Raul Rosenthal

2015-16 ASMBS President

Most Important Event

The endorsement of bariatric surgery as a metabolic procedure by ADA and additional 46 societies

Throughout my tenure as president, I made it my mission to create more committees and instructional guidelines in bariatric surgery. First and foremost, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and additional 46 societies endorsed bariatric surgery as a metabolic procedure. We also had the opportunity to develop and publish multiple initiatives in the Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases (SOARD), including a new module based training curriculum for fellows led by Cori McBride and sleeve gastrectomy pathway led by Dana Telem.

We created new and much needed committees in order to address the changing landscape in bariatric and metabolic interventions. Those committees were the Flexible Endoscopy Committee, led by Dr. Bipan Chand, they are currently developing an endoscopy module for bariatric surgeons; Private Practice Committee, led by Dr. Rami Lufti, they represent 70 percent of our membership; Video Committee, led by Dr. Alan Saber, they are currently developing a video archive and introducing the “unedited video session to our program”; Foregut Committee, led by Dr. Anthony Petrick, they are addressing associate surgical abnormalities in our patient population such as GERD, hiatal hernias, and biliary tract disease; Military Committee, led by Dr. Eric Ahnfeldt, they are developing a collaborative amongst all military bariatric centers; and the Obesity Prevention Committee, led by Dr. Stephen Archer, they are developing new strategies to prevent obesity and weight regain after bariatric surgery.

My colleagues and I developed an “Obesity in America” survey to bring awareness and understanding of the disease of obesity and treatment options for it appear to be lacking among the general US population, the results were later published in SOARD.

We had the opportunity to launch The Essentials in Bariatric Surgery mobile application, led by Drs. Stephanie and Dan Jones. This app was created to educate all professions caring for the bariatric surgery patient before, during, and after surgery.

Lastly, I found it important to change the election process by making the secretary-treasurer the next president-elect and increase the number of representatives on Executive Council, making sure well-seasoned members had the opportunity to join.

Watch Dr. Rosenthal’s Presidential Address