The Betsy Lehman Center Guidelines for Weight Loss Surgery

In 2003, as weight loss surgeries were being performed in increasing numbers, the media and public had significant concerns about the safety of these procedures. At that time, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health charged the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction with the task of assessing weight loss surgery and developing evidence-based best practice recommendations for the safe and effective performance of these procedures. An expert panel on weight loss surgery was convened in 2004, and the resulting recommendations were published in Obesity Research in 2005. Three years later, the Betsy Lehman Center reconvened the Expert Panel on Weight Loss Surgery to update the initial recommendations based on the significant body of literature that had been published in the interim.

The best practice recommendations published by the Betsy Lehman Center have set the standard for weight loss surgery across the state of Massachusetts, and across the nation. The report was abstracted by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and adopted as the blueprint for the American College of Surgeons Bariatric Surgery Center Network accreditation program, which is recognized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.