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Unmatched for excellence

December 30, 2021
Orange Coast Magazine Top Docs Mayorga cover
Dr. José Mayorga, one of 187 UCI Health doctors recognized as Physicians of Excellence, appears on the cover of the January 2022 issue of Orange Coast magazine.

UCI Health is home to 187 doctors who have been named 2022 Physicians of Excellence by the Orange County Medical Association, more than any other hospital in the region.

This prestigious honor, announced in the January 2022 issue of Orange Coast magazine, is bestowed by the volunteer physician organization as part of its mission 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 740 Orange County physicians in more than 65 specialties. The magazine is on newsstands now.

"UCI Health physicians are unparalleled in their dedication to our patients and community," said UCI Health CEO Chad T. Lefteris. “From providing world-class care to advancing clinical innovations, no other healthcare system in the region has as many physicians at the top of their specialty in both the hospital and outpatient settings.”

The issue's cover features Dr. José Mayorga, executive director of UCI Health Family Health Centers, for his work educating the community about important health topics such as COVID-19 and vaccinations.

Also featured in the issue is a UCI Health patient who was diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma — a type of cancer that affects the body's white blood cells, a crucial part of the immune system — and received life-saving care from the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.

This year, UCI Health received its 15th consecutive "A" grade for patient safety from the Leapfrog Group and was listed among America's Best Hospitals for the 21st year in a row by U.S. News & World Report. The report highlights the excellence of UCI Health programs in gynecology, No. 24 and geriatrics, No. 44, among similar programs nationally. The medical center is ranked No. 8 in the Los Angeles metropolitan region. 

UCI Health doctors practice across the region. In addition to UCI Medical Center in Orange, primary and specialty care locations include Gottschalk Medical Plaza in Irvine and offices in Costa Mesa, Laguna Hills, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Tustin and Yorba Linda.

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. And integrative services in cardiology, gastroenterology, pain management, dermatology, sports medicine and plastic surgery are offered at UCI Health — Newport Beach.

To be eligible for OCMA recognition, physicians are 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 2022 Physicians of Excellence

Allergy
Donald S. Levy, MD

Anesthesiology
Kyle S. Ahn, MD
Katherine Chiu, MD
Rakhi Dayal, MD
Scott A. Engwall, MD
Robert R. Field, MD
Anna L. Harris, MD
Richard J. Kelly, MD
Debra Morrison, MD
Ariana M. Nelson, MD
Corey K. Nelson, MD
Kyle P. Paredes, MD
Govind R. Rajan, MD
Shermeen B. Vakharia, MD
William C. Wilson, MD

Blood Banking & Transfusion Medicine
Minh-Ha Tran, DO

Cardiovascular Disease
Pranav M. Patel, MD
Satinder Swaroop, MD

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

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

Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics
Peter Chung, MD
Robin B. Steinberg-Epstein, MD

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

Emergency Medicine
Carrie Chandwani, MD
Robert J. Katzer, MD
Shadi Lahham, MD
Mark I. Langdorf, MD 
Shahram Lotfipour, MD
Megan B. Osborn, MD
Shannon L. Toohey, MD
Alisa V. Wray, MD

Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism
Andrew R. Reikes, MD
Qin Yang, MD

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

Family Medicine
Shiho Ito, MD
Brian Y. Kim, MD
Christopher Kroner, MD
José Mayorga, MD
Tan Q. Nguyen, MD
Baotran N. Vo, MD

Female Pelvic Medicine & 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
Steven P. Tam, MD

Gynecologic Oncology
Robert Bristow, MD
Krishnansu Tewari, MD

Hematology
Lauren Pinter-Brown, MD
Richard A. Van Etten, MD

Infectious Disease
Lanny L. Hsieh, MD

Internal Medicine
Emilie L. Chow, MD
Ke-Qin Hu, MD
Sonali Iyer, MD
Bavani Nadeswaran, MD
Maryam Rahimi, MD

