Dr. Blackstone is one of the few women surgeons in the world specializing in the Laparoscopic Gastric Bypass. With her practice focused entirely on Weight Loss Surgery, she is committed to providing patients with the very best care possible.

From a fourth generation Arizona family, Dr. Blackstone grew up in the Grand Canyon National Park. She attended the University of Arizona in Tucson after high school and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Philosophy. After being accepted as a medical student at the University of Texas in San Antonio, she graduated and received her Doctor of Medicine in 1988. Dr. Blackstone then completed her General Surgery residency at the University of Colorado graduating in 1993 as a General Surgeon specializing in the leading-edge field of Advanced Laparoscopic surgery.

In 1996, Dr. Blackstone returned to Arizona and established her private practice in Scottsdale - specializing in Advanced Laparoscopic General Surgery and Surgical Oncology. Dr. Blackstone first became interested in Gastric Bypass surgery for the morbidly obese after a close family member had the surgery in 1999. Fascinated by a very successful and obviously life-changing outcomes she established a medical model for obesity treatment that spans the continuum of disease and includes medical and surgical weight loss. Scottsdale Bariatric Center was one of the first Centers in the United States to be recognized as a Center of Excellence by Caesar's Entertainment Group through a competitive process based on structure, process and outcomes.

In 2004, Dr. Blackstone was named to the American College of Surgeons National Faculty in Bariatric Surgery and serves on the Surgical Review Corporation Review Committee for National Centers of Excellence and as a founding Board Member of the Obesity Action Coalition. Dr. Blackstone has been an outspoken advocate of outcome based medical practice. The Scottsdale Bariatric Center was recently named as an American Society of Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence.