About Us

In October 6, 2004, a group of bariatric surgeons gathered in Seoul to participate a surgical leaders’ meeting. The meeting was moderated by Dr. Rosenthal from Florida, USA. The participants included 3 from Australia (Jeff Hamdorf, Roy Brancatisano and Jim Toouli), Cheng-Zhu Zheng from China, 2 from India (Pradee Chowbey and Muffazal Lakadawala), Kazunori Kasama from Japan, Kenneth, Yuh Yen Kok from Malaysia, Haridas G. Baladas from Singapore, 2 from Taiwan (Weu Wang and Wei-Jei Lee), Paisal Ponchairerks from Thailand and 2 from Korea (Seung Ho Choi and Gyung Gyu Park). All participants decided to form the Asia-Pacific Bariatric Surgery Group (APBSG) and elected Wei-Jei Lee to be the chairman of APBSG.

The first meeting of the group was hosted by Prof Wei-Jei Lee in Taipei on February 26 and 27 at Taipei. During this meeting, the Asia-Pacific Bariatric Surgery Society (ASBSS) was found and Wei-Jei Lee became the founding President and Dr Pradeep Chowbey was Secretary General. The society was registered in Singapore.

The 2nd meeting was hosted by Dr Pradeep Chowbey at Delhi from March 1 to 5, 2006. The third meeting was hosted at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from April 5 to 7, 2007. The meeting was hosted by Dr Ali Jasmi. The fourth meeting moved to Shanghai, March 26-28, 2008. The meeting was hosted by Prof Fred Cheng-Zhu Zheng. Dr Iso Kawamura became the President of APBSS.

In 2010, our society was renamed to Asia-Pacific Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery Society (APMBSS). The meeting was held in Singapore and hosted by Prof Davide Lomanto and he is the President and the society decided to host our congress bi-annually. In 2012, our meeting is in conjunction with the IFSO world Congress in Delhi and Dr Pradeep Chowby became the President of APMBSS. In 2014, our meeting was hosted in Krabi, Thailand by Dr Paisal Ponchairerks and Dr Suthep Udomsawaengsup. In 2016, our congress was held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia by Prof. Chin Kin Fah and the president is Dr Kazunori Kasama. In 2018 our congress is held in Tokyo, Japan by Dr Kasama. In order to have more collaboration with other countries, our society is official join IFSO in 2018 as an affiliated country member.