Medical Director, Wittgrove Bariatric Center

Dr. Alan C. Wittgrove was born and raised in Missouri. He graduated from the St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 1972. He then attended the University of Missouri School of Medicine, graduating as a Doctor of Medicine. He served his internship and received his surgical residency training at San Diego Naval Hospital. He has served as a staff surgeon at Naval Hospitals in the Philippines, and Bremerton, Washington, and on the surgical teaching staff at San Diego Naval Hospital. He is a board-certified surgeon, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, the San Diego Society of General Surgeons, the San Diego County Medical Society, and the California Medical Association.

Dr. Wittgrove pioneered the laparoscopic approach of gastric bypass surgery, performing the first laparoscopic gastric bypass as primary surgeon in the world, in 1993. He and his program have performed over five-thousand bariatric procedures.

Dr. Wittgrove is the immediate past president of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery (ASBS), currently serves on the executive council of ASBS. Additionally, he is the vice-president of the Surgical Review Corporation for Centers of Excellence, an accreditation arm of the ASBS