Francesco Rubino, MD is Chief of Gastrointestinal Metabolic Surgery, an Associate Professor of Surgery and Associate Attending Surgeon at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He serves as Director of the Metabolic and Diabetes Surgery Center. Under his leadership, the hospital was the first academic medical center in U.S. and worldwide to offer a dedicated and highly specialized approach to surgical treatment of type 2 diabetes. While bariatric surgery was originally conceived merely as a weight-reduction therapy, Dr Rubino's research showed that the anti-diabetes effect of certain bariatric procedures, particularly gastric bypass surgery, result from mechanisms beyond weight loss. This evidence provides a scientific rationale for surgical treatment of type 2 diabetes, including in less obese patients and points to a role of the gastrointestinal tract in the pathophysiology of diabetes and obesity.
His clinical expertise includes laparoscopic, bariatric and metabolic and upper digestive surgery. As one of the world's leaders in the research, teaching and practice of metabolic and weight-loss surgery, Dr. Rubino's pioneering surgical approaches hold enormous promise for the millions in America and worldwide living with obesity and diabetes.
Dr. Rubino received his MD and completed his residency in general surgery at the Catholic University/Policlinico Gemelli in Rome, Italy. He completed fellowships in laparoscopic surgery at the European Institute of Telesurgery in Strasbourg, France; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York; and the Cleveland Clinic.
A member of many professional organizations, he is the recipient of numerous awards and has given hundreds of presentations throughout the world of international medical conferences, and is the author of more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 20 book chapters. Dr. Rubino provided strong leadership as Congress Director and organized the 1st and 2nd World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes in New York City, bringing together over 1,000 multidisciplinary diabetes experts from 62 countries to reach a consensus on the best candidates for the surgical treatment of diabetes.
In 2012, Dr. Rubino was selected by both US News & World Report and Castle Connolly as one of "America's Top Doctors,"; he was recognized by Castle Connolly as a Top Doctor in the NY Metro Area and was named as a New York Super Doctor, an honor accorded only 5% of New York physicians. In 2009, he was selected by Crain's NY Business as a notable "40 under 40", which recognizes young rising stars in the healthcare, business, non-profit and entertainment industries.For more information about Dr. Rubino's innovative surgery to bring type 2 diabetes into long term remission, click here www.cornellsurgery.org/pro/services/gi-metabolic/index.html
For Dr. Rubino's publications, click here
Dr. Franceso Rubino's unique expertise in diabetes surgery has been recognized in articles by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Associated Press, NBC-TV Nightly News, BBC and many other publications.
Dr. Rubino has advanced diabetes surgery as an entirely new surgical field, one in which gastrointestinal operations can be performed to directly treat diabetes,not just as a byproduct of weight-loss surgery. He is the proponent of a novel procedure specifically designed to treat type 2 diabetes. Instead of shrinking the stomach like most approaches to weight-loss surgery, his approach reroutes the small intestine, leaving the stomach intact.
Metabolic surgery is now being offered at Weill Cornell to intentionally treat diabetes in patients with severe obesity. The section of GI Metabolic Surgery is also a leading international Center for clinical investigations on the potential use of metabolic surgery to treat diabetes in patients who are not obese enough to qualify for bariatric surgery, and also patients who are of normal weight.
In addition to its effects on diabetes, metabolic surgery represents also new perspective in the treatment of severe obesity, with or without diabetes. Indeed, by tailoring the choice of gastrointestinal surgical procedures to the metabolic characteristics of individual patients, surgery can results in much more than just body weight loss, and improve life expectancy and quality of life of severely obese patients.
In a landmark study published in the Annals of Surgery, Dr. Rubino reported that the procedure dramatically reduced diabetes in animals-demonstrating for the first time that surgery has a direct effect on type 2 diabetes unrelated to weight loss. The procedure, now known as Rubino's Procedure, has been performed on patients at several centers worldwide.
As one of the world's leaders in the research, teaching and practice of metabolic and weight-loss surgery, Dr. Rubino's pioneering approaches hold an enormous promise for the millions in America and worldwide living with obesity and diabetes.
Dr. Rubino was a principal organizer of an influential Diabetes Surgery Summit, held in Rome in March last year. The international consensus conference helped establish the field, making international recommendations for the use of surgery and creating an International Diabetes Surgery Task Force. Dr. Rubino serves as a founding member.
Dr. Rubino offers clinical expertise in numerous laparoscopic approaches to metabolic and weight-loss surgery-including Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), gastric banding, sleeve gastrectomy and laparoscopic redo surgery for failed bariatric procedures-and laparoscopic digestive surgery. His research interests also include studies of the mechanisms of appetite control following RYGB and endoluminal and transgastric approach to bariatric and diabetes surgery.
Most recently, Dr. Rubino was an assistant professor of surgery at the Catholic University of Rome, Italy, and director of the Metabolic Surgery Research Program at the IRCAD-European Institute of Telesurgery in Strasbourg, France, where he was also a surgeon in the Department of Digestive and Endocrine Surgery in the Hopital Civil.
He received his medical degree and completed his residency in general surgery at the Catholic University/Policlinico Gemelli in Rome, Italy. He completed fellowships in laparoscopic surgery at the European Institute of Telesurgery in Strasbourg, France; Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York; the Cleveland Clinic; and a clinical/research fellowship in breast cancer at the Catholic University in Rome. Dr. Rubino joined the Hospital Civil in Strasbourg in 2001 as a clinical fellow and was appointed attending surgeon in 2003.
Dr. Rubino is also a member of various professional organizations, including the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and the Brazilian Society for Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery (BSBMS)-both of which recently changed their names to include the new surgical specialty. He is also member of the Italian Society of Endoscopic Surgery (SICE) and the International Club of Young Laparoscopic Surgeons (YCLS).
