Blueprint for the future of metabolic and bariatric surgery

Abstract

Thank you for the honor of serving as your president over the past year. I have met some of the most dedicated and passionate people—surgeons and integrated health teams—around the country, and it has been truly a humbling experience for me to represent the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS). The role of the presidency has been in constant change. As the epidemic of obesity has grown and garnered so much national attention, the visibility and responsibility of representing a group that offers effective and durable treatment has also grown. The depth of the responsibility requires hard work to acquire the current peer review literature knowledge base needed to respond to stakeholders from within and without the society. Many of you know that I like to climb mountains; this one has been formidable—rather like climbing Huayna Picchu, as my sister and I did not too long ago in Peru. The focus of my efforts over the year of my presidency was to establish a modern basis for the everyday management of the society and to establish a firm foundation in 4 major areas: medicalization of obesity, understanding the mechanism of action of surgery, improving access to care, and establishing a new paradigm in the safety and efficacy of surgery. Throughout my tenure in the leadership of the ASMBS, I have strived to mentor members to become future leaders in the society. The keystone of the foundation in a great organization is founded in the leaders who have come before. This provides the historical context to establish the moral and ethical compass for the future. Our leadership is graced with talent and passion to reflect the values the society needed most at differing times during its history: Edward Mason, who provided the intellectual foundation for surgical remission of disease; Walter Pories and Ken MacDonald, who gave us disease-specific metabolic treatment of diabetes with gastric