The Weight
of Waiting

Dr. Al Momani is a Consultant Laparoscopic General and Bariatric Surgeon. He completed his surgical training in the UK, followed by an advanced oesophago-gastric surgery fellowship at the Cancer Institute Hospital in Tokyo and a Royal College of Surgeons of England fellowship in advanced upper GI and bariatric surgery. He previously served as a Consultant Upper GI and Bariatric Surgeon in the UK and as Senior Honorary Clinical Lecturer at Swansea University School of Medicine. He chairs the Communication Committee of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO) and sits on the editorial board of the journal Obesity Surgery.

Dr. Stanford is one of the first fellowship-trained obesity medicine physicians worldwide, with more than 300 peer-reviewed publications. She trained at Emory University, the Medical College of Georgia and the Harvard Kennedy School, and completed her obesity medicine and nutrition fellowship at MGH/Harvard Medical School. She was named to the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee by the US Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture, and was The Obesity Society Clinician of the Year in 2020. In 2022, the National Academy of Medicine selected her as a Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence.

Dr. Christofides is dual board certified in internal medicine and in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism. She is the founder and director of Endocrinology Research Associates, an independent facility conducting all phases of clinical research. She trained at The Ohio State University and completed her endocrinology fellowship at Louisiana State University Medical Center. A Fellow of the American College of Endocrinology, she serves on the AACE Diabetes Algorithm Task Force, is past Chair of the Obesity and Nutrition Resource Center, and is a member of the ADA Diabetes Nutrition and Technology advisory group.

Dr. Hafidh has more than 20 years of experience in internal medicine, diabetes, obesity and metabolism. She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and a member of the American College of Physicians, and holds academic appointments at Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences and Dubai Medical University. She is a certified SCOPE obesity expert and has contributed to the Emirates Diabetes Society’s type 2 diabetes guidelines and the Emirates consensus on cardiovascular risk management in type 2 diabetes. Her research focuses on cardiovascular complications in diabetes and obesity, and on diabetes care during Ramadan.