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UCI Health celebrates more than 215 Physicians of Excellence

01.05.2026

Leaders in their specialty chosen by the Orange County Medical Association; more than any other OC health system

uci health radiology chief dr. vahid yaghmai speaks to attendees at the uci health irvine community open house on september 19
Dr. Vahid Yaghmai, chair of UCI Health Radiology, speaks to community members during a recent tour of UCI Health — Irvine.

Orange, Calif. — More than 215 UCI Health doctors have been recognized as 2026 Physicians of Excellence by the Orange County Medical Association (OCMA), more than any other health system in the region.

OCMA's Physician of Excellence program, now in its 22nd year, honors physicians in Orange County who have exhibited the skills, training and commitment to their patients and the community to stand above their peers as physicians of excellence.

The complete list, published in the January 2026 issue of Orange Coast Magazine, includes nearly 700 Orange County physicians across about 75 clinical specialties.

OCMA is regarded as having a fair and unbiased process for selecting Physicians of Excellence awardees. To be eligible for recognition, physicians are required to:

  • Be certified by a member board within the American Board of Medical Specialties, the American Board of Osteopathic Medical Specialties or an equivalent board recognized by the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California
  • Be in good standing with the Medical Board of California or Osteopathic Medical Board of California
  • Have maintained their primary practice in Orange County for the last five years
  • Have practiced within their specialty for the last five years

Doctors also are required to demonstrate achievements in at least two of the following criteria: physician leadership; teaching/mentoring; medical research/scientific advances; humanitarian service and unique contributions in community service.

UCI Health is proud to recognize our more than 215 UCI Health doctors named 2026 Physicians of Excellence. The compassionate, expert care they provide helps us deliver on our promise of a healthier tomorrow for our patients and our community as a whole.

2026 UCI Health Physicians of Excellence

Allergy
Donald S. Levy, MD

Anesthesiology
Kyle Ahn, MD
Melissa Chang, MD
Robert R. Field, MD
Kimberly M. Gimenez, MD
Anna L. Harris, MD
Richard J. Kelly, MD
Debra E. Morrison, MD
Ariana M. Nelson, MD
Kyle Parades, MD
Lynnus Peng, MD
Ramin Rahimian, MD
Anil Tiwari, MD
Trung Vu, MD
Gregory Yoshikawa, MD

Cardiovascular disease
Ailin Barseghian El-Farra, MD
Roxana Ghashghaei, MD
Jin Kyung Kim, MD, PhD
Ali Naqvi, MD
Pranav M. Patel, MD

Dermatology
Linda T. Doan, MD
Kristen M. Kelly, MD
Bonnie A. Lee, MD
Patrick K. Lee, MD
Natasha Mesinkovska, MD
Melissa L. Shive, MD
Janellen Smith, MD

Diagnostic radiology
Arash Anavim, MD
Joseph E. Burns, MD
Hyung Won Choi, MD
Maryam Golshan-Momeni, MD
Mohammad Helmy, MD
Roozbeh Houshyar, MD
Rony Kampalath, MD
Edward, Kuoy, MD
Irene S. Tsai, MD
Marisa Tseng, MD
Vahid Yaghmai, MD
Jennifer J. Young, MD

Emergency medicine
Patrick Aguilera, MD
Carrie Chandwani, MD
Heesun Choi, DO
Timothy Korber, MD
Mark I. Langdorf, MD
Megan Boysen Osborn, MD
Ronald J. Rivera, MD
Lindsay C. Spiegelman, MD
Alisa V. Wray, MD

Facial plastic & reconstructive surgery
Brian J.F. Wong, MD

Family medicine
Tan Q. Nguyen, MD
Andrew S. Nobe, MD
Baotran N. Vo, MD

Gastroenterology
C. Gregory Albers, MD
Ke-Qin Hu, MD
John G. Lee, MD
Christina Ling, MD
Nimisha K. Parekh, MD
Sandra Sunhee Park, MD
Jason B. Samarasena, MD

Geriatric medicine
Elham Arghami, MD
Lisa M. Gibbs, MD
Sonia R. Sehgal, MD
Steven P. Tam, MD

Gynecologic oncology
Krishnansu Tewari, MD
Jill Tseng, MD

Hematology-oncology
Elizabeth A. Brém, MD
Stefan O. Ciurea, MD
Deepa Jeyakumar, MD
Edward L. Nelson, MD
Zahra Pakbaz, MD
Lauren Pinter-Brown, MD
Richard A. Van Etten, MD, PhD

Hospice/palliative care
Shiho Ito, MD

Internal Medicine
 Alpesh Amin, MD, MBA
Emilie L. Chow, MD
Sonali Iyer, MD
Bavani Nadeswaran, MD
Hoang Anh Nguyen, MD
Maryam Rahimi, MD
Virgil S. Raymundo, MD
Bobby Sasson, MD
 Interventional radiology
Nadine Abi-Jaoudeh, MD
Dayantha M. Fernando, MD 

Maternal-fetal medicine
Judith H. Chung, MD, PhD
Afshan Hameed, MD
Tamera J. Hatfield, MD, PhD
Jennifer A. Jolley, MD
Carol Major, MD
Manuel Porto, MD
Jonathan G. Steller, MD

Medical oncology
Farshid Dayyani, MD, PhD
Nataliya Mar, MD
Arash Rezazadeh Kalebasty, MD
Jason A. Zell, DO

