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More than 170 UCI Health doctors among 2020 Physicians of Excellence in Orange Coast magazine

List includes more doctors than any other Orange County hospital, health system

December 27, 2019
2020 Physicians of Excellence
The Orange County Medical Association has recognized nearly 150 UCI Health doctors as 2020 Physicians of Excellence, more than that of any other health system in Orange County.

More than 170 UCI Health doctors have been named to the 2020 Physicians of Excellence list published in the January 2020 edition of Orange Coast magazine, 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 more than 560 Orange County physicians in 75 specialties. The magazine is on newsstands now.

This year, UCI Health received an 11th consecutive top grade for patient safety from The Leapfrog Group and was listed among America’s Best Hospitals for the 19th year in a row by U.S. News & World Report. The report highlights the excellence of UCI Health programs in gynecology, No. 20 (tie), gastroenterology & GI surgery, No. 36 and geriatrics, No. 42 (tie) among similar programs nationally. The medical center is ranked No. 10 in California 

UCI Health doctors practice across the region, in addition to the UCI Medical Center in Orange. Primary and specialty care locations include the Gottschalk Medical Plaza in Irvine and offices in Costa Mesa, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Orange, Placentia, Corona and Chino Hills.

In coastal Orange County, UCI Health specialty care in cancer, breast health, digestive diseases, plastic surgery, neurosurgery and dermatology is available in Costa Mesa. Urology, executive health, behavioral health and sleep medicine services are available at the UCI Health Newport — Birch Street office, which opened in 2018.

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

Physicians were required to demonstrate achievements in at least two of the following criteria: physician leadership; teaching/mentoring; medical research/scientific advances; and humanitarian service.

UCI Health comprises the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. Patients can access UCI Health at primary and specialty care offices across Orange County and at its main campus, UCI Medical Center in Orange, California. The 402-bed acute care hospital provides tertiary and quaternary care, ambulatory and specialty medical clinics, and behavioral health and rehabilitation services. UCI Medical Center features Orange County’s only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center and regional burn center. UCI Health serves a region of nearly 4 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

UCI Health Physicians of Excellence for 2020:

Allergy and Immunology
Donald S. Levy, MD

Anesthesiology
Kyle S. Ahn, MD
Rakhi Dayal, MD
Scott A. Engwall, MD
Kimberly M. Gimenez, MD
Richard J. Kelly, MD
Katherine T. McCartney, MD
Debra Morrison, MD
Corey K. Nelson, MD
Govind Rajan, MD
Shermeen B. Vakharia, MD

Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine
Minh-Ha Tran, DO

Cardiovascular Disease
Ihab Alomari, MD
Shaista Malik, MD
Pranav M. Patel, MD
Satinder Swaroop, MD

Child Psychiatry
Anju Hurria, MD

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

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

Diagnostic Radiology
Arash Anavim, MD
Joseph E. Burns, MD
Allen J. Cohen, MD
Freddie Combs, MD
Stephen A. Feig, MD
Maryam Golshan-Momeni, MD
Mohammad Helmy, MD
Roozbeh Houshyar, MD

Emergency Medicine
Carrie Chandwani, MD
Wirachin Hoonpongsimanont, MD
Robert J. Katzer, MD
Shadi Lahham, MD
Mark I. Langdorf, MD
Shahram Lotfipour, MD
Megan B. Osborn, MD
Scott Rudkin, MD
Warren Wiechmann, MD

Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Andrew R. Reikes, MD

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

Family Medicine
David Kilgore, MD
José Mayorga, MD
Tan Q. Nguyen, MD
Charles P. Vega, MD
Baotran N. Vo, MD

Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery
Felicia L. Lane, MD

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

Genetics
Virginia Kimonis, MD

Geriatric Medicine
Lisa Gibbs, MD
Sonia R. Sehgal, MD

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

Hematology
Richard A. Van Etten, MD

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

Internal Medicine with a focused practice in Hospital Medicine
Alpesh N. Amin, MD

