Michael Baptista Bariatric Surgeon

Dr. Michael Baptista is a highly specialized laparoscopic obesity surgeon. He began his medical career in Brazil where he was born to Brazilian and American parents. Dr. Baptista received his medical degree at the Barbacena Medical School in Barbacena, Brazil. He went on to complete his general surgery training at the College of Medical Science in Belo Horizonte and earned the award of Most Distinguished Fellow in Thoracic Surgery. In 1992, Dr. Baptista relocated to the United States to complete an externship in surgery at the Brainerd Medical Center in Brainerd, Minnesota and then spent several years as a surgical research fellow at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. From 1999 to 2004, Dr. Baptista continued his surgical training with a residency that included training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Rush University in Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. After finishing his residency and fellowship, Dr. Baptista became a Clinical Instructor in Surgery at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he earned a commendation for outstanding teaching of surgical students at Rush-Presbyterian-St.Luke’s Medical Center. While at the University of Illinois, he also completed a laparoscopic / robotic surgical fellowship. During his fellowship, Dr. Baptista developed an interest in obesity and decided to commit his professional career to obesity surgery and helping patients overcome obesity. In 2006, Dr. Baptista moved to Jacksonville, Florida to join Jacksonville Surgical Associates, specializing in obesity surgery and the treatment and management of obese patients. Dr. Baptista has been certified by Allergan Medical and Ethicon Endo-Surgery to perform gastric banding surgery. Dr. Baptista has published numerous research articles in the field of laparoscopic gastric banding and regularly contributes abstracts and posters to SAGES (Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons). SAGES has recognized Dr. Baptista with a Distinction Award for his work at the Minimally Invasive Surgery Center in Chicago. Michael Baptista, MD specializes in weight loss surgery and management of the patients before and after surgery. He understands the multifactorial problem of obesity, and the surgical options for it. Dr. Baptista has had extensive training in general surgery, and bariatric surgery with focus in minimally invasive surgery having performed thousands of weight loss surgery procedures. His past training also extends to the areas of general surgery, stomach surgery, thoracic surgery, and surgical research. Besides his general surgery and bariatric surgery training he also did a fellowship in Robotic Surgery, and Minimally Invasive Surgery. One of his expertise is to perform surgery using only one special trocar and instruments at the belly button, leaving a scar that is almost invisible when it is healed up. He uses this advance technique for several surgeries such as gallbladders, appendix, hernias, and most of his bariatric surgeries. Dr. Baptista has been trained in several prestigious top medical institutions both in Brazil and in the USA, like University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic, Rush University, and University of Illinois at Chicago. He is also a consultant and proctor in bariatric surgery, teaching colleagues that are interested in the field of weight loss surgery. Dr. Baptista is a published author in the field and has given many courses, both on how to perform bariatric surgery, and how to follow up with patients afterwards. The patient care at Florida Surgical Physicians before, during and after surgery is second to none. The practice uses state-of-art equipment to evaluate and properly optimize patient’s success. Dr. Baptista doesn’t just operate on his patients, he takes care of them. He oversees the details related to patient care. His patients are provided with his personal cellular phone number in case they need to contact him with any questions or needs related to their weight loss operation. This provides a “peace of mind to the patients and to me,” he says. “Knowing my patients are well is important to me as much it is to them, and their families.”