Jens-Christian Holm​

Jens-Christian Holm (JCH) is a Consultant in Pediatrics, Head of Research at the Department of Pediatrics University Hospital Holbæk, and Associate Clinical and Research Professor at University of Copenhagen. In January 2008, JCH established The Children's Obesity Clinic at the Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Holbæk, and in February 2009 JCH initiated The Danish Childhood Obesity Biobank which has managed to include 2100 obese children and adolescents in treatment and 2585 normal weight children within the last 6 years.

In 2009, The Children’s Obesity Clinic established strong international treatment outcomes with a low drop-out rates and a treatment success response after two years in 62.5% of the children. In 2010, Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Hillerød adopts the childhood obesity treatment method developed by JCH which led to a 75% response rate among the children. In 2012, JCH established 8 childhood obesity treatment clinics in 8 different municipalities all across Denmark which after six months showed a response rate after 80% and several of the clinics have afterwards increased the response rate to 90%. Furthermore, The Children’s Obesity Clinic was in 2015 accredited by The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) as an international excellence childhood obesity management centre.

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The response rates and research activities of JCH have drawn a lot of media attention over the years and the major breakthrough came in 2012 when the Danish television broadcaster “Danmarks Radio” made the programme series “Generation XL”, which followed 5 children in 12 months of treatment. Afterwards, JCH conducted hundreds of expert interviews in various national and international media which reached its climax in November 2014 when JCH delivered an expert interview to BBC World Health Check. In addition to the media attention, JCH’s method and research have reached scientific recognition both nationally and internationally and JCH has attended and been giving hundreds of invited lectures at several conferences. JCH is a member of the Danish Obesity Committee (Adipositasudvalget), under of the Danish Paediatric Society and in 2015, JCH was elected as co-chair of the The European Association for the Study of Obesity Childhood Obesity Task Force (EASO COTF) alongside PhD Jennifer Baker. Lastly, JCH was awarded The Health Prize of Region Zealand in 2009, and in 2010 JCH received the Professor Hans Ibsen Award for strengthening hypertension research.

Education and Employment

Jens-Christian Holm achieved his medical degree in 1993 and defended his PhD.-thesis with the name: “Physiological regulation of leptin. Changes in levels of leptin and its soluble receptor during weight loss and follow-up in boys and girls” in 2003; both degrees were achieved from University of Copenhagen. In 2007, JCH achieved a specialist degree in Pediatrics and he was immediately employed at the Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Holbæk where he was responsible of establishing and leading The Children’s Obesity Clinic. Since 2009, JCH has been an Associate Clinical Professor in Pediatrics at University of Copenhagen and Consultant in Pediatrics since 2010. In 2013, JCH was announced as Head of Research at Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Holbæk and in 2014 JCH became Associate Clinical and Research Professor at Department of Pediatrics, University Hospital Holbæk.