The Weight Loss Surgery Process

How To Start the Weight Loss Surgery Process

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Am I Eligible for Weight Loss Surgery?

Patients must meet specific criteria, based on guidelines established by the National Institutes of Health, before they will be considered for an evaluation with our team. Most patients who enter our program have a BMI of 40 or greater. Other factors that suggest surgery may be a good option include:

You have a BMI over 40.You have serious medical conditions related to weight, such as diabetes, sleep apnea or heart disease. (If these are present, surgery may be considered if your BMI is between 35 and 40.)
You are between 18 and 65 years old (with some exceptions).
You have a long history of obesity, and have committed to a minimum of two formal or structured weight loss attempts, each weight loss attempt lasting over three months each.
You have no current issues with drug or alcohol abuse.
You have no serious psychiatric illness, such as problems that could impair your ability to follow a program of lifetime health management and follow-up.

If you have checked off most of these boxes and want to proceed, or if you are unsure and want to see if you're a candidate, please fill out the New Patient Questionnaire.

New Patient Questionnaire

Weight Loss Surgery Information Sessions

You can move ahead with signing up for a live info session and view a comprehensive webinar within one week. If you are interested in making an appointment to discuss your options for Weight Loss Surgery, it is a requirement of the program that you first watch the new patient free online information session video prior to your first appointment. We welcome you to include friends and adult family members to watch the webinar with you.

The weight loss surgery online webinar gives you an overview of BIDMC's bariatric surgery program and comprehensive, reliable information from one of our surgeons about the weight loss procedures we perform.

Free Online Info Session 

Tracking Your Journey

The Weight Loss Surgery program uses Baritrax360*, an online system that allows patients to track where they are in the process of being a weight loss surgery patient. We strongly recommend that you sign up for this program. It is a helpful tool to see what steps you have completed, what you need to complete and your overall status with the program. Baritrax360 is not mandatory, but highly recommended.

Baritrax360 offers:

• the ability for patients to track their own progress through their weight loss journey
• a checklist for activities that patients need to complete prior to surgery
• notifications for upcoming dates and times of appointments and procedures
• the ability to complete necessary information online versus completing and sending in paper forms

Sign up for Baritrax360*

*Please note, by clicking on the Baritrax link, you are leaving the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) website and will be redirected to BARITRAX360, our partner in assisting you to track each step of your weight loss surgery journey. BARITRAX360 is committed to keeping your personal information secure and confidential and will not share it with anyone outside BIDMC. Please review BARITRAX360's privacy statement after you are redirected. You are under no obligation to use the patient portal and choosing not to use the portal, for any reason, will not adversely affect the care that you receive at BIDMC.