Benjamin Clapp

Dr. Benjamin Clapp FACS, FASMBS is a private bariatric and minimally invasive general surgeon practicing in El Paso, Texas. He is in private practice but holds a clinical academic appointment at the Texas Tech School of Medicine at El Paso as an Associate Clinical Professor of Surgery. Dr. Clapp’s clinical and research contributions to bariatric surgery have established him as an expert in the feld. Dr. Clapp was born in San Antonio, Texas, but grew up in Germany, as his father was in the US Army. He lived in Germany until the age of 17 and then returned to Texas to attend university at Texas Tech. Dr. Clapp attended medical school at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, where he completed his degree in 2000. He then did his general surgery residency at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. During his residency, he was fortunate enough to spend time with Dr. Lee Swanstrom in Portland, Oregon. He considers Dr. Swanstrom a mentor who helped him realize that a private practice surgeon can contribute to surgical education and research. He completed his Bariatric and MIS fellowship at the University of Texas at Houston, under Dr. Erik Wilson. During his fellowship, he was also trained by two pioneers in minimally invasive surgery, Dr. Morris Franklin and Dr. Patrick Reardon. After going into private practice upon completion of his fellowship, he performed the range of general surgery, but focused on bariatric surgery and foregut. He is currently the medical director of his hospitals’ bariatric center. Dr. Clapp has been in private practice for sixteen years. He has trained medical students and residents for the last 8 years, after he felt he had obtained enough experience in private practice to share with the next generation. He currently trains residents from two different surgical programs—Texas Tech HSC School of Medicine, El Paso, and the William Beaumont Army Medical Center. He has been awarded the Clinical Faculty of the Year award, the “Student’s Choice” Award, and the Texas Star Award. Dr. Clapp has always been interested in research, but his collaboration with Texas Tech University as a Clinical Professor has allowed him to expand his research footprint. His research interests include big data, specifically the MBSAQIP database and the Texas State Inpatient databases, hiatal hernia, and neuro-ophthalmologic changes after bariatric surgery and revisional bariatric surgery. Dr. Clapp is the co-chair of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons (ASMBS) Research Committee, the lead of the ASMBS Numbers Task Force, a member of the Community and Independent Practice Committee (ASMBS), and a member of the Publications Committee for the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons. He is vice president of the largest ASMBS state chapter, the Texas Association for Bariatric Surgery. He has over 75 peer reviewed publications, numerous podium presentations, posters and faculty invites, and an i10 index of 20, and his work has been cited over 700 times. Dr. Clapp is also on the Editorial Board of Surgery of Obesity and Related Diseases. He serves as an expert medical consultant for two state medical boards and has served multiple times as a panelist, moderator, and presenter for international webinars and conferences. Dr. Clapp has spoken at a national level on practice management and enjoys using social media for surgical education. Ben has been married to Luz Allen-Clapp, MD, for 22 exciting and eventful years. She is a practicing pediatric emergency physician, and they have four children together,