OC Medical Association recognizes 150 UCI Health doctors as Physicians of Excellence

December 22, 2016

More than 150 UCI Health physicians have been named as “Physicians of Excellence” in the January 2017 edition of Orange Coast magazine. The recognition is bestowed by the Orange County Medical Association, a voluntary physician organization that exists to promote the art and science of medicine, the protection of public health, and the betterment of the medical profession.

The complete list includes approximately 470 Orange County physicians in 65 specialties. UCI Health has more physicians recognized than any other medical group in Orange County.

In the past year, UCI Health has received a fifth consecutive top grade for patient safety from The Leapfrog Group and was listed among America’s Best Hospitals for the 16th year in a row by U.S. News & World Report.

UCI Health doctors practice across the region, in addition to the UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange and the Gottschalk Medical Plaza at the UC Irvine campus. In 2016, UCI Health expanded access to world-class care with new primary and specialty care offices opening in Newport Beach, Yorba Linda, Placentia and Corona.

Last year, UCI Health opened a primary and multi-specialty care office in Tustin that includes cardiology, dermatology, ear, nose and throat, endocrinology and endocrine surgery, gastroenterology and digestive disease care, family and internal medicine, general and orthopaedic surgery consultation, neurology, pain management, rheumatology, obstetrics and gynecology services, pediatrics and urology. Previously, UCI Health Medical Group opened offices in Tustin and Orange to deliver primary care  medicine to the surrounding community.

UCI Health also offers specialty care in cancer, breast health, digestive diseases, plastic surgery, neurosurgery and dermatology at the Pacific Medical Plaza in Costa Mesa.

To be eligible for OCMA recognition, physicians were required to be certified by a member board of the American Board of Medical Specialties, a member board of the American Board of Osteopathic Medical Specialties, or an equivalency board recognized by the Medical Board of California or Osteopathic Medical Board of California; be in good standing with the Medical Board of California or Osteopathic Medical Board of California; maintain a primary practice in Orange County for the last five years; and be in practice within his/her specialty for the last five years.  Additionally, physicians were required to meet at least two of the following criteria: physician leadership; teaching/mentoring; medical research/scientific advances; and humanitarian service.

UCI Health Physicians of Excellence for 2017:

Anesthesiology
Anna L. Harris, M.D.
Richard J. Kelly, M.D.
Debra Morrison, M.D.
Corey Keola Nelson, M.D.
Shermeen Vakharia, M.D.

Anesthesiology/Pain Medicine
Shalini Shah, M.D.
Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine
Minh-Ha Tran, D.O.

Cardiovascular Disease
Byron J. Allen, M.D.
Jin Kyung Kim, M.D.
Shaista Malik, M.D.
Pranav M. Patel, M.D.

Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Atur Vikram Turakhia, M.D.

Child Neurology
Sharief K. Taraman, M.D.

Clinical Biochemical Genetics
Raymond Y. Wang, M.D.

Clinical Genetics
Virginia Kimonis, M.D.

Dermatology
Kristen M. Kelly, M.D.
Patrick K. Lee, M.D.

Diagnostic Radiology
Arash Anavim, M.D.
Joseph E. Burns, M.D.
Allen J. Cohen, M.D.
Stephen A. Feig, M.D.
Tatiana Kain, M.D.
Mayil Krishnam, M.D.

Emergency Medicine
Michael J. Burns, M.D.
Carrie Chandwani, M.D.
Robert Katzer, M.D.
Kristi L. Koenig, M.D.
Mark I. Langdorf, M.D.
Megan Boysen Osborn, M.D.
Andrew C. Wong, M.D.

Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Andrew Reikes, M.D.
Ping H. Wang, M.D.

Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Brian J. F. Wong, M.D.

Family Medicine
Emily Dow, M.D.
Charles Vega, M.D.

Gastroenterology
Kenneth J. Chang, M.D.
John G. Lee, M.D.
Nimisha Parekh, M.D.

Geriatric Medicine
Lisa Gibbs, M.D.
Sonia Sehgal, M.D.
Steven Tam, M.D.

Gynecologic Oncology
Michael L. Berman, M.D.
Leslie M. Randall, M.D.
Krishnansu S. Tewari, M.D.

Hematology-Medical Oncology
Chaitali Nangia, M.D.

Internal Medicine
Ke-Qin Hu, M.D.
Sonali L. Iyer, M.D.
Dennis R. Long, M.D.
Bavani Nadeswaran, M.D.
Bindu Swaroop, M.D.

