Dive Into The World of Bariatrics with Brisbane’s Leading
Bariatric Surgeon, Dr. Reza Adib

Felicity Cohen: Hello, I’m Felicity Cohen. I’m so excited to introduce you to my Wellness Warriors Podcast. For over 20 years, I’ve been a passionate advocate for helping thousands of Australians find solutions to treating obesity and health related complications. Through surgical intervention and holistic managed care.

My podcast is dedicated to all the people past, present, and future who have helped shape my journey and continue to inspire me to work consistently to achieve a healthier Australia in both adults and future generations. I hope you enjoy it.

Hello. My name is Felicity. I’m the CEO of WeightLoss Solutions Australia.

Welcome to my Wellness Warriors Podcast. I’m really excited to bring you this series of stories. Most of all patients and people who’ve touched my life over the last 20 years and on my journey throughout, my full career of everything that’s changed in the world of bariatric surgery and intervention. So, so far I’ve been talking to lots of patients and doctors and all sorts of other health professionals.

And today it’s my absolute pleasure to introduce you to Dr. Reza Adib.

Reza, I’ve known for many years. In fact, I first met him in 1998 when he was a surgical registrar at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. And I think it’s really important to understand when we’re talking about the journey for a bariatric patient, the critical component, obviously is having someone who’s a master of their craft, and there couldn’t be someone who’s more in tune with the needs of a bariatric patient, and who’s more proficient, experienced, and highly skilled than Dr. Adib.

So it’s going to be great to have a chat to him today about his journey as a bariatric surgeon. Welcome.

Dr Reza Adib: Thank you very much for having me, Felicity.

Felicity Cohen: Thanks for coming on the podcast.

Dr Reza Adib: It’s a pleasure to be here.

Felicity Cohen: So I’d like to actually start by going back a little bit in time and talking about your, your training.

And at what point in time were you exposed to bariatric surgery? And when did you think it might be an area that would interest you?

Dr Reza Adib: I trained in Royal Brisbane, as you mentioned, between 1994 and, 1999 and I then was sent to an international fellowship in Edinburgh Infirmary, where I was, exposed to, higher end of, gastroesophageal surgery, surgery of the stomach and the, upper part of the, gastrointestinal tract.

At that stage, it was mostly for cancer, but as I  was looking and reading into the future of our supply and demand in our society in Australia, towards the second part of my fellowship, in between years of 2001, 2002 and 2003, I started introducing myself to, and getting training in, bariatric surgery, which was starting to become an important, subspecialty of upper gastrointestinal surgery.

And, it wasn’t, for wrong reasons, because by the time I came back and set up my practice in Australia, I realised that the cancer part of upper gastrointestinal surgery is going to make 10% of my, G.I. work and 90% will be people who are seeking, the correct, surgical decision for management of morbid obesity in Australia.

And this is just a supply and demand of Australian population. And I’m very happy that I did that training in, France, in Austria and mostly in Scotland. And eventually came back to Australia in 2004 and set up my private practice and, it has been a pleasure working with you in the last eight years.

It has been an absolute pleasure and, and the, your drive, into, finding the right patient for the right, treatment program, and for me to lead the surgical side of their treatment. I think it has been a  good workmanship and good match.

Felicity Cohen: One of the things that I notice about the change over the last 20 years, and I think there’s really three pillars.

There’s the cultural implications and change in perception of bariatric intervention. There’s the political climate and what does that look like, and what’s changed and there’s the technological change. And if we look at the advancement in medical technology and what’s happened over the last 20 years, the change is, it’s phenomenal, isn’t it?

You know, when you look at what has happened 20 years ago at the start of my career, and the start of your bariatric career, we only did gastric bands for patients. That was all we could offer and the landscapes changed so much, but so has perception and understanding, and one of the things that really strikes me as interesting, I’m really interested to hear what you have to say.

