Haroon Anwar Gastroenterologist M.D.

My surgeon was Dr. Haroon Anwar of Palo Alto Medical Foundation. I first met Dr Anwar in December of 2003 after being introduced to him by the surgeon who did my hernia surgery. I found Dr. Anwar to be a very kind and gentle person who really listened to my conerns and answered my questions.

Dr. Anwar set me up to go to an information meeting and meet other patients considering Gastric Bypass surgery, which I did in January 2004. Initially the surgery sounded very scary to me, but as I continued to research it, it began to make a lot of sense for me.

Dr. Anwar introduced me to his medical assistant who was very helpful in making sure that I accomplished all of the tasks (psych evaluation, blood tests, chest x-ray, etc) I needed to do to obtain insurance approval. Both Dr. Anwar and his assistant at the time were very helpful in obtaining insurance approval. Not only did they submit a full package but made themselves available to the insurance company answering questions and justifing the need for surgery.

The only thing about this process that I think that Dr. Anwar and his staff could have done better was to provide a support group after work hours so more people could attend. The good news is that they are working on that now and I'm looking forward to participating.

Aftercare has been great and very supportive. Dr. Anwar continues to make himself available to answer questions and/or concerns. Appointments are relatively easy to make with PAMF. I would highly recommend Dr. Anwar and Palo Alto Medical Foundation to others who live in the SF Bay Area and are considering Gastric By-pass surgery. I was very lucky to have met him and his staff.