"My goal is not to have four or five ventures going, but dozens, " says Gorman, a stiff midwestern lawyer who applies the same scattergun approach to shooting quail in his spare time.

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Prof Paul Gately, a specialist in childhood obesity at Leeds Metropolitan University, said a tool like this would help the NHS target specific people at risk rather than the "scattergun one-size-fits-all approach, which we know does not work".

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