The GP perception and doctors’ view around how we treat a bariatric patient. Accepting that this is a chronic disease that needs to be treated and managed for the future benefit of our whole society. I remember doing a Category One workshop for GPs when the attitude was so poor and the understanding around management of a bariatric patient was not well understood.

What do you think has changed in terms of that perception? Firstly, amongst the medical community?

Dr Reza Adib: I think, the medical community has seen obesity as a disease, that was what needed to be changed, at the outset. Once that happened and once they accepted that obesity is a chronic disease, the rest slowly is falling into its place.

And don’t forget, 20 years ago when we were offering bariatric surgery to these patients, the majority of patients were hiding it from the public. It was something to be, it was a family secret. Whereas now, I mean, look at your own work, thanks to your yourself, involving social media correctly in the management of this disease has created a situation where nowadays, when patients come to see us, they know, they know a lot about their disease.

They know a lot about their, comorbidities. They know a lot about what is the correct option for them because they’ve chatted and this usage of, social media, educating the GPs as you mentioned, educating the patients, it is all what we have achieved in the last 12 years, so the last 20 years.

Because as years have gone by, people are not ashamed of what they’re doing anyway. They actually say, “Well, I have a disease and this is the cure. I have type two diabetes, I’m going to have this operation that’s going to get, get rid of my type two diabetes. On top of my type two diabetes, I have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, I snore, I have sleep apnea. I have all these comorbidities and these are the solutions.

So they look at it as disease and solution. They talk between themselves. They question, they get answers from, you know, centers like WeighLoss Solutions Australia.

And the abundance of knowledge that this creates around itself and the connections that it creates, it is phenomenal.

We did not have this 20 years ago. It was just a one off small, you know, you offer a lap band that was the only thing around. And people come for the follow-ups and, nowadays it’s just, there’s a sea of knowledge and it just makes me so proud when the patient turns up for their consultation.

And they start telling you, “Oh yes, doctor and I have a bit of a reflux as well. And my reflux, I need to take medication every day. And you know what, I know you’re not going to give me the sleeve gastrectomy because I’m a better candidate for a bypass.

A few years ago, I couldn’t broach the subject, about bypass to some of these patients, and now they tell me they need to have this bypass.

So I am proud of where we are and it is thanks to hard work again, thanks to us sticking to the guidelines and doing the right operation for the right patients. We did not create a situation where this is seen as an operation that causes bad morbidity, bad complications. We have got good results.

We have got good people at the, helm of our institutions where, including yourself all credit, because you have propagated the right word, in the right community, in the right patient setting, where they can talk to each other. They can ask you questions, they can ask us questions.

And this freedom and abundance of information has gained a, the result that is good patient outcome. Good patient outcome creates good conversation between themselves. Good conversation brings more people who need that help into our circle. And this circle is just getting bigger and bigger and in Australia, as you are aware in Australia currently, there is 1 million people with BMI, more than 40, who are eligible and ready to have operations. But every year, not more than 20,000 bariatric surgery gets done.

So yeah, out of every 50 people, 49 of them are still missing, are still somewhere there.

Felicity Cohen: I think the thing about that, as well is that those numbers are continuing to escalate. And the projections for 2025, which is not that far away are, that are morbid obesity statistics continue to grow. So that’s a shame that we’re not actually offering treatment to 50%, at least at that population who’s requiring intervention right now.

I think you’re right, you know, that perception amongst the medical community has changed a lot and it’s changed because of results and outcomes. And they can see reduction in the medical comorbidities. They see reduced medications and they see happy patients. So I think that’s really powerful that the patients have actually driven back to the, the GPs and to other health professionals, their results of spoken such volumes, to teach and educate the medical profession that, yes, this is an acceptable pathway to take.

So I think that huge shift 20 years ago, this is taboo surgery and perhaps that image of the surgeon being a bit of a rogue surgeon, offering bariatric intervention, that perception has absolutely shifted. And I think we should be very grateful for that change in education and perception. And I think also the same thing amongst the patient population, you know, a couple of years ago, you’d talk to someone who had no clue.

