Jamie Kane received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University, his MD at SUNY Downstate and completed his residency training in Internal Medicine at Yale University. He is double board certified in Internal Medicine and Obesity Medicine. In addition to being the director for Northwell Health’s Center for Weight Management, he is an Assistant Professor in the department of medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and serves as the chief of its section of Obesity Medicine. As section chief, he has started a resident continuity clinic in Obesity Medicine in addition to developing a comprehensive didactic curriculum for the residents, and a fellowship in Obesity Medicine (one of the first of its kind). The fellowship is now combined with the General Internal Medicine fellowship at Northwell and is a 2 year program involving clinical practice in obesity medicine, precepting residents in obesity and general medicine clinics, obtaining a master’s degree in public health from Hofstra University and conducting research in obesity medicine, particularly in areas involving public health and general medicine. Clinically, he has expanded the Center for Weight Management to 6 sites in the New York City and Long Island area with a total number of 9 clinicians actively involved in the program.
Beyond growing the Center for Weight Management, his primary focus as section chief has been on obesity education. In addition to the obesity medicine clinic and obesity medicine fellowship, he lectures medical students, residents, fellows and primary care physicians in addition to starting Obesity Medicine Grand Rounds and Journal Clubs, open to obesity medicine physicians, bariatric surgeons, primary care practitioners and relevant subspecialists. Additionally, his section of Obesity Medicine has conducted a survey among primary care internists at Northwell to determine attitudes, knowledge base, comfort levels and practice trends for patients with obesity in the primary care setting. We are using that information to design learning modules for primary care physicians on obesity medicine topics including how to approach the subject with patients, lifestyle management and counseling, medication management and appropriate referral trends. Finally the section has now engaging in variety of research projects including large scale national data, review of obesity medicine and surgery practices and relationships between lifestyle and obesity/wellness.
The focus of Dr. Kane’s career has been on taking a holistic approach to the management (and reversal) of obesity and chronic cardiometabolic disease. He has lectured around the country on the benefits of a whole foods, plant based diet and on lifestyle management as a primary modality for modulating these conditions. Personally he is an active athlete and maintains a plant-based lifestyle with his family.
