Luke Funk, MD, MPH, associate professor in the Wisconsin Department of Surgery and Director of MIS Research, was recently accepted into the Society of Clinical Surgery. Dr. Funk has been at UW-Madison since 2013 and was named Chief of the Division of General Surgery at the William S. Middleton Veterans Administration Hospital in 2019.
Dr. Funk’s research interests are focused on improving the health of adults with obesity by identifying and eliminating barriers to evidence-based obesity care. He has developed an educational intervention to address these barriers in U.S. Veterans and is investigating disparities in bariatric surgery outcomes.
Dr. Funk currently serves as the lead ASMBS Access to Care Committee advocate for nine states in the Midwest. In part due to those efforts, Wisconsin began covering bariatric surgery for state employees on January 1, 2020. As a result of this coverage change and other local insurance changes, UW-Madison’s bariatric surgery volume has quadrupled over the past four years.
Dr. Funk has also represented the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as the co-Chair of the Bariatric Surgery workgroup at the 2016 State of the Art Conference for Weight Management in Washington D.C. He first-authored the white paper that serves as the blueprint for the obesity research agenda for the VA.
The Society of Clinical Surgery (SCS) is one of the most prestigious surgical honor societies in the country. The elite and select members of this organization consist of clinicians, researchers, and educators who have made profound contributions to the field of surgery. The application process is competitive as the society only allows for 60 active members. The activities of the society are directed toward the general advancement of surgery and seek to stimulate original thought and investigation to improve methods of surgical teaching.