Whether their next door neighbor had had surgery. Now everybody knows someone who’s been there, done that, in their inner circle. And I think that helps a lot when we’re having these conversations and talking to patients who need to learn more. So yes, our population size and magnitude of the problem is definitely something that’s growing all the time.

What for you has been the greatest, I guess, technological change and invention that has helped you to actually achieve better results.

Dr Reza Adib: It’s technological, technology wise, the improvement in energy sources improved where we, when we operate on the gastrointestinal track, all these organs have got blood supply.

We need energy sources to safely seal these vessels around the organs. Improvement in technology of energy sources has been crucial. Improvement in technology of staplers and stapling technology has been absolutely crucial. Important in the outcome that we are seeing, and the operation rooms themselves are different.

The operation tables are different and to create a team around that environment and to train this team to work in a more efficient manner and, in a more, both technology efficient, time efficient, all of this creates an absolute road to better results. And I’m a firm believer that it only gets done in centers that do a lot of it.

That’s why recently we achieved the center of excellence. Queensland’s only center of excellence for bariatric and metabolic surgery, which was, basically observed and studied by American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

And a team came to our hospital and they went through our results, they went through our equipment, they went through our sensitivity of our staff, sensitivity of our nurses, where the patients sleep, what kind of transfer they have, what kind of wheelchairs they have, what kind of everything. And we became Queensland’s  only Center of Excellence for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery.

And that is coming a long way. That is coming a long way. And leadership in a system like this is not just about doing a better operation, it’s everything together. It’s about staff who know their job. It’s about, from the moment you walk into WeightLoss Solutions Australia, you meet the person who’s sitting on the desk.

They haven’t dealt with hundreds of different types of diseases, they deal with obesity. They deal, every patient there seek to get the right treatment for their obesity. They know the patients, they are sensitive toward the patient. They understand the patient care, to the dietitians, to the nurses, to the exercise physiologist, to the psychologist, to the general practitioner sitting there. To the research assistant sitting here.

So all of these, that we have in our team, every one of them is a cog in this big wheel, that the end result of this big wheel is that we get their outcome. I am very sure if I show you the report from Bariatric Surgical Registry, and by the way, we are the highest contributors to Bariatric Surgical Registry in Australia.

And when I show you the two year, three, or four year follow-up on our patients, we are sitting about 10 – 11% better weight loss and better results and less complications, less leak rate than the rest of the country. And it doesn’t say anything out of, the more we do the better we get in what we do, the better patient education, better patients educate between themselves.

The staff educate these people, and we are going further and further away from the rest of our bariatric community towards better patient care. So I’m very proud of it.

Felicity Cohen: I’m very proud of it also. And I’m a massive advocate for having a multidisciplinary team support patients throughout the journey. I personally see the surgeon as being front and center and pivotal, obviously to making the best decision for the patient around, which intervention, but then having successful pre-operative care, post-operative care, that’s consistent, that’s dedicated and ongoing for the patient.

Especially over that first 12 months, is driving those outcomes, not just at 12 months, but has a vision of where is that patient going to be 5, 10 and 30 years out. Because at the end of the day, we hope that it’s going to be one operation, one solution, and that we’ve controlled and managed that patient literally for the rest of their lives.

And for me, I guess the ultimate hope is that our patients never end up in nursing homes, that we keep them away from the cardiologist, the endocrinologists and everybody else that could potentially be the pathway for that patient, should they not choose bariatric surgery first.

So I feel that the multidisciplinary team approach, as well as having that multi-tiered hospital environment, where everybody has had the education and the sensitivity to deal with bariatrics in the hospital setting, they’re kind of complimentary and integrated and both equally important to our patients.

So I think we’ve done a really good job on driving that kind of model. So I really am a great believer in that model. You know, we, over 20 years, we still continue to learn, to improve, refine, and change how we work because we always want to be better. And one step ahead, and I think we’re probably at least 10 steps ahead, but that’s a good thing.