Neonatal-perinatal medicine
Muhammad Aslam, MD
Fayez Bany-Mohammed, MD
Rebecca J. Coleman, MD
Cherry Uy, MD

Neurodevelopmental disorders
Peter Chung, MD
Thusa Sabapathy, MD

Neurology
Yama Akbari, MD, PhD
Sanaz Attaripour Isfahani, MD
Mark J. Fisher, MD
Namita A. Goyal, MD
Xiao-Tang Kong, MD, PhD
Lilit Mnatsakanyan, MD
Tahseen Mozaffar, MD
Mona Sazgar, MD

Nephrology
Anthony Ferrey, MD
Ramy Hanna, MD
Wei Ling Lau, MD
Uttam Reddy, MD
Ekamol Tantisattamo, MD

Neurosurgery
Jefferson Chen, MD, PhD
Kiarash Golshani, MD
Frank P.K. Hsu, MD, PhD
Mark E. Linskey, MD
Michael Y. Oh, MD
Michelle Paff, MD
Sumeet Vadera, MD

Nuclear medicine
Sindu Alexander, MD

Obstetrics & gynecology
Donna Baick, MD
Jennifer Butler, MD
Nkiruka Chuba, MD
Tabetha R. Harken, MD
Christine Kim, MD
Michael L Krychman, MD
Jasmine Patel, MD
Rachel Perry, MD
Rebecca M. Sauer, MD

Occupational health
Scott E. Hardy, MD

Ophthalmology
Andrew W. Browne, MD
Robert W. Crow, MD
Lilangi S. Ediriwickrema, MD
Marjan Farid, MD
Sumit (Sam) Garg, MD
Charlotte Gore, MD
Sanjay Kedhar, MD
Baruch D. Kuppermann, MD, PhD
Ken Y. Lin, MD
Stephanie Y. Lu, MD
Mitul C. Mehta, MD
Sameh Mosaed, MD
Jeremiah P. Tao, MD
Matthew W. Wade, MD


Orthopaedic surgery
Nitin N. Bhatia, MD
Andrew R. Hsu, MD
Yu-Po Lee, MD
John A. Scolaro, MD
Russell N. Stitzlein, MD
Dean Wang, MD

 

Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery
William B. Armstrong, MD
Naveen D. Bhandarkar, MD
Hamid R. Djalilian, MD
Edward C. Kuan, MD
Sepehr Oliaei, MD
Tjoson Tjoa, MD

Pathology
Cassiana E. Bittencourt, MD
Julio A. Ibarra, MD

Pediatrics
Behnoosh Afghani, MD
Amy Cheng, MD
Melitza Cobham-Browne, MD
Elsie Rosso Hidalgo, MD
Leticia C. Oliveros, MD
Candice E. Taylor, MD

Pediatric medical genetics
June-Anne Gold, MD
Virginia Kimonis, MD

Pediatric radiology
Liliane Gibbs, MD

Pediatric urology
Kai-wen Chuang, MD
Heidi A. Stephany, MD
Elias Wehbi, MD

Physical medicine & rehabilitation
Danielle Perret Karimi, MD
David W. Lee, MD

Plastic surgery
Gregory R.D. Evans, MD
Daniel Jaffurs, MD

Psychiatry
Rimal B. Bera, MD
John Luo, MD
Robert McCarron, DO

Pulmonary disease
Richard A. Lee, MD

Rheumatology
Sheetal Desai, MD
Alan Schenk, MD

Surgery
Cristobal Barrios Jr., MD
Joseph C. Carmichael, MD
Shaun Daly, MD
Marcelo W. Hinojosa, MD
David K. Imagawa, MD, PhD
Zelijka Jutric, MD
Kari Kansal, MD
Karen T. Lane, MD
Melissa L. Mao, MD
Jeffry T. Nahmias, MD
Ninh T. Nguyen, MD
Brian R. Smith, MD

Thoracic surgery
Ali Mahtabifard, MD

Transfusion medicine
Minh-Ha Tran, DO

Urogynecology
Taylor Brueseke, MD
Felicia L. Lane, MD
Dena E. Moskowitz, MD

Urology
Ralph V. Clayman, MD
Joel Gelman, MD
Gamal M. Ghoniem, MD
Greg E. Gin, MD
Pengbo, Jiang, MD
Mark L. Jordan, MD
Jaime Landman, MD
Ross Moskowitz, MD
Roshan M. Patel, MD
M. Leon Seard II, MD
Edward Uchio, MD
Faysal A. Yafi, MD

Vascular surgery
Anthony H. Chau, MD
Samuel L. Chen, MD
Roy M. Fujitani, MD
Nii-Kabu Kabutey, MD
Isabella J. Kuo, MD

About UCI Health

UCI Health is one of California’s largest academic health systems and the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. Established on July 1, 1976, UCI Health has grown into a 1,461-bed health system that includes UCI Health — Orange, UCI Health — Irvine, four Community Network hospitals and a growing network of ambulatory care centers across Orange and Los Angeles counties. As Orange County’s only academic health systems, UCI Health is home to the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in the county, the region’s only American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, American College of Emergency Physicians Gold Level 1 Geriatric Emergency Department and a nationally recognized regional burn center verified by the American Burn Association. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people across Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County through excellence in patient care, research and medical education. Follow UCI Health on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X.