John Morton, MD, MPH, MHA, BS, FACS, FASMBS
Professor of Surgery (Bariatric, Minimally Invasive)Cards
About
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.
Academic Achievements & Community Involvement
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
Fact Sheets
Gastric Band Surgery (Lap-Band® Surgery)
Learn More on Yale MedicineRevisional Bariatric Surgery
Learn More on Yale MedicineGastric Bypass (Roux-en-Y) Surgery
Learn More on Yale MedicineGastric Balloon (Intragastric Balloon)
Learn More on Yale Medicine
Yale Medicine News
News
News
- December 20, 2024
Yale Center for Weight Management Named America’s Best for 2025
- December 11, 2024
Mastery Grants: Advancing Innovation in Personal and Professional Growth
- May 02, 2024
Yale Surgeons Recognized by Connecticut Magazine's 2024 “Top Doctors” List
- April 18, 2024Source: Yale Daily News
How Yale’s obesity experts help weight-loss surgery patients navigate their mental health