Michel Gagner

Youth and Education

While Michel Gagner’s father was a gynecologist, his mother was a neonatal nurse practitioner. At the age of two months, his family left Quebec for Detroit, United States, where his father had to undergo his residency in gynecology. Upon return to Quebec, specifically in the city of Sherbrooke, Michel Gagner was enrolled in the Le Carillon elementary school, where he skipped two grades, that is, grade one and grade seven. Subsequently, he moved to the Séminaire de Sherbrooke, where he studied for seven years, thereby obtaining his college diploma in 1978 in pure and health sciences. At barely 18 years of age, he was admitted into the Faculté de Médecine at the Université de Sherbrooke and in 1982, he was awarded his degree in medicine. (see also Contemporary Medicine.)

With a passion for research and innovation, Michel Gagner decided to specialise in surgery at McGill University, where he completed his residency from 1982 to 1988. In addition, in 1989 and from 1989 to 1990, respectively, he completed fellowships at the l’Hôpital Paul-Brousse in Paris, France and at Lahey Clinic Medical Centre in Burlington, United States. It was during these postdoctoral fellowships that he touched base with his love for surgical research, that is, laparoscopy. The laparoscopic technique consists of carrying out different types of abdominal surgery without the need for large incisions, as is the case with standard surgery.

Career Highlights

Laparoscopy

In 1990, Michel Gagner was recruited by the Université de Montréal School of Medicine, Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal (see Hôtel-Dieu) as assistant professor of surgery. Thus, it was on the upper floor of this hospital that research and training in laparoscopic surgery started in Quebec. Surgeons and researchers came from all over the planet to learn the laparoscopic procedure. Funds generated from these courses were injected into research and teaching. As such, this technique was rapidly replicated in other surgical procedures like adrenal gland removal, liver and pancreas surgery. Still within this period, laparoscopic bypass was already in use. Michel Gagner continued innovating, and with the support of Professor Richard Hurteau, an engineer at the École Polytechnique de Montréal, and Dr. Eric Begin, specialist in laparoscopy, they designed a robotic arm capable of assisting during a gallbladder surgery. (See also Robotics in Canada.) Their findings were published in March 1994 in the journal The Lancet, titled: Robotic Interactive Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.

For quite some time, Dr. Michel Gagner’s reputation was beyond the Canadian border. Thus, in July 1995, considered the pioneer in robotic surgery, Dr. Michel Gagner was recruited by the renowned Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the United States. In 1998, he was appointed as professor of surgery at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, where he became research president of the Franz Sichel Foundation. While at Mount Sinai, he came up with the laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, a procedure consisting of removing a part of the stomach, thereby adding to his string of innovations that were making headlines across the planet. In 2003, he joined Cornell University as a professor of surgery.

First Transatlantic Robotic Surgery

In 1996, Michel Gagner performed surgery with the prototype of the ZEUS robot (by Computer Motion Inc.) at Cleveland Clinic. ZEUS is a robotic arm that imitates the arm movements of a surgeon. Again, at the turn of the year 2000, Dr. Michel Gagner used this robot as a surgeon at Mount Sinai Hospital to perform surgery on a patient in Strasbourg, France. In other words, one robot in New York, manipulated by Michel Gagner, while the other, in Strasbourg performed the surgery. This surgery, jointly conducted with Dr. Jacques Marescaux and Dr. Joel Leroy, was published in 2001 in the journal Nature.

In 2007, Michel Gagner cofounded Endo Metabolic Solutions (EMS) in Minneapolis, specialised in the production of medical devices for obesity surgery and in 2008, he became the president of the Department of Surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Centre, Miami. After having worked in several American hospitals, Michel Gagner was invited to work in Qatar and Kuwait, where he performed surgery not only on patients from the royal family but also on world-acclaimed artists.

In August 2014, Michel Gagner chaired the World Congress of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders, held at the Montréal Convention Centre. The event was an international success. In 2017, he acquired the Westmount Square Surgical Centre in Montreal.

Moreover, In 2020, Michel Gagner cofounded GT Metabolic Solutions, a company that manufactures magnetic compression surgical technologies. Three years later (2023), he and his colleagues authored his recent breakthroughs in the field, in an article published in the prestigious Surgical Endoscopy journal titled: Side-to-side magnet anastomosis system duodeno-ileostomy with sleeve gastrectomy: early multi-centre results.

Publications

To date, Michel Gagner has jointly published more than 500 scientific articles, 50 book chapters and 14 books on minimally invasive surgery.

Prizes and Awards

Throughout his career, Michel Gagner has meritoriously received numerous honorary memberships and very prestigious prizes the world over, among which are the following:

• Honorary Member, French-speaking Association of Endocrine Surgery (1994)
• Honorary Member, Peruvian Surgical Society (1998)
• Honorary Member, Brazilian College of Surgeons (2003)
• Honorary Member, French Association of Surgery (2006)
• Medal Award, French National Assembly (2010-2011)
• Marie Lannelongue International Medal, National Academy of Surgery (2022)
• Roswell Park Medal, Buffalo Surgical Society (2024)
• George Berci Lifetime Achievement Award, Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (2024)