Dr Reza Adib: I completely agree with you. And to give the patient reassurance that in there, during the follow-ups, there is no limit to the number of times they can ask questions. There is no limit to the number of tenders. No, there’s no hidden costs or he didn’t charge her. If they want to get, be educated more on the dietetic side of it, there’s dietitians sitting there in WeightLoss Solutions Australia.

If they want to, if they’ve worried about the psychology of what they’re eating and, you know, they, the loss of their eagerness at any stage during the course, we have psychologists sitting there and waiting for them or over the phone, they can just pick up the phone, talk to them.

We have physiologists. We have, everybody, who’s there, nurses, surgeon, we are there to troubleshoot and we want to give this culture to the patients and once they’re, once they’re treated by WeightLoss Solutions Australia, we are there for the rest of their life.

And they have to understand that we are not going away. We’re not going anywhere. This institution is there for the rest of their life, for a better life.

If there’s any time they need to ask any questions, any hiccups, any problems in future, they could just pick, minimum, they could pick up the phone, if not walk in, we always welcome them.

Felicity Cohen: So let’s just talk a little bit about how you walk the talk. So, first of all, one of the things that I know you’re really great at is keeping yourself healthy and fit and capable of working at such a high intensity and incredible, you know, productivity. You’ve competed in the Noosa triathlon over how many years? I’m not sure now.

Dr Reza Adib: For the last few years.

Felicity Cohen: Last few years. It’s a huge event to train for.

Is that, is keeping yourself healthy and well, is that important to you?

Dr Reza Adib: Oh absolutely. I think this is what the patient sees when they walk in to our bariatric unit, they want to see that the that the surgeon sitting there is, himself or herself, a picture of what they would envisage themselves in the years to be, you know. They look healthy, they practice what they preach and yeah, so I am very pleased to be involved in a few team sports.

I still play basketball a couple of times a week. I train for triathlons with swimming, cycling at least. I took my two kids who are eight and ten, yesterday, for their first river loop in Brisbane, which is a loop of 40 kilometers of cycling. Both of them completed it quite wel,l at the age of eight and ten.

So we start from, you know, for a while, they were thinking that they’re lost, you know, they asked me, “are we lost?”, because they were not used to riding in those suburbs. And no, I’m, I’m very pleased that we keep this health, all of us.

And I know for sure that in WeightLoss Solutions Australia, we have boot camps for the staff, boot camps for the patients. Cook-ups, healthy cook-ups, for the patients, and staff getting involved in the different programs.

We have competed as you know, for the last few years, with the team, at WeightLoss Solution Australia in the Gold Coast Half Marathon, Gold Coast Marathon,  Gold Coast 10K and, I, myself, led a team from Wesley Hospital in Brisbane, Gold Coast Bike Ride last year.

So I, it is quite an exciting thing to be a part of. So, I think keeping healthy and being a symbol for your patient is, it’s paramount to the good outcome and making the patient believe in you. If a patient goes to a doctor who does not, seem to be that healthy, a patient goes to a doctor that I don’t know, he can smell nicotine on them or, it starts from the wrong belief in that search.

So, and no, I’m very happy to be, advocating good health to our patients. And I think they have been happy too.

Groups and groups of our patients, every now and then, and you know, it from them sending their own colleagues, them sending their own family, family members, friends, you know, when they come and say, “Oh, you operated on such and such.”

My cousin or you operated on my sister, or my wife. And you know, now I think I’ve seen the journey, I want to follow this on and, you know, and to be able to offer them the same thing to what they need, it it’s been quite a pleasure. It’s one of the things that drives me on a day to day basis.

And it’s quite a pleasure to be a part of this team.

