St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Bariatric Surgery program has received the right to create a fellowship in its surgical weight-loss program. St. Luke’s fellowship program request recently was approved by the Fellowship Council, a national body that oversees training physicians in advanced surgical specialties.

The Foundation for Surgical Fellowships, an organization that provides funding for graduate medical training, has approved a grant for $20,000 to cover costs of the program.

Dr. Maher El Chaar is fellowship director. Dr Leonardo Claros is co-fellowship director.

St. Luke’s is the region’s only Health Network to have a bariatric fellowship program. The process to put it in place began almost two years ago.

St. Luke’s Bariatric Surgery program was recently named an accredited center by the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program, an organization dedicated to reviewing standards and accreditation process for surgical weight-loss programs.

“To become qualified, a program must meet rigorous requirements including a specific case volume, achievement of high-quality outcomes, commitment to education, strong presence in national meetings and also peer reviewed publications and, of course, the organization’s overall academic excellence,” El Chaar said. A program must perform a robust and diverse set of procedures that show positive outcomes.

“St. Luke’s is a high-volume Bariatric Center that performs up to 450 procedures each year,” said El Chaar. “Comparatively speaking, the Cleveland Clinic performs about 500 procedures a year at its main and satellite locations,” he said.

“We will choose a surgical resident who will have completed five years of surgical residency by this time next year. The surgical resident will begin his or her bariatric specialty training at St. Luke’s after graduation, in June or July 2017,” El Chaar said.