Advisory Committee Biosketches

Ninh T. Nguyen, MD, FACS

Dr. Nguyen is Chair of the ACS BSCN Advisory Committee, medical director, bariatric program, and chief, division of gastrointestinal surgery, at the University of California, Irvine, where he also serves as an associate professor of surgery. He has pioneered the development of laparoscopic esophagectomy and gastrectomy for the treatment of benign and malignant esophagogastric pathology and the development of laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass for the treatment of morbid obesity. He has been the principal investigator on numerous research grants and has published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Nguyen completed his fellowship in advanced laparoscopic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. In addition to being a member of the American College of Surgeons, he holds memberships in the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, American Society for Bariatric Surgery, and the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons.

Daniel B. Jones, MD, MS

Dr. Daniel Jones is Vice-Chair of the ACS BSCN Advisory Committee. Dr. Jones received his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College, New York, NY. He is chief of minimally invasive surgical services, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, director of Beth Israel’s Bariatric Program, and associate professor of surgery, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. An internationally recognized leader in the field, he is the author of over 150 professional publications. His recent book publications in 2007 include Lap-Band Companion Handbook and Weight Loss Surgery: a Multidisciplinary Approach.

Dr. Jones is the recipient of the James IV Association Travel Award (2005) and the SAGES Gold Laparoscope Award (2001). He is a member of the American College of Surgeons Advisory Committee on Bariatric Surgery. He serves on the expert panel on weight loss surgery for Betsy Lehman Center. He is also a member of the board of governors, Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons; Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract Foundation; and the American Society for Bariatric Surgery. He was selected by colleagues as one of the “Best Doctors in America in 2007.”

Matthew M. Hutter, MD, MPH

Dr. Matthew Hutter is the Chair of the ACS BSCN Data Outcomes Subcommittee. Dr. Hutter is a surgeon and the Director of the Codman Center for Clinical Effectiveness in Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. His clinical work includes bariatric surgery, as well as a general, gastrointestinal, and advanced laparoscopic surgery. He received his medical degree from the Harvard Medical School, his surgical training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and his masters degree in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Hutter is the co-chairman of the SAGES Bariatric Committee, the co-chair of the SAGES Outcomes Committee, and the co-chair of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health/Betsy Lehman Center Expert Panel on Weight Loss Surgery. Dr. Hutter has been instrumental in developing and implementing the ACS BSCN Accreditation Program national data collection system. His overall academic focus is the development, implementation, and responsible use of data collection systems in surgery, with a focus on assessing and improving the quality of surgical care.

J. K. Champion, MD, FACS

Dr. Champion is a private practice general surgeon in Atlanta, GA, where he currently serves as director of bariatric surgery for Northside Hospital. He holds an academic appointment as clinical professor of surgery at Mercer University School of Medicine, Macon, GA. He serves as associate editor of Obesity Surgery and on the editorial board for Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases. His practice is limited to bariatric surgery, performing laparoscopic gastric bypass, adjustable gastric banding, sleeve gastrectomies, and revisions.

Dr. Ronald Clements, MD

Dr. Clements is Professor of Surgery and Director of Bariatric Surgery at Vanderbilt University. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Medicine and the general surgical residency program at Carraway Methodist Medical Center. Dr. Clements completed the Laparoscopic Fellowship program at Vanderbilt University in 1998, a program he now directs. Prior to his current position, Dr. Clements was Professor of Surgery and the Director of Bariatric Surgery at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, a Level 1A Center of Excellence.

Dr. Clements is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Southern Surgical Association, and the Southeastern Surgical Congress. He is also a member of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons and Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract. He is also serves on a number of committees in these organizations. Dr. Clements has published a number of peer-reviewed manuscripts, and his research interests include nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic changes associated with bariatric surgery and clinical outcomes of bariatric surgery.

Dr. Ramsey Dallal, MD, FACS

Dr. Ramsey Dallal is chief of general surgery and director of the MIS/Bariatric Surgery division at Albert Einstein Healthcare Network in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Dallal has been avidly involved in bariatric surgery research, residency training and quality control initiatives.

Dr. Dallal was born in Virginia where he attended college and medical school. He performed his general surgery and fellowship training at the University of Pittsburgh. After several years in private practice performing bariatric surgery, he moved to Philadelphia where he is actively performing hundreds of weight loss surgery procedures a year.

Dr. Dallal is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and member of the ASMBS where he has held several leadership roles.