Felicity Cohen: It’s really rewarding. And I actually love the fact that we had a hundred people compete in the Gold Coast Marathon last year. So I’m hoping to repeat that all over again. I think it’s great. If we can educate and get patients involved in fitness, physical activity, mobility, whatever it looks like for them at their level, and that it is going to be life changing.

And often we see patients who have really poor functional fitness. Their mobility is compromised. They’ve got plantar fasciitis, they’ve got sore hips, sore knees, sore backs. All of those things are going to change. And if we can get them to the point where we’re also helping to get them motivated and learning about how to move better, it’s gonna make, you know, creates change in our society.

So the change and the transformation through our patients that we’re creating across a multi-tiered level of health issues is quite significant. Apart from the fact that, you know, I think we’re saving our government a fortune by having patients invest in their own health, choosing and prioritising to, to invest in themselves now, at whatever that takes is saving our government billions long term.

And I think that’s a really important story to tell as well, that we’re creating such impact on our health system, and we need to educate those in the position of power, making those decisions that, this is effective, it works, and it’s changing the health of our nation.

Dr Reza Adib: Completely agree with you. If you look at the number of patients on our database and can, this would actually be a great project.

If we go back and have a look at the number of productive years that we’ve added to someone’s career after bariatric surgery, you know, with less comorbidities and less, days lost from work and we could add them all up. They, you know, less days off of, taking off sick from the comorbidities more years in the production line, in being productive life and all of that.

It would be a great project, just to look at how much, this has changed our working community and you know, more productive community. I have zero doubt and that’s why we are in a fortunate era where we can actually argue this, discuss this with the people who run the society, in government to be able to justify the procedures.

It is unfortunate that the procedure is not that available in our public system. But then again, it’s fortunate that we have found ways to convincing these people who are making those decisions to allow people, as an example, access their, superannuation for an operation that is not readily available in a public system to, to add to the working life.

To take less days off sick leave, to have a better, greater future of work life balance, healthier family, happier families, and less premature death. So there is no doubt that all of this together has helped people have a better life and quality of life.

Felicity Cohen: Oh, it’s amazing. It took me about 10 years to learn from our patients that they were improving their financial health and wellbeing at the same rate as their health and wellbeing.

And that financial equation I think is really interesting because patients started to come to me and say, “I’ve now got the self confidence to go for the job promotion that I would never have put myself up for”, or “I’m actually employable”, because we see patients who actually are out of the workforce and they cannot reenter the workforce because their weight is holding them back on so many different levels.

So seeing that, financial health equation change as well over time, I think is really powerful as well.

That’s so interesting in our story of what we’re seeing in our patient population every day. So, you’ve got two kids, an eight year old and a ten year old.

How has working in this field contributed or changed how you raise your children? Has it impacted your life as a parent?

Dr Reza Adib: Oh, it does. I, again, work life balance. I truly believe in the work life balance. I, it’s interesting that, our kids, they sort of, they have a different taste in what food to pick and what food not to pick.

And although they have a very active and healthy lifestyle, I can just see that, around me, what goes in a shopping trolley and what goes, you know, on the dinner table and all of that has sort of, without us knowing it, it’s a picture of what we are reflecting on our patients and what we, what we suggest to our patients.

It somehow transcribes itself in what actually goes on a table and our lifestyle. if we get up in the morning on a Sunday, like yesterday and the weather started, it looks like it wanted to have a few drops of rain and I see the kids are around the computer games, say, “Come on, chop chop, let’s go for a bike ride.”

And they never say no, let’s go for a bike ride, let’s throw a frisbee in the park. Let’s do something that makes us go for a bit of a, kick around the, a park or, you know, could do something. So the kids, completely subconsciously our kids follow our, lifestyle. And I try to make sure that there is a balance between my work and my life and the kids see enough of me that, you know, it’s good for their education.

It’s good for the day to day living and, and, and all of that. I think they, the new generation of surgeons, as you know, they’re, they don’t take pride in saying “I, I’ve never seen my kids before they’ve gone to bed”, and we take pride in being there with the kids and doing the homework with them and, you know, be a part of the household.

