Donald Yarbrough

Don Yarbrough, MD, was born and raised on a farm in Alabama, and knew from a very young age that he wanted to be doctor. He was educated at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, studying biology as an undergraduate and graduated medical school at the University of Alabama School of Medicine, finishing high in his class in 2000. After medical school, Dr. Yarbrough trained in general surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he was first exposed to open bariatric surgery techniques along with the full breadth of general surgery. At Mayo Dr. Yarbrough learned the Mayo principles of surgery that places the needs of the patients first, principles that guide him in his practice of surgery today. Dr. Yarbrough completed his surgical training in 2006 in a prestigious advanced minimally-invasive gastrointestinal and bariatric surgery fellowship at UAB University Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. At UAB Dr. Yarbrough was a junior attending and learned advanced laparoscopic bariatric surgery from Dr. Ronald Clements, along with other advanced GI and esophagus surgery from Dr. Mary Hawn. He has published several scientific journal articles and lectures at national surgery conferences on bariatric surgery and other topics such as robotic surgery. Dr. Yarbrough has been practicing bariatric and general surgery in the Willamette Valley of Oregon since 2006, co-founding the Oregon Bariatric Center in Eugene (earning Center of Excellence designation) before joining the Samaritan Bariatric Program in Corvallis in 2009. He has completed over 1000 stapled bariatric procedures (gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy) with exemplary clinical outcomes. In 2015, Dr. Yarbrough became the founding Medical Director of the Samaritan Weight Management and Metabolic Surgery Institute. In 2010, Dr. Yarbrough became the first bariatric surgeon in Oregon, and one of the first on the West Coast, to train in robotic surgery and apply robotic techniques to bariatric procedures. Since that time he has established Good Samaritan as one of the premier robotic bariatric surgery programs in the nation, earning a designation as a National Robotic Epicenter for Bariatric Surgery in 2014, only the 4th such designation in the US, and only one west of Texas, by Intuitive Surgical. Dr. Yarbrough and his surgical team at Good Samaritan earned this distinction due to excellent clinical outcomes in safety and quality results, meticulous surgical technique, communication and teaching ability, and a best-in-class robotic bariatric program. As a result of the Robotic Surgery Epicenter designation, surgeons from across the country come to Good Samaritan to observe and study Dr. Yarbroughs bariatric surgical technique and program. Dr. Yarbrough also teaches residents and students as a core faculty member of the General Surgery Residency at Good Samaritan, the main teaching hospital of Western University College of Osteopathic Medicine Pacific Northwest. He serves as the hospital's Director of Surgical Quality and Safety, as well as the chair of Professionalism and Wellness. Don loves the outdoors and enjoys the splendor of the Pacific NW with his family and their labradoodle on a small farm with strawberries, ckickens and goats. He and his wife, Lisa, are nutrition and exercise enthusiasts who recently finished a marathon together and are active members of the First Christian Church of Corvallis.