Dr. Daniel Birch

Dr. Daniel W. Birch is the medical director of the Centre for the Advancement of Minimally Invasive Surgery (CAMIS), based at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and an associate professor, Department of Surgery.

He practices as a minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgeon at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

Dr. Birch completed his residency at McMaster University in 1998 and fellowship training in minimally invasive surgery at the Minimal Access Training Unit in Guildford, Surrey (UK) and at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky.

He was recruited to Capital Health in July 2004 and as an associate professor in the Department of Surgery, to lead the development of a centre of excellence in minimally invasive surgery.

He is the past chair of the Canadian Association of General Surgeons (CAGS) Committee on Laparoscopy and Endoscopy and Secretary and founding member of the Canadian Association of Bariatric Physicians & Surgeons (CABPS).

Dr. Birch completes advanced minimally invasive procedures for a wide variety of gastrointestinal diseases, including GERD, paresophageal hernia, achalasia, gastric tumors, colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel disease, abdominal wall hernia, and surgery for morbid obesity (gastric bypass and adjustable gastric band).

Dr. Birch's research has been presented at the Canadian Surgery Forum, SAGES annual meeting, North Pacific Surgical Association annual meeting, and American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

Michel Gagner, MD, FRCSC, FACS, FASMBS, FICS, AFC (Hon.)
Clinical Professor of Surgery
Chief, Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery

Dr. Michel Gagner was born in 1960 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Dr. Gagner obtained a Diploma in Sciences at the Seminaire de Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke in 1978 and his M.D. from the Faculte de Medecine de l’Universite de Sherbrooke in Canada in 1982. He did his surgical training at McGill University in Montreal from 1982-1988. During his residency he completed 2 years of a Ph.D. program on human lipolysis in sepsis at the Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University from 1984-1986. Dr. Gagner completed also fellowships in Hepatic surgery at Hopital Villejuif in Paris, France and Pancreatico-Biliary surgery at Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, from 1989-1990.

Upon completion of his fellowships, he was recruited to the Universite de Montreal School of Medicine, Hotel-Dieu de Montreal, where he was Assistant Professor of Surgery (1990-1995). He then spent several years at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland where he co-founded the Minimally Invasive Surgery Center (1995-1998). He was appointed the Franz Sichel Professor of Surgery and director of the Minimally invasive Surgery Center of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, from 1998 to 2003. He joined Weill Medical College of Cornell University (New York) as Professor of Surgery and Chief of the section of laparoscopic and Bariatric surgery (2003-2007). He was until recently, chair of dept. of Surgery at the Mount Sinai Medical Center (Miami) and Professor of Surgery at Florida International University, currently Professor of Surgery in Montreal.

Dr. Gagner is known for his contributions in the field of Minimally Invasive Surgery, in particular the first description of laparoscopic adrenalectomy for Cushing syndrome and pheochromocytoma (1992), first description of laparoscopic pancreatectomy (distal and proximal) (1992-93), first description of endoscopic neck surgery with parathyroidectomy in 1995, first transgastric cholecystectomy in 1997 (NOTES), first description of laparoscopic duodenal switch for obesity in 1999 and laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in 2000. More recently, he was co-surgeon for the first World transatlantic robotic cholecystectomy, between New York City and Strasbourg (France), the only surgical article published in Nature in 2001.

He has over 250 published journal articles, 40 book chapters and 6 books on Minimally Invasive Surgery. He has been visiting professor and operated in over 60 institutions in 48 countries. He has held prominent positions in more than 35 societies and organizations. He has been on the editorial boards of 12 surgical journals.

Dr. Gagner also has received a number of honorary memberships and awards throughout his career. His most recent contributions focus on innovative upper digestive tract surgery like bariatric and endoluminal gastric procedures.