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John Morton, FACS, FASMBS, MD, MPH, MHA, BS

Professor of Surgery (Bariatric, Minimally Invasive)
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Additional Titles

Vice-Chair, Quality, Surgery

Medical Director, Bariatric Surgery Yale New Haven Health System, Surgery

System Lead, Surgical Quality, Surgery

Interim Co-Director, Digestive Health Service Line, Surgery

Co-Chair, Perioperative Services, Quality Committee, Surgery

About

Titles

Professor of Surgery (Bariatric, Minimally Invasive)

Vice-Chair, Quality, Surgery; Medical Director, Bariatric Surgery Yale New Haven Health System, Surgery; System Lead, Surgical Quality, Surgery; Interim Co-Director, Digestive Health Service Line, Surgery; Co-Chair, Perioperative Services, Quality Committee, Surgery

Biography

Dr. John Morton is the System Lead for Surgical Quality and Bariatric Services in the Yale New Haven Health System of 6 hospitals and Vice-Chair for Quality, Division Chief for Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery and Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. He served as Chief of Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery, Clinic Chief for the Bariatric and Metabolic Inter-Disciplinary Clinic and Director of Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine from 2003-2019.

Dr. Morton received undergraduate, Masters in Public Health, and Medical Doctor Degrees from Tulane University and a Masters in Health Administration from University of Washington. He was the first surgical resident to receive a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Fellowship in the program’s history at University of Washington and also completed an advanced laparoscopic surgery fellowship at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He served on Capitol Hill as Senator Bill Frist’s Health Policy Intern. He is a Diplomate of both the American Board of Surgery and American Board of Obesity Medicine and certified in Medical Quality by the American College of Medical Quality.

He has published over 173 articles and 21 book chapters with over 300 national and international presentations. He led 5 site FDA Pivotal Trials and has received funding from National Institutes of Health and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He has served as editor of five books: Quality in Obesity Treatment, Morbid Obesity: Perioperative Management, The ASMBS Textbook of Bariatric Surgery, 1st and 2nd editions and SAGES Handbook on Quality, Patient Safety and Outcomes. Furthermore, he is Clinical Editor for Bariatric Times (12,000 readership) and serves on 11 editorial boards including Obesity Surgery, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, American College of Surgeons Case Studies in Surgery, and World Journal of Gastroenterology. His research efforts have been recognized by 28 research awards from 5 different surgical societies. As a teacher, Dr. Morton has received 5 teaching awards at Stanford in 8 years including the 2008 Arthur Bloomfield Clinical Teacher of the Year & 2011 Henry J. Kaiser Teaching Award.

Dr. Morton has the unique distinction of having served as Surgical Quality Director for two Top 20 US News & World Report Honor Roll Hospitals. He is the inaugural national Chair of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP), a collaboration for 800 hospitals between the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and the American College of Surgeons. He has overseen 3 national standards, establishment of the clinical registry, and 3 national quality improvement projects within MBSAQIP. From 2014-18, the Stanford Bariatric Surgery program was noted to be Exemplary in five different categories by MBSAQIP.

From 2014-5, he served as elected President of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) composed of over 4000 members from 52 countries. In 2017, he received the highest honor accorded to a bariatric surgeon with the ASMBS Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement and in 2019 received the Walter Pories Award. With over 3500 bariatric surgeries performed, he has been recognized as a bariatric surgery leader by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, RAND, American College of Surgeons, Who’s Who and America’s Top Surgeons. His clinical skills have been recognized as being named Castle Connolly’s Physician of the Year for Clinical Excellence in 2012. Dr. Morton also founded the first obesity related Political Action Committee, Obesity PAC on behalf of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and Chair of the National Obesity Collaborative Care Summit for 35 Different Medical Societies.

