He is a Board Certified Surgeon, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons (FACS), a Fellow of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (FASMBS), an ASMBS Center of Excellence Bariatric Surgeon and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans.

Dr. Lavin founded Surgical Specialists of Louisiana in 2000 developing it to become one of the leading surgical weight loss programs in the U.S. as well as a medical-tourism destination for patients worldwide. He has been an innovator in the development of incisionless and minimally invasive weight loss procedures, techniques and instruments. Dr. Lavin was the Primary Clinical Investigator in the POSE ESSENTIAL Trial, one of the first FDA trials designed to evaluate weight loss using an incisionless surgical platform. 

A sought after speaker in the area of bariatric surgery, Dr. Lavin has been presenting nationally as well as internationally, most recently in the summer of 2016 at the European Federation of Surgery for Obesity in Gothenburg, Sweden and at the Robb Report Health & Wellness Summit in Deer Valley, Utah. He has been featured as a guest on the nationally syndicated show “The Doctors”, and ABC’s “Good Morning America”. Dr. Lavin has trained and proctored surgeons, as well as performed live surgeries for the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.