A groundbreaking study by the University of Warwick has commenced patient recruitment to evaluate W8Buddy, a digital specialist weight management service. This initiative aims to enhance access to obesity care across the NHS, addressing a critical need for scalable solutions in the face of limited current capacity.
Obesity impacts over a quarter of the UK population, with around four million people potentially eligible for NHS Specialist Weight Management Services annually. However, the current system can only accommodate approximately 35,000 patients. This disparity underscores the urgent need for innovative approaches, prompting recent government investments in digital and community-based care models.
Against this backdrop, the W8Buddy study—a major real-world evaluation of a digitally delivered specialist weight management pathway—has officially opened its first site for patient recruitment and published its study protocol in BMJ Open. Funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), this study will assess whether the digital pathway, delivered through the Gro Health W8Buddy platform, can offer comparable long-term health benefits to standard NHS specialist services while improving patient access.
Transforming Weight Management with Digital Solutions
Dr. Petra Hanson, Clinical Lecturer at Warwick Medical School and the lead on the trial, emphasized the significance of this study as the first real-world evaluation of digitally enabled specialist weight management services in the UK. “In this patient-choice study, we will recruit 450 participants from 4 Specialist Weight Management Services across England and Wales, allowing individuals to choose how they would like their care to be delivered,” she said.
The W8Buddy study aims to provide the evidence needed to implement digital specialist weight management within NHS services, supporting a shift from hospital-based to community-delivered care, and from analogue pathways to digital ones. Gro Health W8Buddy, developed by DDM and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust specialist weight management clinicians, offers holistic support outside the hospital setting, including education, behavior change resources, meal and activity tracking, and health coaching.
Expert Insights and Real-World Evidence
Prof Amy Grove, Professor of Implementation Science at the University of Birmingham, co-leads the study and highlights the value of evaluating healthcare innovation with real-world evidence. “By using real-world evidence, the NHS can ensure research is shaped by what actually happens to patients in routine weight management care,” she noted. “Incorporating real-world evidence with patients’ real-world experience helps design studies and treatments that are more inclusive, relevant, and impactful.”
Last month, the first recruitment sites opened in Birmingham and London, with additional sites planned at UHCW NHS Trust and in Wales by early 2026. Researchers will track key outcomes such as weight loss, quality of life, treatment speed, use of other healthcare resources, and overall health improvements over 18- and 24-month periods.
Patient-Centric Approach
Dr. Jonathan Hazlehurst, Consultant Endocrinologist at University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, oversees the Birmingham site and sees this study as an exciting opportunity to explore new methods of delivering obesity care. “We are pleased to contribute to this study, which is embedded within our current processes,” he said. “We hope and anticipate that the results can inform future pathways and funding decisions to improve access to care and management pathways for people living with obesity.”
Patient involvement has been crucial to the setup of the W8Buddy trial. Richard Green, an IT professional living with type 2 diabetes, has played a key role in developing the tool from a patient’s perspective. “W8Buddy could be how we finally close that gap—not by building more clinics, but by bringing the expertise to wherever patients are,” he explained.
“W8Buddy connects patients nationally to specialist resources based on what they actually need. A shepherd on top of a Welsh mountain gets the same access to expert support as someone in central London.”
Implications for the Future of Obesity Care
With obesity estimated to cost the NHS more than £11 billion per year, the findings from the W8Buddy study could significantly impact how specialist weight management services are delivered nationally. By exploring digital approaches alongside traditional care, the research aims to support more equitable, efficient, and accessible obesity treatment for patients across the UK.
The announcement comes as the NHS continues to seek innovative solutions to address the growing obesity crisis. As the W8Buddy study progresses, its outcomes could pave the way for broader adoption of digital health solutions, potentially transforming the landscape of weight management services in the UK.
