Our Surgeons

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.

Our Endocrinology Specialists

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-up for our gastric bypass patients.

Dr. Jordanna Kapeluto screens and prepares patients for BPD-DS & SADI surgeries.

Our Bariatric Medicine Physician

Dr. Jacqueline Chang is a family physician with an American Board of Bariatric Medicine certification.  She provides post-surgical long term follow-up for up to two years  for our patients who undergo laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy.

Our Respiratory Medicine Specialists

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 Anaesthesiologists

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, to review the anesthetic plan, and to 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

Our dietitians, Nooshin Alizadeh-Pasdar, PhD, 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.

Our dietitian have produced videos which can be accessed via http://www.rmbsurgery.com/videos/nutrition-videos/.

Our Mental Health Team

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 on to our psychiatrists if more extensive support is required.

Nurse Coordinator

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.

Unit Clerk

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

Our Hospital

The Richmond Hospital has the state of the art Minimally Invasive Surgery operating rooms with high-definition 3D digital video laparoscopes and bariatric operating tools to deliver surgical precision and improve patient safety.  The hospital is also equiped with bariatric-size patient transfer devices, ceiling lifts, scales, beds, chairs, wheelchairs, showers, wide bore MRI, and CT scan table threshold of 400 lbs.  Unlike daycare surgical centers that lack inpatient beds, sophisticated diagnostic imaging and interventional radiology, our patients have access to all of Richmond General Hospital’s state of the art technology as well as exceptional 24 hour nursing care.  Our patients are monitored closely and carefully in hospital until they are ready for discharge.  We feel our patients are worth it!