Interventional Cardiology
Ihab Alomari, MD

Interventional Radiology
Nadine Abi-Jaoudeh, MD
Dayantha M. Fernando, MD

Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Judith H. Chung, MD
Tamera J. Hatfield, MD
Jennifer A. Jolley, MD
Carol A. Major, MD

Medical Oncology
Paul Coluzzi, MD
Farshid Dayyani, MD
Angela G. Fleischman, MD
Deepa Jeyakumar, MD
Khosrow Mahdavi, MD
Nataliya Mar, 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
Uttam Reddy, MD
Connie Rhee, MD

Neurology
Yama Akbari, MD
Daniela A. Bota, MD, PhD
Cyrus K. Dastur, MD
Mark J. Fisher, MD
Namita A. Goyal, MD
Xiao-Tang Kong, MD
Tahseen Mozaffar, MD
S. Mohammed H. Shafie, MD, PhD
Sara J. Stern-Nezer, MD
Gaby Thai, MD

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

Nuclear Medicine
Tatiana Kain, MD

Obstetrics & Gynecology
Jennifer Butler, MD
Afshan B. Hameed, MD
Tabetha R. Harken, MD
Christine Kim, MD
Michael Krychman, MD
Rachel Perry, MD
Manuel Porto, MD

Ophthalmology
R. Wade Crow, MD
Marjan Farid, MD
Sumit (Sam) Garg, MD
Sanjay Kedhar, MD
Baruch D. Kuppermann, MD
Ken Y. Lin, MD
Stephanie Y. Lu, MD
Mitul C. Mehta, MD
Sameh Mosaed, MD
Jeremiah P. Tao, MD
Matthew W. Wade, MD

Orthopedic Surgery
Nitin N. Bhatia, MD
Ranjan Gupta, MD
Andrew R. Hsu, MD
Yu-Po Lee, MD
Gregory Rafijah, MD
John A. Scolaro, MD
David H. So, MD

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

Pediatrics
Behnoosh Afghani, MD
Melitza Cobham-Browne, MD
Daniel Kang, MD
Penny R. Murata, MD
Van P. Nguyen Greco, MD
Hanh-Uyen Nguyen-Tang, MD
Leticia C. Oliveros, MD
Tommy Wang, MD
Varalakshmi Reddy, MD

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

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Danielle Perret Karimi, MD

Plastic Surgery
Gregory Evans, MD
Daniel C. Jaffurs, MD
Raj M. Vyas, MD

Psychiatry
Rimal B. Bera, MD
Reza Farokhpay, MD
Anju Hurria, MD
Adrian Preda, MD
David Safani, MD

Pulmonary Disease & Critical Care Medicine
Bassam Yaghmour, MD

Radiation Oncology
Allen M. Chen, MD

Rheumatology
Sheetal Desai, MD
Alan R. Schenk, MD

Surgery
Shaun Daly, MD
Marcelo W. Hinojosa, MD
David K. Imagawa, MD, PhD
Karen T. Lane, MD
Erin Lin, MD
Jeffry Nahmias, MD
Ninh T. Nguyen, MD
Brian R. Smith, MD

Surgical Oncology
Maki Yamamoto, MD

Urology
Kai-wen Chuang, MD
Ralph V. Clayman, MD
Joel Gelman, MD
Gamal M. Ghoniem, MD
Mark L. Jordan, MD
Jaime Landman, MD
Ross Moskowitz, MD
M. Leon Seard II, MD
Edward Uchio, MD
Elias Wehbi, MD
Faysal A. Yafi, MD

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

UCI Health is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine, and the only academic health system in Orange County. Patients can access UCI Health at primary and specialty care offices across Orange County and at its main campus, UCI Medical Center in Orange, Calif. The 459-bed acute-care hospital, listed among America’s Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for 21 consecutive years, provides tertiary and quaternary care, ambulatory and specialty medical clinics, behavioral health and rehabilitation services. UCI Medical Center is home to 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, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.