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Department of Surgery Heersink School of Medicine

Advanced Bariatric & Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship

The UAB Advanced Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship Program, established in 2003, is fully accredited by the Fellowship Council to offer advanced training in a broad range of surgical disciplines. Our goal is excellence in advanced operative techniques, clinical care and education that targets each fellow’s specific clinical interests, from bariatric and foregut to hernia and colorectal.

Matriculating fellows are expected to finish the fellowship skilled in the evaluation and treatment of clinical entities beyond the scope of conventional general surgery residency including morbid obesity, benign foregut pathology and complex hernia disease. The UAB MIS Fellowship faculty have a broad range of expertise in various fields, allowing fellows to develop the skills that suit their particular interests.

Fellows have dual roles as advanced trainees in complex minimally invasive surgery and as instructors in the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery. It is expected that minimally invasive surgery fellows will transition to independent practice over the course of the year by participating in gastrointestinal surgery attending call, running their own independent inpatient general surgery service and staffing their own weekly outpatient clinic.

It is anticipated that fellows will learn to master laparoscopic and robotic gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, gastric fundoplication, Heller myotomy and minimally invasive hernia repair, including complex abdominal wall reconstruction.

We offer training opportunities in the following operations:

  • • laparoscopic and robotic gastric bypass
    • laparoscopic and robotic sleeve gastrectomy
    • revisional bariatric surgery
    • laparoscopic fundoplication and implantation of magnetic sphincter device (LINX)
    • laparoscopic Heller myotomy and per oral endoscopic myotomy (POEM)
    • laparoscopic primary and revisional paraesophageal hernia repair
    • laparoscopic and robotic ventral and inguinal hernia repair
    • laparoscopic and robotic abdominal wall reconstruction (ETEP and transabdominal approaches to posterior release and TAR)
    • robotic colorectal resection

The UAB Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship Program also offers opportunities in bariatric, foregut and hernia clinical research. Fellows are then encouraged to present their work at national meetings such as those of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, Americas Hernia Society and Digestive Diseases Week.

Projects and presentations by our previous fellows include:

  • “Compliance after Bariatric Surgery: Patient-related Factors and Self-reported Barriers,” Academic Surgical Congress, oral presentation
  • “Predictors of Emergency Operation for Diverticulitis,” Academic Surgical Congress, oral presentation
  • “Anthropomorphic and Metabolic Outcomes Following Bariatric Surgery,” Digestive Diseases Week, oral presentation
  • “Risk Factors and Outcomes for Bleeding Following Bariatric Surgery: Results from the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP),” SAGES, poster presentation
  • “Impact of Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy on Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease,” SAGES, poster presentation

How to Apply?

Applications are accepted through The Fellowship Council.

Contact Us

Program Coordinator:
Allison Moss

Mailing Address:
Kracke Building 428
1720 2nd Ave. S.
Birmingham, AL 35294