Dimitri Pournaras is a Consultant in Upper Gastrointestinal and Bariatric Surgery at the North Bristol NHS Trust, UK. He graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, undertook all his postgraduate training in the UK and completed a PhD in the Department of Investigative Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London. Following this, he underwent training in laparoscopic oesophagogastric surgery in Cambridge and Norwich, UK. He was granted a Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery Fellowship by the Royal College of Surgeons in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, after which he was appointed to his current position in Bristol.
Dr Pournaras’ clinical interests include surgical treatment of obesity, diabetes as part of multimodal care and laparoscopic upper gastrointestinal surgery. His research interests include outcomes of bariatric and metabolic surgery beyond weight loss, with a focus on obesity associated morbidity and cardiovascular risk. His research activity also includes investigating how bariatric/metabolic surgery changes the way the gut talks to the brain. Dr Pournaras is the inaugural British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society/Royal College of Surgeons of England bariatric Surgical Specialty Lead and is committed to high quality, collaborative, patient centred research with the objective to improve obesity care.
He is on the editorial board of the international peer-reviewed journals Obesity Surgery and Clinical Obesity and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including articles in The Lancet, The Annals of Surgery, The British Journal of Surgery and The BMJ. Dr Pournaras delivers more than 10 invited international lectures on a yearly basis.
Duality of Interest: Dr Pournaras has received research support / grants from Medtronic, speaker’s fees/honoraria from Johnson & Johnson and Novo Nordisk. He has also received payments for membership of boards/advisory panels from Johnson & Johnson and consultancy fees from Johnson & Johnson and Novo Nordisk.
Date: Spring 2023