Dr. Derek Rogalsky is a general and bariatric surgeon at North Bend Medical Center in Bay Bariatrics. He grew up in the Northwest, in Eastern Washington, and attended college at Seattle University. It was there that he met his wife, Rebekah, and started his journey into service and medicine.
After receiving their undergraduate degrees, Dr. Rogalsky and Rebekah, spent a year teaching and mentoring at a school in Haiti for the underserved. Following this year of service, Dr. Rogalsky enrolled at Georgetown University School of Medicine. At Georgetown, he learned the concept of Cura personalis, the motto of Georgetown medical school, meaning ‘care of the whole person.’ The motto is most embodied by caring not only for a person’s medical needs but recognizing how social, emotional, and spiritual needs play a huge part in a person’s health. He left Georgetown University with this philosophy of medicine deeply ingrained and pursued his surgical training back home in the Northwest at Oregon Health and Science University.
His philosophy of surgically assisted weight loss is that the operation is only a piece of the greater puzzle. Every patient needs to find their own motivating factors for weight loss and make substantial life changes in order for the surgery to be maximally effective. Dr. Rogalsky believes it is his job to support people through these important life changes with a thoughtful, thorough, and diligent approach to the preoperative work-up, giving people a technically flawless operation when it is time, and following patients throughout their postoperative journey to ensure success.
