LEMU Board of Directors Uyen B. Chu, M.D., FACS Bariatric Surgeon, Uyen Chu, MD, FACS, plays a crucial role for the bariatric program at The Regional Medical Center of Acadiana, overseeing medical staff, nursing, administration, and other personnel. Dr. Chu, born in Vietnam and raised in New Orleans, gradulated cum laude from Tulane University in the field of Biochemistry in 1989 and completed medical school at LSUMC in New Orleans in 1993. She completed her general surgical residency training in investigational science, at which time she published many articles in the field of neuro-trauma and received national awards for best scientific presentations. Subsequently, she completed a fellowship in minimally invasive surgery at the University of Kentucky specializing in advanced laparoscopic gastrointestinal surgery. Dr. Chu is one of the first general surgeons in the Acadiana region to be trained in laparoscopic surgery on the colon, stomach, esophagus, spleen, pancreas and adrenal gland. Dr. Chu has been practicing in Lafayette Parish with Hamilton Medical Group for 7 years before joining Surgical Specialists of Louisiana. She is currently the Director of Surgical Weight Management Center, a member of the Board of Trustees for The Regional Medical Center of Acadiana and an executive committee member of the Lafayette Parish Medical Society. She is married to Albert Matt, a native of New Iberia, and has two daughters, Jessica and Samantha. In 2005, Dr. Chu was designated as a Center of Excellence Bariatric Surgeon by the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), based on comprehensive care and excellent outcomes she has provided to patients in the Acadiana region. This designation recognizes her as an experienced bariatric surgeon with low complication rates Chu completed medical school at LSUMC in New Orleans in 1993. At the University of Florida in Jacksonville, she completed five years of general surgery residency and two additional years of investigational science. This training not only established Dr. Chu as a competent surgeon but a scientist in surgical diseases. As a surgical scientist, she was determined to challenge traditional approaches to surgical diseases by investigating new techniques to improve patient care. When the field of Minimal Access Surgery was introduced into the community, Dr. Chu was determined to evaluate the potential impact on patients. After thorough investigation, she became convinced that this was the best way to operate on patients in the twenty-first century. These philosophies naturally led Dr. Chu to pursue additional fellowship training to specialize in minimal access surgery at the University of Kentucky. With the introduction of Minimal Access Surgery, patients no longer have to undergo major surgery through long painful incisions, requiring them to stay in the hospital for days. Due to advancement in technology, surgeons can now perform the same major operations using multiple small incisions, long instruments, and a small video camera. The major advantages of this technique are that patients will experience less pain, spend fewer days in the hospital, and return to normal activities quicker. The disadvantages are that it is technically more demanding than traditional operations, requires additional training for surgeons, and the complications may be more devastating. Due to Dr. Chu's specialized training, patients in Acadiana now have a choice before undergoing major surgery; they can choose the traditional approach or the new minimal access approach.