Philip R Schauer MD, FACS is currently Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Chief of Minimally Invasive General Surgery and Director of the Cleveland Clinic Bariatric and Metabolic Institute (BMI).  He is also President of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.  

Dr. Schauer's clinical interests include surgery for severe obesity, minimally invasive surgery (laparoscopic), and gastrointestinal surgery.  He has performed more than 4000 operations for severe obesity and over 200 lapaproscopic adjustable gastric band procedures.  His research interests include the pathophysiology of obesity and related diseases, physiologic effects of laparoscopic surgery on postoperative injury and recovery, and outcomes of laparoscopic management of obesity, gastrointestinal diseases, and hernias. He has also participated in the development of new minimally invasive, endoscopic, and laparoscopic operations.  New concepts in surgical training and education have been a major focus of his educational interests.

He has authored more than 200 scientific papers, editorials, textbook chapters, abstracts, and video productions.  He has been an invited speaker for more than 100 regional, national and international lectures on the subject of obesity surgery and laparoscopic surgery.  He has been on the board of Governors of the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) for the last 5 years.   He is past chairman of the research, as well as training and credentialing committees of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.  He is also a member of International Federation of Surgery for Obesity (IFSO), the North American Society for the Study of Obesity (NAASO), the American Surgical Association, the Society of University Surgeons, the Society of Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT), Central Surgical Society, and the Society of Clinical Surgery.  He is a member of the American Board of Surgery Advisory Council and a member of the Board of Governors of the Fellowship Council.  He is the Associate Editor of the new journal Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases and is on the editorial board of 3 other surgical journals.  He has been director of more than 50 courses and workshops on advanced laparoscopic surgery and has trained more than 20 fellows in advanced laparoscopic surgery.