Participating Surgeons
Keith Boone, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Dr. Boone was born and raised here in the central San Joaquin Valley. He received his bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Barbara and attended the University of Southern California School of Medicine. After completing residency in General Surgery, Dr. Boone fulfilled a commitment to the United States Navy, including aircraft carrier and battle group surgeon in the Persian Gulf, and teaching surgical residents at UC Davis where he held the title of assistant clinical professor in surgery.
Dr. Boone joined Dr. Higa in 1996 and helped develop the “hand-sewn” gastrojejunal anastomotic technique used by many surgeons in performing the laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Dr. Boone has demonstrated this technique via live tele-surgery to many national conferences and has authored and co-authored many peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on weight-loss surgery. Together, Dr. Boone and Dr. Higa have performed several thousand weight-loss procedures.
Dr. Boone is currently the Director of Fellowship Education for Advanced Laparoscopic Surgery Associates Medical Group (ALSA), a group devoted to “specializing in minimally invasive solutions to general surgery problems”. This program is accredited through the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program where Dr. Boone also holds the title of associate clinical professor in surgery. He is an active member of the American Society of Bariatric and Metabolic Surgeons (ASMBS), the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), and is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS). He enjoys teaching minimally invasive techniques at national and international meetings.
Kelvin Higa, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Dr. Higa graduated from UCLA medical school in 1983. He is board certified in General Surgery. After completing his residency training in 1988, he served as Chief of Vascular Surgery at the VA Medical Center in Fresno. In 1990, he entered private practice but has continued to devote a large amount of time to teaching while serving as Chief of Surgery for Community Medical Centers as well as Saint Agnes Medical Center.
Dr. Higa has been performing open bariatric surgical procedures since the early 1990’s, long before it became popular. He and his partner Dr. Boone performed the first laparoscopic gastric bypass in the Central Valley in 1998 and pioneered the current technique used by many surgeons throughout the world. He and Professor Paul Obrien from Australia performed the very first laparoscopic adjustable gastric band in Fresno.
Dr. Higa specializes in difficult and challenging cases, including revision bariatric surgery. He serves as associate editor for many peer reviewed journals and has authored many original articles and book chapters regarding bariatric surgery and complication management. In addition to his title of Clinical Professor of Surgery at the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Program, Dr. Higa has been appointed to the National Faculty for Bariatric Surgery by the American College of Surgeons. He is the Immediate Past President for the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and continues to chair many international conferences devoted to bariatric surgery.
Edward Felix, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Dr. Felix graduated from the University of Michigan in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science in psychology and received his medical degree in 1971 from the University of Illinois Medical School in Chicago. He worked in the University of Illinois department of surgery from 1971 to 1973 and was invited to be a fellow at the NIH Cancer Institute from 1973 to 1975. In 1975, he returned to the University of Illinois and completed his surgical residency. He was appointed to the department of surgery as an assistant professor in 1978.
In 1980, Dr. Felix left Illinois to set up a private surgery practice in Fresno, California from 1980 until 1990, his emphasis was on the surgical treatment of cancer patients. He was the first surgeon in central California to use advanced laparoscopic surgical techniques to treat patients. He then developed an advanced laparoscopic center specializing in minimally invasive surgery and performed more than 7,000 laparoscopic operations over the next 13 years. He became internationally known as an expert in laparoscopic surgery and has lectured and taught his techniques to surgeons on four continents.
Dr. Felix is actively involved in teaching his techniques to other advanced surgeons from the United States and abroad. He is an assistant clinical professor of surgery at UCSF, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Bariatric Society. He has authored many scientific articles published in peer reviewed journals and several chapters in surgical textbooks.
Daniel E. Swartz, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Dr. Swartz grew up in northern California and graduated in 1994 from medical school at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He completed his general surgery residency at the Department of Surgery at McGill University in 2000 and earned a Master of Science in experimental surgery in 1999. He completed a fellowship in advanced laparoscopic surgery and surgical endoscopy at the University of Maryland in 2001. He was then appointed assistant clinical professor to the Department of Surgery at University of California, San Diego, where he developed a laparoscopic bariatric surgery program in addition to teaching residents, performing research and maintaining a busy clinical practice. In 2002, he joined Dr. Edward L. Felix, in Fresno, California, at the Advanced Bariatric Center where together they provide care to a large number of patients seeking permanent weight loss and a cure to their many obesity-related medical diseases.
Dr. Swartz specializes in endoscopic procedures. He is an active member of the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons, the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He has been widely published on a wide range of surgical and basic science topics.
For physician referral information, please call the Weight-Loss Surgery Center at (800) 260-0663.