So, no, I am, I’m quite happy with the, life, work balance. However, in the meantime, people are wondering how do we get through those numbers. And it is, thanks to teamwork.

It’s thanks to people like yourself and your staff and our team that by the time that patients are coming for those operations, they’re educated.

They are educated by the time they make it to the hospital. They are in a hospital that does about 1,800 operations a year. It’s a center of excellence. So from the person who greets them at the door, until the person introduces them to day surgery operation, to the day of operation surgery, puts them on the, on the chair, waiting for the operation, to the person, gets them inside, to the anesthesiologist who puts them under the anesthetic, they’re all so well-trained, so well exercised.

That by the time they, they just see it is like, it is almost, I have surgeons coming to visit me in some of our master classes that we have for surgeons, interstate. They, sometimes they say to me, “It’s like an orchestra, everyone’s playing their instrument” and no one talks to anyone.

You can talk about other things, because no one needs to talk about everything, it just gets done, like a well rehearsed orchestra. So, and I’m very proud. It’s not just me. It’s the people around us, including our team that makes us look good and makes results on a patient look good. And, and we are blessed.

We are going, I have never been so, and every now and then I stop, take a step back. I said, “God, I am so blessed”. Look at this, there are days that we have to do nine operations in a row and at the beginning of the day, I just said, “Oh God, this is going to be a big day” or halfway through the day, I just said, “we are so blessed.”

This is like poetry. It goes on for itself. So, no, I am very, very happy with people around us and with our team, WeightLoss Solutions Australia, without everybody who works so hard there. Educate patients. Education it is the key. When a patient comes to the operation theater, knowing everything that’s going to happen to them.

What’s going to happen to me on the day of admission? What’s going to happen to me at the evening of the operation? How am I going to press that control anesthesia? Then the next morning, how am I going to have that X-Ray? How am I going to get up? How am I going to do this? My breathing exercises?

This has been rehearsed so much that by the time they come to the hospital, they know it. They just go through the motion and good result is not good surgery, surgeon only, not at all. It is good education. It is good education. It’s good staff around you and it’s everybody that puts, like I said, everyone is a cog in this big wheel that the end result is good patient outcome.

Felicity Cohen: So last year at IFSO, we saw the chapter on the One Anastomosis Gastric Bypass Chapter was launched. That was quite a new addition to the suite of bariatric intervention and how surgeons have that dialogue around best procedure and is this appropriate and what are we going to do next.

And we see all these other new operations coming to the forefront of discussion, being the SADI-S, the SASI, the Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty, as you know, we’re dedicated to research in that area, but also dedicated to research across the board with our work that we do in bariatrics.

What’s your vision for the future? What do you think? And what do you see is going to be the future direction of bariatrics? Let’s look 10 years from now.

Dr Reza Adib: If you ask 10 years ago, about where, sleeve, how sleeve took up, in the last 10 years. In United States, the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass traditionally was the operation of choice, it was a safe procedure, and it continued to stay a safe procedure.

And it wasn’t for the fact that they did not look at one of the most, as gastric bypass initially, due to some difficulty they had in publishing their data. At the moment, it is showing a lot of promise for people with diabetes, with severe morbid obesity, without reflux, because there’s always a worry about reflux around the sleeve gastrectomy and around one anastomosis gastric bypass.

But, I mean, it’s showing a lot of promise, long bypasses, like single-anastomosis duodeno-Ileal switch, which is a SADI procedure. They have gained a lot of popularity in particular with the super obesity and morbid obesity as a one-stage or a two-stage procedure.

We run a balance of that against our cohort of patient, balancing it against the risk of malnutrition and elemental, vitamin, and mineral deficiency.

So, and a good balance is the key to good judgment. There is no, not a single cure for every, condition and to match every patient to their, to the operation that’s suitable for them would be the best thing with an open mind. You can’t have a clinic that just offers a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or a clinic that just offers single anastomosis gastric bypass.