Interventional Radiology and Diagnostic Radiology
Kari J. Nelson, MD

Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Judith H. Chung, MD
Afshan B. Hameed, MD
Tamera J. Hatfield, MD
Carol A. Major, MD
Manuel Porto, MD

Medical Oncology
Deepa Jeyakumar, MD
Edward L. Nelson, MD
Jason A. Zell, DO

Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
Muhammad Aslam, MD
Fayez Bany-Mohammed, MD
Rebecca J. Coleman, MD
Yona Nicolau, MD
Cherry Uy, MD

Nephrology
Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, MD
Hamid Moradi, MD
Madeleine Pahl, MD
Connie Rhee, MD

Neurology
Yama Akbari, MD
Cyrus K. Dastur, MD
Mark J. Fisher, MD
Namita A. Goyal, MD
Neal Hermanowicz, MD
Xiao-Tang Kong, MD
Jack J. Lin, MD
Lilit Mnatsakanyan, MD
Tahseen Mozaffar, MD
Mona Sazgar, MD
Gaby Thai, MD

Neurosurgery
Jefferson Chen, MD, PhD
Kiarash Golshani, MD
Frank P.K. Hsu, MD, PhD
Mark E. Linskey, MD

Nuclear Medicine
June Herman, MD
Tatiana Kain, MD

Obstetrics and Gynecology
Jennifer Butler, MD
Tabetha R. Harken, MD
Christine Kim, MD
Rachel Perry, MD

Ophthalmology
R. Wade Crow, MD
Marjan Farid, MD
Sumit (Sam) Garg, MD
Baruch D. Kuppermann, MD
Robert W. Lingua, MD
Stephanie Y. Lu, MD
Mitul C. Mehta, MD
Donald Minckler, MD
Sameh Mosaed, MD
Jennifer L. Simpson, MD
Jeremiah P. Tao, MD
Matthew W. Wade, MD

Orthopedic Surgery
Nitin N. Bhatia, MD
Yu-Po Lee, MD
John A. Scolaro, MD

Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery
William B. Armstrong, MD
Naveen D. Bhandarkar, MD
Roger L. Crumley, MD
Hamid R. Djalilian, MD
Sunil P. Verma, MD

Pathology
Fritz Lin, MD

Pediatrics
Behnoosh Afghani, MD
Melitza Cobham-Browne, MD
Lynn Hunt, MD
Daniel Kang, MD
Marc A. Lerner, MD
Fred Malkin, MD
Penny R. Murata, MD
Hanh-Uyen Nguyen-Tang, MD
Leticia C. Oliveros, MD
Robin B. Steinberg-Epstein, MD
Tommy Wang, MD

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

Pediatric Neurology
Joseph H. Donnelly, MD

Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Danielle Perret Karimi, MD

Plastic Surgery
Gregory Evans, MD
Daniel C. Jaffurs, MD

Psychiatry
Rimal B. Bera, MD
Robert G. Bota, MD
Andrei Novac, MD
Adrian Preda, MD
Nisha Warikoo, MD

Pulmonary Medicine
Behrouz Jafari, MD
Steven B. Leven, MD

Radiation Oncology
Parima Daroui, MD

Rheumatology
Sheetal Desai, MD
Dan A. Mandel, MD

Surgery
Nicole P. Bernal, MD
David K. Imagawa, MD
James G. Jakowatz, MD
Allen P. Kong, MD
Karen Lane, MD
Michael E. Lekawa, MD
Erin H. Lin, MD
Ninh T. Nguyen, MD
Brian R. Smith, MD
Maki Yamamoto, MD

Urology
Ralph V. Clayman, MD
Joel Gelman, MD
Gamal M. Ghoniem, MD
Mark L. Jordan, MD
Jaime Landman, MD
Ross Moskowitz, MD
Edward Uchio, MD

Vascular Surgery
Roy M. Fujitani, MD
Nii-Kabu Kabutey, MD
Isabella J. Kuo, MD