What Are the Benefits of Joining ASMBS as a Healthcare Professional?

ASMBS (the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery) offers four concrete membership benefits for healthcare professionals: a complimentary digital subscription to SOARD (Surgery for Obesity And Related Diseases), discounted registration for the ASMBS Annual Meeting, ASMBS Weekend, and post-graduate CE courses, access to the private ASMBS DocMatter online community, and inclusion in the Find a Provider registry that prospective patients can search. Membership is open to surgeons, osteopathic physicians, physicians, and supporting healthcare professionals.

The Four Membership Benefits

Complimentary SOARD Digital Subscription

Members receive a complimentary subscription to the digital version of SOARD, Surgery for Obesity And Related Diseases — ASMBS's own journal. For anyone who needs to keep current with bariatric and metabolic surgery literature, this is the benefit with the most direct day-to-day value, since it removes the cost and access friction of a separate journal subscription.

Discounted Registration for Meetings and CE Courses

Members get discounted registration to:

• The ASMBS Annual Meeting
• ASMBS Weekend
• Post-graduate CE courses

The discount applies across all three, so the benefit scales with how much continuing education you already plan to attend. If you attend the Annual Meeting regularly, this is typically the benefit that most directly offsets the cost of dues. Note that ASMBS does not publish dues or registration prices on the page referenced here, so you would need to check current rates before comparing.

Access to the ASMBS DocMatter Online Community

Membership includes access to the ASMBS DocMatter Online Community — described as a private platform where members discuss cases and engage in clinical discourse. The practical value here is peer consultation: a place to raise a difficult case or a clinical question with other bariatric professionals rather than working it out alone. Because it is private and member-only, it is not something you can access without joining.

Inclusion in the Find a Provider Registry

Your practice and contact information can be listed in the Find a Provider registry, which prospective patients search. This turns membership into a patient-facing referral channel: someone looking for a bariatric provider in your area can find you through the registry. For surgeons and practices building a referral base, this is the benefit with the clearest outward-facing return.

Who Is Eligible to Join

ASMBS states that it welcomes "all surgeons, osteopathic physicians, physicians, and supporting healthcare professionals." That is a broader eligibility set than surgeon-only societies — it explicitly includes supporting healthcare professionals, not just operating surgeons.

How to Decide Whether It Is Worth It

If you attend at least one ASMBS meeting or course per year and want the journal and peer community, the combination of benefits is straightforward. If you are a supporting healthcare professional rather than a surgeon, eligibility still applies, but weigh the registry listing and CE discounts against your actual involvement in bariatric care.

What to Check Before Joining

• Current dues and registration prices — not published on the page referenced here; confirm directly with ASMBS.
• Whether your meeting plans are concrete — the registration discount only pays off if you actually attend.
• Registry visibility — confirm what information would be listed and how patients would find it.

For the full membership details and to join, go to asmbs.org and follow the Membership section.