Edward L. Felix, MD, FACS

Dr. Felix is internationally known as an expert in laparoscopic surgery and has lectured, authored numerous peer-reviewed articles, and taught other surgeons his techniques on four continents. In 1990, he was the first surgeon in central California to use advanced laparoscopic surgical techniques to treat patients. In 1999, Dr. Felix opened the Center for Bariatric Surgery in Fresno, CA, which is an ACS Accredited Bariatric Center that has performed over 4,000 bariatric procedures. Dr. Felix is an assistant clinical professor of surgery at UCSF, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the American Metabolic and Bariatric Society as well as multiple other societies. He is also director of bariatric surgery at the Clovis Community Hospital and Advanced Bariatric Center of California.

Dr. Felix is a graduate of the University of Michigan and received his medical degree from the University of Illinois Medical School, Chicago. He was a fellow at the NIH Cancer Institute and completed his residency at the University of Illinois.

Alex Gandsas, MD, MBA, FACS

Dr. Gandsas is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the School of Osteopathic Medicine, UMDNJ, Program director of the UMDNJ-SOM Bariatric Fellowship Program and Chief of Surgery of Kennedy University Hospital in Stratford, NJ.

Dr. Gandsas received his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires, School of Medicine in Argentina.

Following a general surgery residency in Michigan, he completed fellowships in advanced laparoscopy and laparoscopic bariatric surgery at Duke University Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, respectively. Prior to joining UMDNJ, Dr. Gandsas, was the Chief of the Division of Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore and an Associate Professor of Surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Dr. Gandsas has published numerous scientific articles in general surgery, surgical education and telemedicine. Dr. Gandsas is the current Chairman of the SLS Bariatric Surgery Committee. Currently, his research efforts focus on obesity surgery as well as the use of emerging technologies to minimally invasive surgery, telemedicine and surgical education. Dr. Gandsas is a board certified surgeon and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is actively involved in the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgery, the American Society for Bariatric Surgery as well as the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons.

Sayeed Ikramuddin, MD

Sayeed Ikramuddin, MD is Associate Professor of Surgery and a member of the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the University of Minnesota. He completed his medical degree at Albany Medical College in New York, followed by a residency in General Surgery at the State University of New York, Syracuse. Dr. Ikramuddin completed fellowships at Ohio State University in minimally invasive surgery and at the University of Pittsburgh in minimally invasive foregut surgery. He was an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh in the Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery; was on staff at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center; and was Chief of General Surgery at the VA Medical Center in Pittsburgh until his recruitment to the University of Minnesota in 2001. His principle clinical focus is bariatric, minimally invasive, and robotic surgery. He is studying newer less invasive approaches to gastrointestinal surgery. His group has a strong interest in the impact of bariatric surgery on type 2 diabetes.

Namir Katkhouda, MD, FACS

Namir Katkhouda, MD is a world authority in laparoscopic surgery, having pioneered the first laparoscopic vagotomy for the treatment of gastro duodenal ulcer disease. He is an innovator in the laparoscopic approach to advanced procedures, and pioneered as laparoscopic liver surgery, aortic surgery, gastric resections, and hernia repair. He has written 80 peer review articles, presented over 250 scientific papers and written 100 book chapters, written 4 books in the field of laparoscopic surgery and trained more than 800 surgeons on laparoscopic techniques worldwide.

Dr. Katkhouda was recruited to the University of Southern California from France in 1993.

He is currently the Professor of surgery with tenure and Vice Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Keck school of Medicine.

He is also the Chief of the Division of General and Laparoscopic Surgery and the Director of the USC Bariatric Surgery Program and in this capacity, offers the patients all laparoscopic approaches for weight loss surgery including hand sewn laparoscopic Roux en Y Gastric Bypass and the Lap Band. His current research includes virtual reality in laparoscopic surgery, minimally invasive approaches to bariatric surgery and research in the physiology of laparoscopic surgery.

He is the current President of the California Chapter of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric surgery

He served as a past Governor on the board of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons, is a member of the Southwestern Surgical Congress, the Western Surgical Association, the European and French Society of Endoscopic Surgery, and is an honorary member of the Mexican and Asian Society of Laparoscopic Surgery. He is a member of the Editorial board of several peer reviewed surgical journals. He is a Fellow of the American and French College of Surgeons.

Dr Katkhouda was bestowed France’s highest honor: the Knighthood of the Legion of Honor in December 2006 by the French President Jacques Chirac for his contributions in laparoscopic surgery.

Dr. Katkhouda completed his medical degree at the University of Montpellier, France. He completed his residency and fellowship in 1984 at the University of Nice, School of Medicine in France, where he was later appointed Vice Chairman and director of Surgical Endoscopy in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Katkhouda received his board certification in surgery in 1987.