Internal Medicine/Hospital Medicine
Alpesh N. Amin, M.D.

Interventional Radiology
Scott C. Goodwin, M.D.

Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Judith Chung, M.D.
Afshan Hameed, M.D.
Tamera Hatfield, M.D.
Carol Major, M.D.
Manuel Porto, M.D.
Julianne Toohey, M.D.
Deborah Wing, M.D.

Medical Oncology
Jason A. Zell, D.O.

Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
Muhammad Aslam, M.D.
Cherry C. Uy, M.D.
Irfan Ahmad, M.D.
Fayez Bany-Mohammed, M.D.
Daryoush Bassiri, M.D.
Rebecca J. Coleman, M.D.
Lavonne Sheng, M.D.

Nephrology
Hamid Moradi, M.D.
Madeleine V. Pahl, M.D.

Neurology
Daniela Bota, M.D.
Jose Carrillo, M.D.
Mark Jay Fisher, M.D.
Neal Hermanowicz, M.D.
Claudia Kawas, M.D.
Lilit Mnatsakanyan, M.D.
Tahseen Mozaffar, M.D.
Gaby Thai, M.D.
Obstetrics and Gynecology
Jacqueline Guerrero, M.D.
Tabetha Harken, M.D.
Felicia Lane, M.D.
Naghmeh Salamat Saberi, M.D.

Ophthalmology
Marjan Farid, M.D.
Sumit (Sam) Garg, M.D.
Baruch D. Kuppermann, M.D.
Stephanie Lu, M.D.
Sameh Mosaed, M.D.
Jennifer L. Simpson, M.D.
Jeremiah P. Tao, M.D.

Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery
William B. Armstrong, M.D.
Naveen D. Bhandarkar, M.D.
Roger L. Crumley, M.D.
Hamid R. Djalilian, M.D.
Sunil Verma, M.D.

Pediatric Cardiology
Anjan S. Batra, M.D.
Nita Doshi, M.D.
Nafiz M. Kiciman, M.D.

Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Nick Anas, M.D.
Jason Cook, M.D.
Michele Domico, M.D.
Jason M. Knight, M.D.
Patricia Liao, M.D.
Adam J. Schwarz, M.D.

Pediatric Endocrinology
Mark W. Daniels, M.D.

Pediatric Gastroenterology
Phyllis Agran, M.D.
Kenneth Grant, M.D.
Mitchell Katz, M.D.
Anup Patel, M.D.

Pediatric Hematology-Oncology
Geetha Puthenveetil, M.D.
Amit Soni, M.D.

Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Felice Adler-Shohet, M.D.
Antonio Arrieta, M.D.
Negar Ashouri, M.D.
Delma Nieves, M.D.
Jasjit Singh, M.D.

Pediatric Oncology
Ivan Kirov, M.D.
Elyssa Rubin, M.D.
Lilibeth Torno, M.D.

Pediatric Pulmonology
Pornchai Tirakitsoontorn, M.D.

Pediatrics
Behnoosh Afghani, M.D.
Katherine Andreeff, M.D.
Jennifer Green Lusk, M.D.
Penny Reiko Murata, M.D.
Leticia Oliveros, M.D.
Sameer Pathare, M.D.

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Danielle Perret Karimi, M.D.

Plastic Surgery
Gregory R.D. Evans, M.D.
Daniel Jaffurs, M.D.
Keyianoosh Paydar, M.D.

Psychiatry
Rimal B. Bera, M.D.
Robert G. Bota, M.D.
Lawrence R. Faziola, M.D.
Anju Hurria, M.D.
Adrian Preda, M.D.

Surgery
Cristobal Barrios, Jr., M.D.
Nicole P. Bernal, M.D.
Aram Demirjian, M.D.
Matthew O. Dolich, M.D.
David K. Imagawa, M.D.
Allen P. Kong, M.D.
Michael E. Lekawa, M.D.
Ninh T. Nguyen, M.D.
Brian R. Smith, M.D.

Surgery, Colon and Rectal
Joseph C. Carmichael, M.D.
Steven D. Mills, M.D.
Michael J. Stamos, M.D.

Surgery, Neurological
Mark E. Linskey, M.D.
Surgery, Orthopedic
Nitin N. Bhatia, M.D.

Surgery, Thoracic and Cardiac
Jeffrey C. Milliken, M.D.

Urology
Ralph V. Clayman, M.D.
Joel Gelman, M.D.
Gamal M. Ghoniem, M.D.
Jaime Landman, M.D.
Edward Uchio, M.D.