Last week was the MISS Conference (Minimally Invasive Surgery Symposium) in Salt Lake City, UT . The first part of the week is laparoscopic general surgery and the latter part of the week is the bariatric surgery section. There was a lot of enthusiasm and interest surrounding gastric plication. It is now a hot topic on the agenda of these meetings and the interest is growing substantially. There was a GPS course at the meeting and surgeons advertising future courses at their institutions. We have begun GPS training courses as well. There are a lot of surgeons wanting to learn how to do GPS and offer it to their patients.

The GPS is still considered experimental/investigational since there is no long-term data in the U.S. There is longer-term data internationally that looks good and a couple of surgeons in the U.S. like us are seeing good weight loss averages with the procedure but it is certainly an early stage technology. There were surgeons at the meeting who felt that this procedure looks promising but is not ready for prime time yet due to the absence of long-term data and there were surgeons like myself at the meeting who have experience with the procedure and have successful patients and we feel it is a good operation with the caveat of long-term data.

What I see is that patients are driving the interest in GPS because it doesn't involve implants, staples or intestinal malabsorption. It is wonderfully simple - it's just your stomach, only smaller. I have also been fixing plication cases done by other surgeons so I feel strongly about proper technique.

I will keep you updated as we gain information on this new procedure.

Last week was the MISS Conference (Minimally Invasive Surgery Symposium) in Salt Lake City, UT . The first part of the week is laparoscopic general surgery and the latter part of the week is the bariatric surgery section. There was a lot of enthusiasm and interest surrounding gastric plication. It is now a hot topic on the agenda of these meetings and the interest is growing substantially. There was a GPS course at the meeting and surgeons advertising future courses at their institutions. We have begun GPS training courses as well. There are a lot of surgeons wanting to learn how to do GPS and offer it to their patients.

The GPS is still considered experimental/investigational since there is no long-term data in the U.S. There is longer-term data internationally that looks good and a couple of surgeons in the U.S. like us are seeing good weight loss averages with the procedure but it is certainly an early stage technology. There were surgeons at the meeting who felt that this procedure looks promising but is not ready for prime time yet due to the absence of long-term data and there were surgeons like myself at the meeting who have experience with the procedure and have successful patients and we feel it is a good operation with the caveat of long-term data.

What I see is that patients are driving the interest in GPS because it doesn't involve implants, staples or intestinal malabsorption. It is wonderfully simple - it's just your stomach, only smaller. I have also been fixing plication cases done by other surgeons so I feel strongly about proper technique.

I will keep you updated as we gain information on this new procedure.

Thanks for the info, Dr. Watkins.