ROBERT A. RABKIN, MD, FACS
Director, Pacific Laparoscopy
 

CURRICULUM VITAE

Dr. Rabkin graduated from Yale University in 1967, with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry and received his MD degree from Stanford Medical School in 1971. Academic years 1971-1972 and 1972-1973 were in straight surgery at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, where he held a teaching fellowship at Harvard University. He completed formal surgical training at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco, where he served as Chief Resident in 1975-1976. He thereafter started and maintained continuous private surgical practice in Ventura from 1977-1999. He served as Chief of Surgery at Ventura County Medical Center 1981 and again in 1992. He was a consultant at Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, where he was Chief of Surgery in 1993.

In 1996, Dr. Rabkin was invited to San Francisco to establish a program for advanced laparoscopy, and surgical treatment of morbid obesity. Staged relocation of his surgical practice and of Pacific Laparoscopy was completed in January 2000, and since that time he has offered elective surgery exclusively in San Francisco. Dr. Rabkin is a member of the Department of Surgery of California Pacific Medical Center and St. Mary's Medical Center.

Dr. Rabkin's research focuses on the surgical treatment of morbid obesity. He directly contributed to the evolution of many of the mainstream procedures now recognized as effective for the treatment of morbid obesity. These include the Duodenal Switch Procedure which he introduced to the Pacific Coast in 1993 after collaborating with surgeons in the Midwest and in Canada who had initiated the concept. He was a pioneer in the introduction of laparoscopic techniques for general surgery, and maintains a continued strong interest in innovative laparoscopic procedures. He participated in establishing a new technique for hernia repair which is now increasingly widely used and he continues a long term interest in endocrine surgery.

Dr. Rabkin is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and is certified by the American Board of Surgery. He is a member of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity, the San Francisco Medical Society, and the California Medical Society and is a designate of the Medical Board of California as an Expert Reviewer.