I am humbled and deeply honored to be recognized by the ASGE as the 2023 Industry Service Award recipient. These types of awards are never won in a vacuum, and this must be shared with the many Apollo Endosurgery employees who have worked in collaboration with us over the years. The ASGE partnership has been truly special to me. From the ASGE leadership to individual course directors to the ASGE personnel, everyone has the same goal in mind: positive outcomes for the patient. Being able to train physicians from around the world, not only on products, but more importantly on procedures that these physicians can then bring back to their communities, is the best way we can impact the field of gastrointestinal endoscopy and deliver high quality care to the patient.
Prevatt is the senior director of professional education at Apollo Endosurgery. He started his career in healthcare at the age of 16, transporting patients around Loyola Medical Center in Chicago. He’s remained in healthcare ever since. Prevatt attended The Orthopedic Training Program at Cook County Hospital to start his professional career. After graduating second in his class, Prevatt worked as an orthopedic physician assistant/tech in the Chicagoland area for 10 years. During that time, he became an educational consultant for the ArthroCare Orthopedic Company, helping with orthopedic society programs held at the Orthopedic Learning Center in Rosemont. As a consultant, he was the lead trainer for the ArthroCare product line for courses that were conducted by AANA, AAOS, ACFAS, etc.
Prevatt shifted into the healthcare industry in 2007 as a clinical specialist with ArthroCare. He managed training and development for surgeons and new ArthroCare sales personnel in his region. Prevatt and his family relocated to Austin, Texas in 2011 – when he directed and grew ArthoCare’s professional education department. This involved designing and leading the construction of an in-house, state-of-the-art learning center that featured an integrated classroom and eight cadaver lab stations for physician and sales training. In May of 2014, ArthroCare was acquired by Smith & Nephew. Prevatt helped lead the cross-training of the integrated Smith & Nephew/ArthroCare sales organization following the acquisition. Prevatt’s achievements include earning the ArthroCare Distinguished Service Award in 2010 and being named ArthroCare’s 2012 Employee of the Year.
Prevatt joined Apollo Endosurgery in May of 2015 – primarily to develop and launch a training program for the U.S. introduction of the Orbera intragastric balloon. The program, which had FDA required components, completed training for more than 2,000 physicians in the first 24 months of launch. To increase lab access as well as hands-on training, Prevatt oversaw the construction and launch Apollo’s the Mobile Learning Center (MLC) in 2017. The MLC includes a mobile classroom and five state-of-the-art endoscopy stations. The MLC enabled Apollo to significantly expand its physician education reach across the US. Prevatt has also supported countless ASGE educational programs at the IT&T center and DDW. This included developing new training models and training on troubleshooting situation resolution techniques to help with the fundamentals of endoscopic suturing. In 2018, he received the Commercial Leadership Award from Apollo Endosurgery for his efforts.