Dr. W. Scott Butsch is an internationally recognized obesity medicine physician scientist, educator, and policy leader, who has served as Director of Obesity Medicine at the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute (BMI) at the Cleveland Clinic since 2018. He is one of two inaugural physicians in the U.S. to complete a subspecialty fellowship in obesity medicine, first created at Harvard in 2008, and completed a clinical nutrition fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2007. He is a certified Physician Nutrition Specialist and a Fellow of The Obesity Society. 

Dr. Butsch‘s clinical interests focus on the medical management of obesity, specifically the use of combination pharmacotherapy in patients with severe obesity, bariatric surgical patients and special populations with obesity.

Outside of his clinical work, Dr. Butsch has focused on obesity education and advocacy. He has shaped obesity education and training nationally and internationally, from the creation of obesity core competencies in 2019 to development of subspecialty training for physicians and advanced practice providers. He is the director of the Obesity Medicine fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, first established in 2021. He has spearheaded policies to reduce weight bias and stigma in Massachusetts and Ohio as well as national policies to improve obesity treatment coverage and access to obesity care. He has authored numerous publications, delivered over 250 lectures worldwide, and has appeared in major media outlets, including CNN, Forbes, and NBC Nightly News, and as a special guest on “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution” on ABC/Hulu/Peacock.