Scientific Committee

The Centre for Obesity and Metabolic Chirugy in the AZ Sint-Jan in Bruges is led by Dr. Bruno Dillemans. Dr. Dillemans has already performed more than 15,000 successful bariatric or obesity (= aimed at weight loss) surgeries.

Dr. Donald Van Der Fraenen is already from the beginning involved in the start-up of BARIAlink. He is also interested in minimal invasive colorectal surgery. In addition, he has recently followed a training of the Da Vinci Robot, and hopes to develop the robotic assisted bariatric and colorectal surgery.

Dr Shashank Shah is a pioneer and leading Laparoscopic Bariatric Surgeon in India. He is a renowned General and Laparoscopic Surgeon with an experience of more than 30.000 surgeries performed so far over the last 34 years.

M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S., FASMBS. Professor of Surgery at Complutense University Medical School, Madrid, Spain. He leads the General Surgery Department at Hospital Clinico San Carlos.President of IFSO (2011-2012), and Chairman IFSO´s Board of Trustees (2015-2019). In addition, he runs the Multidiciplinary Unit for Obesity Treatment at the University Hospital Madrid Monteprincipe. He has been involved in Bariatric and Metabolic surgery since 1985 having already performed more than 10.000 primary and revisional bariatric/metabolic procedures. He pioneered a new hypoabsortive procedure: SADIS procedure (Single Anastomosis Duodeno-Ileal anastomosis with Sleeve).

CEO and founder of ABC “Arab bariatric and plastic center”, the only SRC accredited bariatric and metabolic center of excellence in Egypt and the only “stand alone” bariatric and metabolic center of excellence in the Middle east and Africa. Performed more than 15,000 various bariatric procedures. Average rate of operations is 1800-2000 per year. Founder of “Sarhan Obesity clinics”: Leads a medical team including consultant surgeons, consultant anesthesiologists, as well as clinical nutritionists, and psychological health professionals.