About Me

Robin Blackstone, MD, FACS, FASMBS is immediate past President of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), the largest association in the world dedicated to this particular specialty.

Dr. Blackstone is a leading expert in the medical and surgical treatment of obesity and obesity-related diseases, having performed more than 3,300 surgical weight loss and metabolic surgeries during her career. She is also an active member of several other professional associations and societies including the American College of Surgeons, the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons, a founding board member of the Obesity Action Coalition, and a board member of the Surgical Review Corporation.

Currently, she is a surgeon and Medical Director of Scottsdale Healthcare Bariatric Center at Scottsdale Healthcare in Arizona.  Dr. Blackstone is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at the University Of Arizona College Of Medicine. Her focus has been to develop a didactic program on obesity for second year medical students.

After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Arizona in 1978, she earned her Doctor of Medicine degree in 1988 from the University of Texas in San Antonio, and completed her general surgery residency in 1993 at the University of Colorado. As a General Surgeon, Dr. Blackstone specialized in Advanced Laparoscopic General Surgery and Surgical Oncology, and established a private practice in 1996 in Scottsdale.

Dr. Blackstone first became interested in gastric bypass surgery for the morbidly obese after a family member had the surgery in 1999.  Fascinated by very successful and obviously life-changing outcomes, she established a medical model for obesity treatment that spans the continuum of disease and includes medical and surgical weight loss in a comprehensive center.  She studies innovative devices and conducts studies in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Dr. Blackstone has been published in several books including, Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass, The Sages Manual: A Practical Guide to Bariatric Surgery and Weight Loss Surgery: A Multidisciplinary Approach.  She has also published dozens of articles and studies in peer-reviewed journals that include The Annals of Surgery, Archives of Surgery, Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Surgical Endoscopy and the Bariatric Times.  Dr. Blackstone is a highly sought after speaker for scholarly presentations, symposia and conferences.  She is on the editorial board of several bariatric surgery publications.

Dr. Blackstone is one of very few women surgeons in the world specializing in laparoscopic bariatric surgery and will become the first woman to preside as president of the ASMBS.  She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.