Professor Richard Welbourn is an upper gastrointestinal and bariatric surgeon in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton and has an honorary appointment with the University of Bristol. He qualified in medicine from University College London, has an MD from the University of London and is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of England, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
He set up bariatric surgery in Taunton, and the unit became the first International Center of Excellence for Bariatric Surgery of the US Surgical Review Corporation. The unit has treated several thousand patients. He has held national and international roles, including founder and Chair of the UK National Bariatric Surgery Registry; lead surgeon on the NIHR-funded By-Band-Sleeve study, the world’s largest RCT of bariatric procedures; President of the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society; member NICE Guidance Group for obesity (CG189); and led Royal College commissioning guidance.
He founded the International Federation for Surgery of Obesity (IFSO) Global Registry; was IFSO World Congress President in London in 2017, is a SCOPE International Fellow of the International Association for Study of Obesity (IASO) and was awarded an IFSO Presidential Medal and IFSO Award of Appreciation. He has co-authored over 100 publications and book chapters. His current academic roles include Section Editor Current Obesity Reports and Associate Editor Obesity Surgery.