But what we’re doing is, and what our results are a reflection of our judgment, because we are having less than one in 300, morbidity and complication, where as the rest of Australia accepts one in 100 is a accepted, complication rate or leak rate. We are having at least two, three times better results, probably by better matching patients to what the best operation for them is and not taking unnecessary risks in cases where, the risk of malnutrition or risk of malabsorption is higher.

The patient lives remotely. We choose an operation that does not need as much, tight follow up in terms of vitamins and minerals but still gives a good weight loss. So we have been fairly conservative, but that’s why we got the results that we had so far, but I mean, we are, we are offering, we probably one of the only clinics in Australia that just about offering every modality of weight loss surgery.

That is there. I mean, I I’ve just been during this weekend. I’ve been asked to talk about intragastric balloons in our next Scientific Congress in Melbourne, on 14th of May. And it’s interesting because they had everything else covered, but we now have done more intragastric balloons in Queensland than any other centers, with good results.

And I’ve been asked, to give two talks, one about a single stage revision of a lap band in to a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, which is one of the operations that we do regularly now. Saves the operation, saves the patients one step, which is, a two stage operation. We just do it in a one stage.

And, the second talk that I’ve been asked to give is about, new horizons in, non-surgical treatment, including intragastric balloon. So yeah.

Felicity Cohen: Thank you so much for sharing all of your vision with me today. And look, I think, you know, what you’ve achieved so far in your career is absolutely noteworthy and amazing and quite exceptional. And I think obviously we’re very lucky and fortunate to have talented gifted surgeons because it’s absolutely critical and key.

So I’ve got one last question, and first of all, you need to keep yourself fit and healthy and well, cause we’ve got a long way to go ahead of us, haven’t we?

Dr Reza Adib: Oh, I think so, yeah.

Felicity Cohen: We definitely do.

Dr Reza Adib: From whatever angle I look at it, I think that our teamwork relies on a surgeon who can do the right operation for the right patient.

And the staff that, you run with harmony and with such a professional balance that, make doing that procedures so easy for me, because I am very proud of the amount of education that you give your, our team, gives to the patients before they make it to the, to the operation table.

To the point that when I, when I see them in the clinic, they know everything about the operation. We go through the, we just go through, nitty gritty of surgery and its potential because they’ve already been educated so well. When we do the operation, they have a very, very thorough follow-up.

And I am extremely pleased with how our combination works and I’m looking forward to the next, many years to, even educate and train more staff and surgeons and more dieticians and more, psychologists to do this clinic. We could potentially even do this in every state, but, let’s leave it for another chapter.

Felicity Cohen: Absolutely and it’s an exciting adventure that we have to look forward to.

My final question, so the podcast is called Wellness Warriors, what do you think wellness means to you? Or how would you describe that for you in your daily life? Wellness for you is…

Dr Reza Adib: I think it’s an ease there. It’s an ease when you are at ease with yourself.

When you are at ease with who you are is wellness. When you’re at ease with what you are, who you are, your goals, your achievements. When you are at ease with yourself and Wellness Warrior, it’s great line! It’s a great topic. You might not reach your wellness yet, but you are a warrior. You are absolutely punching your way to, you see your wellness and where you want to be.

And you’re getting yourself as close to that stage in life, which is state of satisfaction with yourself, with your health, with your diet, with your family, with people around you. And if a small part of it, is to cut down your comorbidities, cut down the number of conditions that you have with the help of us.

So let us be a very small part of your, your warrior-ness towards your wellness. And I really hope that we can add a very, very small part, to our, Wellness Warriors.

Felicity Cohen: Thank you. That’s a beautiful description. Thank you very much for joining me on the podcast.

Dr Reza Adib: It’s a pleasure to work with you.

Felicity Cohen: That’s great having Dr. Adib. with us, as part of the team. Thank you so much.

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