1. clevelandclinic.org
Bartolome Burguera, MD, PhD
Associate Staff
Director, Obesity Programs
Professor of Medicine
Endocrinology, Diabetes
and Metabolism
Appointments: 216.444.6568
Office: 216.442.5663
Fax: 216.636.1588
Evenings and weekends: 216.444.2200
to speak to an on call specialist.
Specialty Interests: Obesity, type 2 diabetes, mellitus,
bariatric medicine
Medical Degree: Universidad de Santiago de
Compostela-Facultad de Medicina, Sp, Spain
Advanced Training:
Fellowship – Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
Residency – Norwalk Hospital, Norwalk, CT
Cleveland Clinic Appointment: 2013

2. ©The Cleveland Clinic Foundation 2014 12/15
About Your Doctor:
Bartolome Burguera M.D, Ph.D. joined the Cleveland Clinic as Staff
Physician and Director of Obesity programs in the Department of
Endocrinology Metabolic Institute, on September of 2013. He is
Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine
of Case Western Reserve University. He is also the Medical Director
of the Medical Weight Management Program at the Bariatric and
Metabolic Institute.
Since his postdoc years, his research, as well as clinical interests, have
rotated around the field of obesity. He had the opportunity of working at
East Carolina University when the bypass surgery was being developed,
as a potential treatment for obesity and diabetes in the early 90’s. Over
the years working as fellow at Mayo Clinic, and as a staff consultant at
Boston University, University of Pittsburgh and Son Dureta University
Hospital (Spain), he had the opportunity to contribute to develop
the obesity programs at these institutions and also to collaborate in
major international obesity prevention and therapy initiatives. He
was also responsible for setting up the clinical trial TRAMOMTANA
which demonstrated that, there is a role for medical intensive lifestyle
intervention and therapy of morbidly obese patients who are non-
surgical candidates. This investigator initiated clinical trial, compared
the effect of intensive medical therapy to conventional care and bariatric
surgery in morbidly obese patients, over a period of 2 years.
Dr. Burguera’s main interests are bariatric medicine, surgical and
non-surgical weight loss interventions in obesity. He is also interested in
obesity prevention in children. He was responsible for a program named
ACTYBOSS, an Obesity prevention clinical trial, incentive-driven, after-
school intervention program which involved free supervised exercise
sessions and nutritional lectures.
He has served as a principal investigator, co-investigator or consultant
on several federal and pharmaceutical funded projects, focusing on
obesity therapy, both in the US and in Spain. He has published more
than 100 articles and book chapters in the field of obesity. One of his
main efforts as Director of Obesity Programs is to integrate the different
medical weight loss initiatives currently being developed at the Bariatric
and Endocrinology Institutes and to coordinate an evidence-based life-
style weight loss program based on nutritional advice, physical activity
and the use appetite-control medications, which is being offered both
to patients and Cleveland Clinic employees. It is also his job to help
overweight patients to lose weight before undergoing bariatric surgery,
(in an effort to reduce their surgical risk), as well as having a successful
long term outcome after surgery.
Dr. Burguera is active in community affairs, and is participating in
several life style intervention and obesity prevention initiatives both in
adults and children (ACTiVHOS) in the Cleveland area.