after surgery and navigating the insurance system.

Hamilton is also an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School and continues to care for patients at Cambridge Health Alliance.