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day-to-day lives will be different, and we provide them with support from the very beginning," says Program Coordinator Kate Jantz, ARNP-C. The program doesn't compromise on educating patients about the behavioral changes they'll have to make. In addition to free two-hour orientation seminars twice a month, the program includes a mandatory preoperative Lifestyles class and a postoperative class. A monthly special topics support group also is available to patients — even those who've undergone surgery years before. Most prospective surgical patients also undergo six months of Via Christi's medically supervised weight-loss program, either because of insurance criteria or to get their weight to a safe level for surgery. "Our pre-op process is one of the more rigid ones in the Via Christi Weight Management dietitian health educator Helen Ramsey with a patient approached Dr. Early about the feasibility of adding a surgi- cal weight-loss option to the already successful program. Dr. Lancaster, a board-certified surgeon since 1997, saw a need for bringing such an option to America's heartland. "Nothing was being done in Wichita at the time," says Dr. Lancaster, a former U.S. Army Reserve doctor whose surgical interests are in endocrine and laparoscopic surgeries. Via Christi was able to pair its expertise in teaching lifestyle changes and behavior modification when it comes to weight loss with another tool — bariatric surgery — to accomplish long-term weight goals for its patients. A decade later, Dr. Lancaster and his colleague, Jeremy Howes, M.D., are the only Wichita-based bariatric surgeons and the most experienced in the region. Working together as a team in nearly every surgery, they offer the gold standard Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, gastric banding (LAP-BAND) and gastric sleeve surgical techniques at Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis in Wichita. A Team Approach By the time patients contact the Weight Management team at Via Christi — which collectively has 190-plus years of experience working with patients in behavioral modification and weight loss — many have determined surgery is the last weight-loss option available to them, says dietitian health educator Helen Ramsey, RD. "We know it's tough and that it's been a long struggle," says Ramsey, who has spent the past 10 years of her 40-year dietitian career working with surgical weight-loss patients. But she and others on the team also remind patients surgery isn't a magic bullet. "At our clinic, our advantage is that we'll help educate and prepare you for your surgery and your life after surgery," Ramsey says. "We want to make sure that patients understand how their country, and certainly within the region," says Dr. Lancaster, who completed residencies at the Mayo Foundation and the University of Kansas School of Medicine. "I think it's been a key to the program's success. By the time they are scheduled for surgery, the patients are well educated and know what they are getting into. The more information patients have before going into the surgery, the better they'll be able to handle the effects of the surgery afterward. I look at my job as the surgeon as being the easiest job as part of the team. We're fortunate to have a lot of other individuals who are helping the patient outside the operating room." Along with the bariatric surgeons and its medical director, the Via Christi Weight Management team includes advanced registered nurse practitioners, a clinical outcome specialist nurse, a nurse health educator, a clinical dietitian and health educators. Brent Lancaster, M.D., Medical Director, Bariatric Surgery program for Via Christi Wichita hospitals