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

December 21, 2017
UCI Health physicians of excellence 2018

The 2018 "Physicians of Excellence" list in the January 2018 edition of Orange Coast magazine contains 150 UCI Health physicians, more than that of any other health system in Orange County. 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 500 Orange County doctors in 65 specialties. The magazine is on newsstands now.

“UCI Health physicians come to work each day with an unsurpassed dedication to their patients,” said Howard. J. Federoff, MD, PhD, vice chancellor, health affairs and CEO, UCI Health. “This recognition from the Orange County Medical Association reflects the fact that nowhere else in Orange County will you find as many physicians at the top of their specialty to provide world class care both in the hospital and in outpatient settings.”

This year, UCI Health has received a seventh consecutive top grade for patient safety from The Leapfrog Group and was listed among America’s Best Hospitals for the 17th year in a row by U.S. News & World Report. In addition, OCMA named UCI Health geriatrician Lisa Gibbs, MD, its 2017 Physician of the Year.

UCI Health doctors practice across the region, in addition to the UCI Medical Center in Orange. The Gottschalk Medical Plaza at the Irvine campus features primary care services, including family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics. Specialty care available at Gottschalk includes allergy and immunology, cardiology, colorectal surgery consultation, coumadin/anticoagulation clinic, dermatology, diabetes care, endocrinology, gastroenterology, genetics, infusion services, nephrology/kidney care, neurology, pain management, pediatric cardiology, pediatric endocrinology, pediatric gender diversity clinic, rheumatology and sports medicine.

Since 2015, UCI Health has expanded access to world-class care with primary and specialty care offices in Newport Beach, Yorba Linda, Placentia and Corona. UCI Health also offers a primary and multispecialty 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, orthopedic and plastic surgery consultation, neurology, pain management, rheumatology, obstetrics and gynecology services and urology.

Previously, UCI Health 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
  • 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.

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UCI Health Physicians of Excellence for 2018:

Allery and Immunology
Donald S. Levy, MD

Anatomical and Clinical Pathology
Luis De La Maza, MD

Anesthesiology
Robert R. Field, MD
Anna L. Harris, MD
Debra Morrison, MD
Corey K. Nelson, MD
Joseph B. Rinehart, MD
Shalini Shah, MD
Coral Sun, MD
Shermeen B. Vakharia, MD
Trung Q. Vu, MD

Blood Banking/Transfusion Medicine
Minh-Ha Tran, DO

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

Child Neurology
Sharief K. Taraman, MD
Lily Hoang Tran, MD
Mary L. Zupanc, MD

Child Psychiatry
Anju Hurria, MD

Clinical Biochemical Genetics
Virginia E. Kimonis, MD
Raymond Y. Wang, MD

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

Diagnostic Radiology
Arash Anavim, MD
Joseph Burns, MD
Allen J. Cohen, MD
Stephen A. Feig, MD
Mayil Krishnam, MD
Chandana Lall, MD

Emergency Medicine
Michael J. Burns, MD
Wirachin Hoonpongsimanont, MD
Robert J. Katzer, MD
Sharam Lotfipour, MD
Megan Boysen Osborn, MD
Warren Wiechmann, MD

Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Andrew R. Reikes, MD
Ping H. Wang, MD

Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Brian J. F. Wong, MD

Family Medicine
Tan Q. Nguyen, MD
Charles Vega, MD
Baotran N. Vo, MD

Gastroenterology
Kenneth J. Chang, MD
John G. Lee, MD
Nimisha K. Parekh, MD

Geriatric Medicine
Lisa M. Gibbs, MD
Sonia R. Sehgal, MD
Steven Tam, MD

Gynecologic Oncology
Leslie M. Randall, MD
Krishnansu Tewari, MD

Internal Medicine
Ke-Qin Hu, MD
Sonali Iyer, MD
Bavani Nadeswaran, MD
Maryam Rahimi, MD
Simin Torabzadeh, MD

Internal Medicine/Hospital Medicine
Alpesh N. Amin, MD

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

Medical Oncology
Frank L. Meyskens Jr., MD
Edward L. Nelson, MD
Jason A. Zell, DO

Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
Muhammad Aslam, MD
Fayez Bany-Mohammed, MD
Rebecca J. Coleman, MD

Nephrology
Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, MD
Hamid Moradi, MD

Neurology
Yama Akbari, MD
Daniela Bota, MD
Jose A. Carrillo, MD
Mark J. Fisher, MD
Neal Hermanowicz, MD
Jack J. Lin, MD
Lilit Mnatsakanyan, MD
Tahseen Mozaffar, MD
Mona Sazgar, MD
Gaby Thai, MD

Obstetrics and Gynecology
Felicia Lane, MD

Ophthalmology
Anand Bhatt, MD
Marjan Farid, MD
Sumit (Sam) Garg, MD
Baruch D. Kuppermann, MD
Robert W. Lingua, MD
Stephanie Y. Lu, MD
Sameh Mosaed, MD
Jeremiah P. Tao, MD
Matthew W. Wade, MD

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

Pathology
Sherif A. Rezk, MD

Pediatric Pulmonology
Pornchai Tirakitsoontorn, MD

Pediatrics
Behnoosh Afghani, MD
Katherine Andreeff, MD
Jennifer Green Lusk, MD
Penny Murata, MD
Lynn Hunt, MD
Leticia Oliveros, MD
Sameer Pathare, MD

Pediatric Cardiology
Anjan Batra, MD
Nafiz M. Kiciman, MD

Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
Nick G. Anas, MD
Juliette L. Hunt, MD

Pediatric Endocrinology
Christina Reh, MD

Pediatric Gastroenterology
Phyllis Agran, MD
Jeffrey H. Ho, DO

Pediatric Hematology-Oncology
Geetha Puthenveetil, MD

Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Felice Adler-Shohet, MD
Delma Nieves, MD
Jasjit Singh, MD

Pediatric Nephrology
Shoba Narayan, MD

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Danielle Perret Karimi, MD

Plastic Surgery
Gregory Evans, MD

Psychiatry
Rimal B. Bera, MD
Robert G. Bota, MD
Lawrence R. Faziola, MD
Andrei Novac, MD
Atur V. Turakhia, MD

Radiation Oncology
Parima Daroui, MD

Rheumatology
Sheetal B. Desai, MD

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

Surgery, Cardio-Thoracic
Jeffrey C. Milliken, MD

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

Surgery, Neurological
Frank P.K. Hsu
Mark E. Linskey, MD

Surgery, Orthopedic
Nitin N. Bhatia, MD
Ranjan Gupta, MD
John A. Scolaro, MD

Urology
Thomas E. Ahlering, MD
Joel Gelman, MD
Gamal M. Ghoniem, MD
Jaime Landman, MD
Edward Uchio, MD