Richmond metabolic and bariatric surgery team

Our team at Richmond Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery consists of surgeons, dietitians, nurses, internists, endocrinologists, respirologists, social worker and psychiatrists . Their knowledge and experience are excellent resources and will help guide you through the process and help you achieve your weight loss goals! To help ensure your long-term success, you will meet with us for scheduled appointments for 2 years after surgery.

Drs. Nguyen, Sampath and Yorke are three of the most talented bariatric surgeons in Western Canada. All three have extensive training and experience in advanced laparoscopic surgery, bariatric surgery and revisional bariatric surgery. They have created the Richmond Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery program which is the first program of its kind in British Columbia. Our surgeons work tirelessly with the multidisciplinary team to care for their patients.

Dr. David Harris screens our patients with diabetes and other endocrine disorders preoperatively and optimizes the management of their medical problems prior to surgery. After surgery, he continues to help manage our patient's medical needs as they start their path to recovery. Dr. Harris also provides longer-term follow-ups for our gastric bypass patients.

Dr. Iqbal Ahmed and Dr. Edgar Lau evaluate and manage our patients with sleep disordered breathing, e.g. obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, by means of home nocturnal oximetry and polysomnography (sleep study) at the Richmond Hospital's 'state-of-the-art' sleep laboratory. Following diagnosis, obstructive sleep apnea is treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) by mask facilitated by various Sleep Clinics, in order to optimally prepare the patients for surgery.

Our anesthesiologists are a wonderful group who will work with you to ensure you have a safe perioperative course. This will require a preoperative consultation to assess your anesthetic risk, review the anesthetic plan, and answer any questions you may have. Further tests may be required to complete the medical history as well as another visit to review any results prior to the surgery.

Our dietitians, Nooshin Alizadeh-Pasdar, Ph.D., RD & Angel Luk, RD, are registered with the College of Dietitians of BC and are an integral part of the collaborative, multidisciplinary health team. They emphasize health promotion and provide a supportive and comprehensive nutrition framework for individualized 1:1 nutrition planning, education and follow-up from referral, through preoperative nutrition education, to postoperative nutrition assessment ensuring you adequately meet your nutrient needs, have optimal weight loss and minimal nutritional deficiencies.

We want to ensure that our patients are well supported before, during, and after surgery. Surgery is stressful and as such our mental health team is prepared to help all patients through the process of preparing for surgery and adjusting to life after surgery. They provide an essential resource for our patients with all associated behaviour change required for success through our program.

All patients will receive mental health screening in conjunction with our social worker, Viki Xing, SW. She will ensure patients have robust supports in place and address psychological factors as well as emotional eating. Patients may then be referred to our psychiatrists if more extensive support is required.

Ms. Raj Sangha CRN, our incredible nurse coordinator, will steer patients through their journey from program orientation to their post-operative recovery. She educates patients about surgery, provides discharge teaching to patients in the hospital, and is a phone call away for trouble-shooting symptoms during the postoperative period.

Our unit clerks, Navneet and Tasha, can be contacted at 604-675-3505 for all appointment inquiries related to dietitians and social workers.

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