HOLYOKE MEDICAL CENTER PHYSICIAN, DR. RAFTOPOULOS, TO PRESENT AT OBESITY WEEK 2018
Holyoke Medical Center’s Dr. Yannis Raftopoulos, Board Certified Bariatric Surgeon and Weight Management Specialist, has been selected to give a podium presentation at Obesity Week 2018 in Nashville, Tenn. this November.
Obesity Week is a unique, international event focused on the basic science, clinical application, surgical intervention and prevention of obesity. By combining both the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and The Obesity Society (TOS) annual meetings, Obesity Week is the largest obesity meeting in the world, which brings together world-renowned experts in obesity to share innovation and breakthroughs in science unmatched around the globe.
“I am very excited to be presenting at Obesity Week, being selected among presentation candidates from across the globe is a humbling honor. I am proud to share the work my team and I have created regarding successful outcomes for our patients,” said Raftopoulos.
Dr. Raftopoulos will present his findings on effectively assisting patients in losing 10% of their body weight before bariatric surgery. With a sample size of nearly 1400 patients, out of which 190 patients were from Holyoke Medical Center, patients who are able to lose more than 10% of their body weight before bariatric surgery had substantially better results after two years post-surgery than those who did not lose weight or lost less than 10% of their body weight. This is the first time that such effective weight loss prior to surgery has been reported and additionally has been linked to better weight loss after surgery long-term.
“We are very proud of the Weight Management Program that we have built at Holyoke Medical Center because for the first time we have been able to demonstrate that having an effective non-surgical weight loss program improves the results of our bariatric surgery weight loss program,” said Raftopoulos.
Since opening the HMC Weight Management Program in February, 2016, Dr. Raftopoulos has presented research findings in a variety of conferences, including: American College of Surgeons Annual Congress in November 2017 on research on restricting opioid medications after bariatric surgery; the European Obesity Summit in Gothenberg, Sweden in June 2016 on the first procedure-less gastric balloon; The 21st World Congress of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in September of 2016; the International Obesity Congress in Vancouver, Canada in May of 2016; the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada in June of 2016; American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress in Washington D.C. in October of 2016; and the ASMBS Annual Meeting and Obesity Week Event in New Orleans, Louisiana in October of 2016.
The HMC Weight Management Program is the only site in the Northeast participating in an FDA trial assessing the efficacy of novel and revolutionary intragastric balloon. The device is swallowed as a pill and requires no endoscopy, sedation or anesthesia to be placed or removed. This trial began in early 2018 and will be complete in early 2019.
Dr. Raftopoulos is the Medical Director of the Holyoke Medical Center Weight Management Program, located at 11 Hospital Drive, Holyoke, MA 01040. To learn more, please call 413-535-4757.
