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initiative provides professional certification to MBS surgeons worldwide, establishing robust
minimum standards for MBS trainees to ensure that every patient receives care aligned with IFSO's
highest standards.

Nurturing the Next Generation: Young IFSO

None of our current achievements will matter if we do not prepare the next generation to carry them
forward. Created to connect early career surgeons and integrated health professionals, the Young
IFSO section has become one of the most vital components of our federation. By organizing
dedicated Young IFSO congress sessions, facilitating international research collaborations, and
providing mentorship programs, this vital division within IFSO stimulates its members to grow within
the federation and excel in their individual careers. They represent the future leaders of our society,
ensuring our continued vitality and technological fluency.

Breaking the Stigma: Advocacy Beyond the Operating Room

Finally, "IFSO Now" means recognizing that our battle against obesity is not fought solely in the clinic
or the operating room, it must also be fought in the public consciousness. For too long, individuals
living with obesity have been subjected to cruel societal stigma, blamed for a condition that is, in
reality, a complex physiological disease. IFSO has always, but now especially, taken an active stance
in patient advocacy by launching direct-to-consumer campaigns. Our goal is to educate the public,
dismantle these deeply ingrained prejudices, and definitively communicate that obesity is not a
personal failing or a lack of willpower; it is a disease requiring medical treatment.
Our ultimate goal is life-long patient support and sustainable disease remission. By utilizing all
available treatment options, setting global standards for excellence, and advocating fiercely for our
patients' dignity, IFSO is better equipped than ever to reverse the most serious global health
epidemic of our time.

A New Name for a New Era
In September 2025, at its World Congress in Santiago, Chile, coinciding with the thirtieth anniversary
of its founding in Stockholm, IFSO’s membership approved another milestone in the Federation’s
evolution: a change of name from the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and
Metabolic Disorders to the International Federation for the Surgery and Other Therapies for Obesity,
as proposed by Ricardo Cohen, retaining the familiar IFSO acronym. The renaming reflected the
Federation’s recognition that obesity is a complex, chronic disease increasingly addressed through
a comprehensive, multimodal approach—surgical, pharmacological, endoscopic, and
behavioral—rather than surgery alone. Three decades after a small group of pioneering surgeons
gathered to found a single international society, IFSO’s identity had grown, once again, to match the
breadth of the field it represents.

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