Appointments

Other Departments & Organizations

Education & Training

Fellowship, Advanced GI/Laparoscopic Surgery
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2003)
Chief Resident
Swedish Medical Center (2001)
Fellowship, Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar
University of Washington (1997)
MHA
University of Washington, Health Administration (1997)
MD
Tulane, Medicine (1993)
MPH
Tulane, Public Health (1993)
BS
Tulane, Biology (1988)

Research

Overview

Dr. Morton has published over 173 articles and 21 book chapters with over 300 national and international presentations. His research has focused on quality improvement and bariatric surgery and has published influential articles on patient safety, medical education, adolescent bariatric surgery, diabetes and gastric bypass, fertility and birth outcomes following weight loss surgery, probiotics, pre-operative weight loss, family effects of weight loss surgery, effect of weight loss on testosterone, obesity disparities in health care, changes in cancer screening tests following weight loss, endoscopy, and impact of gastric bypass upon alcohol metabolism and cardiac risk factors. He led 5 site FDA Pivotal Trials and has received funding from National Institutes of Health and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He has served as editor of five books: Quality in Obesity Treatment, Morbid Obesity: Perioperative Management, The ASMBS Textbook of Bariatric Surgery, 1st and 2nd editions and SAGES Handbook on Quality, Patient Safety and Outcomes. Furthermore, he is Clinical Editor for Bariatric Times (12,000 readership) and serves on 11 editorial boards including Obesity Surgery, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, American College of Surgeons Case Studies in Surgery, and World Journal of Gastroenterology. His research efforts have been recognized by 28 research awards from 5 different surgical societies.

Research at a Glance

Yale Co-Authors

Frequent collaborators of John Morton's published research.

Publications

2024

2023

2022

Academic Achievements & Community Involvement

  • activity

    American College of Surgeons, Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program

  • honor

    Walter Pories Award

  • honor

    IFSO Ambassador Award

  • honor

    ASMBS Lifetime Achievement Award

  • activity

    American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery

Clinical Care

Overview

John Morton, MD, MPH, MHA, is the Medical Director of Bariatric Surgery for the Yale New Haven Health System and vice chair of Surgical Quality for the Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Health System.

Dr. Morton has been practicing bariatric surgery for 18 years, ever since his surgical training, when he started to notice that patients who’d had serious medical problems before weight loss surgery discovered they no longer needed insulin or hypertension medication after the surgery. Doctors now know that weight loss—be it surgical or nonsurgical—prolongs life, restores mobility, and lowers the risks of cancer, heart disease, liver disease, and other serious illnesses. “You start to get an idea of what a burden obesity is when you relieve these patients of that burden. These patients were affected, literally, from head to toe,” Dr. Morton says.

The good news is that treatments are better than ever. “Right now, I think we're present at the creation of a unique approach to obesity,” says Dr. Morton, who plans to launch a Yale Medicine weight loss program and provide a range of services under one roof, including support for lifestyle changes, medications, endoscopic treatments, and choices of surgery. “The program will be a lot like what we have for cancer or heart disease, where it's not one single therapy, but multiple therapies that we can combine, and that's really where we can start to see a difference,” he says.

“For many years, people thought, ‘My weight is something I should treat myself,’ or ‘There's not an option available to me.’ But I'm able to restore hope,” Dr. Morton says, “and I can't think of a group of patients that are more grateful and happier with their results.”

In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Morton has been a leader in the weight loss field on a national level. He is a past-president of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, and current national chair of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP), a collaboration between the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery for 800 hospitals. As a surgeon-scientist, he is internationally recognized for his research on both quality improvement in surgery and the metabolic effects of weight loss. His latter work included a study that covered what has become known as the “halo effect” of bariatric surgery, showing the impact one person’s weight loss can have on their entire family.

Clinical Specialties

Bariatric Surgery; Minimally Invasive Surgery

Fact Sheets

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Get In Touch

Contacts

Academic Office Number
Appointment Number
Clinical Inquiry Number
Clinic Fax Number
Mailing Address

Bariatric & Minimally Invasive Surgery

333 Cedar Street, PO Box 208062

New Haven, CT 06510

United States

Locations

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Events

Nov 202422Friday