Newsroom

An international authority on advanced laparoscopic surgical techniques, Dr. Alfons Pomp has been named chief of Laparoscopy and Bariatric Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Leon C. Hirsch Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Dr. Pomp is currently leading innovative research into unique ways to maximize the safety and effectiveness of weight-loss surgery. He is currently one of six co-investigators for the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Bariatric Surgery Clinical Research Consortium. He also serves on the steering committee and chairs the adjudication committee for LABS (Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery), a major research collaboration designed to provide a better understanding of the impact of weight-loss surgery on the health and well-being of patients with extreme obesity.

Since joining NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell in 2003, Dr. Pomp has been named co-director of the Columbia/Cornell Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship, and chairs several committees, including the Surgical Quality and Performance Improvement Committee and the Operating Room Utilization Committee.

"Dr. Pomp's outstanding contributions to the field of morbid obesity and minimally invasive surgery through education, clinical research, collaboration, innovation and expertise make him perfectly suited to lead our bariatric surgery program," says Dr. Fabrizio Michelassi, chairman of the Department of Surgery and the Lewis Atterbury Stimson Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and surgeon-in-chief at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

"The professorship named for Leon Hirsch was established to support excellence in minimally invasive surgery, a role for which Dr. Pomp is uniquely qualified to assume," adds Dr. Michelassi.

"I look forward to collaborating with colleagues at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell and worldwide as we develop new treatment options for patients who suffer from obesity and its life-threatening side effects — treatments that not only dramatically improve their quality of life, but can sometimes save their lives," says Dr. Pomp.

Dr. Pomp has been a co-author on important studies to the surgical literature on hernia repair, splenectomy (surgical removal of the spleen), adrenalectomy (surgical removal of the adrenal glands) and surgical robotics. Overall, he has authored 50 peer-reviewed publications, eight textbook chapters and 10 invited commentaries and lectures.

After graduating cum laude from McGill University, he attended medical school at the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. He completed his internship and residency in general surgery at the University of Montreal, and a fellowship in nutrition and metabolism at the Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital. In 1988, he was appointed to the clinical faculty at the University of Montreal and was also appointed as an adjunct professor of surgery at McGill University. He then joined Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he helped create one of the world's first programs for minimally invasive weight-loss surgery. In 2003, he joined NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, and in 2005, he was appointed as a Frank Glenn Faculty Scholar in Surgery.

Dr. Pomp is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and an active member of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, the New York Surgical Society, the American Society for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, and the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), the leading laparoscopic surgery organization in the world. He is also an evaluator for the Bariatric Surgery Center Network of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Pomp was also active nationally in Canada as an examiner for the Royal College of Surgeons, on committees for the Canadian Association of General Surgeons and the Quebec Association of Surgeons.

Dr. Pomp has been included in Castle Connolly's lists of New York's "Top Doctors," 2002—2007, and the Consumers' Research Council of America's "Top Surgeons," 2004—2008. He was also included in New York magazine's "Top 100 Minimally Invasive Surgeons" in 2002.

Dr. Pomp lives in Manhattan.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, located in New York City, is one of the leading academic medical centers in the world, comprising the teaching hospital NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medical College, the medical school of Cornell University. NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell provides state-of-the-art inpatient, ambulatory and preventive care in all areas of medicine, and is committed to excellence in patient care, education, research and community service. Weill Cornell physician-scientists have been responsible for many medical advances — from the development of the Pap test for cervical cancer to the synthesis of penicillin, the first successful embryo-biopsy pregnancy and birth in the U.S., the first clinical trial for gene therapy for Parkinson's disease, the first indication of bone marrow's critical role in tumor growth, and, most recently, the world's first successful use of deep brain stimulation to treat a minimally-conscious brain-injured patient. NewYork-Presbyterian, which is ranked sixth on the U.S.News & World Report list of top hospitals, also comprises NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Westchester Division and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/The Allen Pavilion. Weill Cornell Medical College is the first U.S. medical college to offer a medical degree overseas and maintains a strong global presence in Austria, Brazil, Haiti, Tanzania, Turkey and Qatar. For more information, visit www.nyp.org and www.med.cornell.edu.