David Lautz, MD, FACS

Dr. David Lautz is the Director of Bariatric Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where he developed the minimally invasive bariatric surgical program, and has subsequently built one of the largest minimally invasive bariatric surgery practices in the Northeast. His clinical work currently focuses on minimally invasive bariatric surgery with an emphasis on laparoscopic revisional procedures. In collaboration with Dr. Christopher Thompson, he has also developed novel techniques in the field of endoscopic management of bariatric complications, as well as new endoscopic primary bariatric procedures currently in early clinical trials. He was a member of the Expert Panel on Bariatric Surgery selected by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction, which published best practice recommendations for all aspects of bariatric care in 2005 and 2008. These guidelines have served a supporting role in the drafting of portions of the American College of Surgeons Bariatric Surgery Center Network Accreditation Program requirements.

Dr. David Lautz received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and his medical degree from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed his residency in general surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School where he has been on staff as an attending surgeon since 1997. Dr. Lautz’s research interests include surgical outcomes of the bariatric patient. He is a member of numerous professional societies including the American Medical Association, the Massachusetts Medical Society, the New England Surgical Society, the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons, and the American Obesity Association.

Bruce D. Schirmer, MD, FACS

Dr. Bruce Schirmer is the Stephen H. Watts Professor of Surgery at the University of Virginia (UVA), Charlottesville, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985, serves as the vice-chair of the department of surgery, the surgery residency program director, and MIS Fellowship Director. Dr. Schirmer received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and completed his medical school and residency training in surgery at Duke University. He has practiced bariatric surgery since 1986, and he developed both the bariatric and minimally invasive surgery programs at UVA.

Dr. Schirmer’s funded investigative work has been in the area of post-operative recovery of gastrointestinal motility. His publications include chapters on bariatric surgery in several leading surgical texts. Dr. Schirmer is on the editorial board of six leading surgical journals and serves as the emeritus editor of Journal of Laparoendoscopic and Advanced Surgical Techniques. He is also a director of the American Board of Surgery; co-chair of Committee on Issues for the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery; past President, Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons; past recorder, Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract; past president, American Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association; president, Society of Clinical Surgery; and president-elect, Fellowship Council.

C. Daniel Smith, MD

Dr. Smith is currently the chairman of the department of surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Medical School and received his training in general and gastrointestinal surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, as well as training in advanced laparoscopic surgery in Montreal, Canada. Prior to his position in Jacksonville, he was the chief of general and gastrointestinal surgery and director of the Emory Endosurgery Unit and Emory Simulation, Training, and Robotics Center in Georgia, where he received an appointment as the W. Dean Warren Distinguished Professor of Surgery. Dr. Smith is a leader in developing virtual reality simulation for surgeons in training, and he founded the Cincinnati Institute of Videoscopic Surgery, OH. His clinical practice and research activities focus on the management of esophageal and gastric diseases, morbid obesity, and laparoscopic surgery. He has authored or co-authored over 100 articles and 25 book chapters, and he currently serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal for Laparoendoscopic and Advanced Surgical Techniques.

Dr. Smith serves on the board of governors and is the president-elect of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, and is the past-president for the Fellowship Council, the organization that oversees non-ACGME accredited fellowships in GI, bariatric, minimally invasive, and hepatopancreatobiliary fellowships.

Stephen D. Wohlgemuth, MD, FACS

Dr. Stephen D. Wohlgemuth currently serves as director of the minimally invasive fellowship at East Virginia Medical School (EVMS) and is the medical director of the Sentara Metabolic and Weight Loss Surgery Center. He earned his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1983 after completing undergraduate studies in biology at the University of Connecticut in 1976. He received a aasters of sScience degree in marine biology at the University of South Carolina in 1979. Dr. Wohlgemuth completed his internship and residency in general surgery at the Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine in Norfolk, in 1988, and has been in private practice with the Norfolk Surgical Group for the past 20 years. He currently is an assistant professor of clinical surgery at EVMS. He has received numerous teaching awards from the students and residents at the EVMS and has been voted one of America’s Top Doctors As Chosen by Their Peers – General Surgery, Center for the Study of Services by Consumers’ Checkbook in 2001 and 2002.

In addition to being a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Wohlgemuth is a member of the Southern Medical Association, Norfolk Academy of Medicine, Society of Critical Care Medicine, Virginia Medical Society, Society of Laproendoscopic Surgeons, Virginia Surgical Society, Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, American Hernia Society, and the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons.