Distinguished Service Award

The CABPS Distinguished Service Award is given in honour of a bariatrician dedicated to the care of those living with obesity in Canada.

The award recognizes a bariatrician’s outstanding contributions to the practice of Bariatric medicine in patient care, research, and education.

THE 2025 DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD RECIPIENT

Dr. Michel Gagner, 
MD, FRCSC, FACS, FASMBS, FSSO 

Chief, Department of Surgery, Westmount Square Surgical Center
Chef, Departement de Chirurgie, Centre de Chirurgie Carre Westmount
Senior Consultant, Hôpital du Sacre Coeur, Montreal 
Chief of Surgery, Westmount Square Surgical Center
Westmount, QC

This year’s recipient needs no introduction! Join us in congratulating Dr. Michel Gagner, the recipient of the CABPS Distinguished Service Award for 2025! 
Dr. Gagner did his surgical training at McGill from 1982-1988. He worked at the Cleveland Clinic where he co-founded the MIS Center (1995-1998). He was appointed Director of the MIS Center of Mount Sinai (NY), from 1998 to 2003. He then joined Weill-Cornell as Chief of Laparoscopic/Bariatric (2003-2007). He was Chair of Surgery at Mount Sinai (Miami) and is currently senior consultant Montreal.

Dr. Gagner is known for his contributions in MIS, in particular, the first description of laparoscopic adrenalectomy (1992), laparoscopic pancreatectomy (distal/proximal) (1992-93), endoscopic neck surgery with parathyroidectomy in 1995, trans-gastric cholecystectomy in 1997 (NOTES), laparoscopic DS in 1999 and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in 2000.

He has over 400 published articles, 50 book chapters, and 12 books on MIS surgery. He has held positions in more than 35 societies and has served on the editorial boards of 12 surgical journals (Associate Editor of SOARD and Obesity Surgery). Dr. Gagner was the President IFSO 2014 (International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders) annual meeting and 5th International Conference on Sleeve Gastrectomy held in Montreal, August 26-30th, 2014. He is a former member of the Executive Board of IFSO and Program Chair of ASMBS 2016. Dr. Gagner is a former member of the CABPS Board of Directors and has served as its Conference Chair in 2017 and 2018.