Mao’s Last Dancer tells the amazing story of Li Cunxin, who has just retired as the artistic director of the Queensland Ballet. At the age of 11, he was chosen to join Madam Mao’s Beijing Dance Academy, where he began 7 years of harsh training from 5.30 am-9 pm, six days a week. He practised his turns at night by candlelight and built his leg strength by getting up while his peers were still sleeping and hopping up and down the stairs with heavy sandbags tied to his ankles.
The same is true of surgery. Gaining the right to operate requires long hours of training over time. Many more years of clinical experience and fine-tuning go into perfecting skill sets within chosen surgical areas.
What is a ‘high-volume’ bariatric surgeon?
This is a surgeon with a wide scope of bariatric practice (primary and revisional bariatric surgery/endoscopy) and performs a high number of bariatric procedures each year.
Imagine a general surgeon who performs the occasional bariatric procedure. Then, imagine a general surgeon with sub-specialty training in bariatric who spends most of their time performing bariatric procedures.
Bariatric surgery is a technically demanding field where surgeries are usually performed through a minimally invasive means on potentially high-risk surgical patients with significant co-morbidities like obstructive sleep apnoea, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or type 2 diabetes.
A systematic review of 24 papers on bariatric surgery volume found that hospitals and surgeons who performed more bariatric surgeries had more positive outcomes overall. The researchers concluded, ‘There is strong evidence of improved patient outcomes in the hands of high-volume surgeons and high-volume centres.’
What is an accredited bariatric centre?
The Surgical Review Corporation was established in 2003. It’s a non-profit organisation committed to patient safety and inspects only the highest-achieving surgeons and hospitals. Only those that pass its rigorous inspection process can be accredited as a Centre of Excellence in bariatric surgery.
It’s a prestigious award that recognises consistently high achievement across every aspect of your bariatric care.
To gain this accreditation, the facility must:
- Demonstrate its commitment to excellence.
- Have specific guidelines for bariatric surgery (separate from general surgery).
- Undertake a significantly large volume of bariatric surgeries per year.
- Have access to the full range of medical services you could require throughout your surgery, including anaesthesia, radiology, endoscopy and advanced cardiovascular life support.
- Maintain a full line of equipment and surgical instruments to provide perioperative care for bariatric surgery patients and have documented training for appropriate staff to operate this equipment safely.
- Formally develop and implement clinical pathways to standardise care for bariatric surgery patients.
- Employ a program coordinator, nurses and/or physician extenders and an operative team trained to care for bariatric surgery patients and provide ongoing, regularly scheduled staff education in-services.
- Provide all bariatric surgery patients with preoperative patient education.
- Provide organised and supervised support groups for bariatric surgery patients.
- Collect prospective outcomes data on all patients who undergo bariatric surgery procedures in SRC’s Outcomes Database (or a similar qualifying database).
In addition, accredited bariatric surgeons of excellence must:
- Select the most appropriate procedure for each patient’s condition.
- Have a process for obtaining informed surgical consent.
- Perform at least 50 metabolic and bariatric surgeries per year.
- Have privileges in general and bariatric surgery at the applicant facility.
- Be board-certified or an active candidate for board certification in metabolic and bariatric surgery.
- Have qualified call coverage.
- Complete at least 24 hours of continuing medical education focused on metabolic and bariatric surgery every three years.
- Perform each surgical procedure in a standardised manner and use a template for operative note dictation that ensures proper data collection for surgical procedures.
In short, seeing a high-volume bariatric surgeon at an accredited bariatric centre means entrusting your care to a highly experienced surgeon in a state-of-the-art facility. You deserve that.
How can we help with Bariatric Surgery?
Dr Qiuye Cheng has dedicated four years of post-fellowship sub-speciality training in upper gastrointestinal and bariatric surgery through well-recognised high-volume centres at St George Hospital in Sydney and St Vincent Hospital in Melbourne.
Dr Cheng is a specialist bariatric/ upper GI surgeon who has achieved the status of bariatric surgeon of excellence. He operates at St George Private – Australia’s highest-volume bariatric hospital, which maintains a strong reputation as a leader in bariatric surgery. St George Private is Australia’s first internationally accredited Centre of Bariatric Excellence, which the Surgical Review Corporation recognises.
Please book an appointment today.
Disclaimer
All information is general in nature and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Any surgical or invasive procedure carries risks. Dr Qiuye Cheng can consult with you to confirm if this advice is right for you.
References
Li Cunxin, Mao’s Last Dancer, https://licunxin.com/about, [Accessed 13 December 2023]
Sportscasting, Was Michael Jordan really cut from his high school basketball team? https://www.sportscasting.com/was-michael-jordan-really-cut-from-his-high-school-basketball-team/, [Accessed 13 December 2023]
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health effects of overweight and obesity, https://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/effects/index.html, [Accessed 13 December 2023]
Zevin, Boris MD*; Aggarwal, Rajesh MA, PhD, FRCS†; Grantcharov, Teodor P. MD, PhD, FACS‡. Volume-Outcome Association in Bariatric Surgery: A Systematic Review. Annals of Surgery 256(1):p 60-71, July 2012. | DOI: 10.1097/SLA.0b013e3182554c62, https://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/abstract/2012/07000/volume_outcome_association_in_bariatric_surgery__a.10.aspx, [Accessed 13 December 2023]
Surgical Review Corporation, https://www.surgicalreview.org/, [Accessed 13 December 2023]
Surgical Review Corporation, Centre of Excellence in Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, https://www.surgicalreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/COE-Metabolic-and-Bariatric.pdf, [Accessed 13 December 2023]
