More doctors recognized than any other Orange County health system

UCI Health is home to over 190 doctors who have been named 2023 Physicians of Excellence by the Orange County Medical Association (OCMA), more than any other hospital in the region.

OCMA’s Physician of Excellence program, now in its 19th year, is regarded as having a fair, unbiased selection process for identifying physicians in the 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 2023 issue of Orange Coast magazine, includes nearly 740 Orange County physicians across 81 clinical specialties.

Along with having more top doctors than any other health system in Orange County, UCI Health received its 17th consecutive “A” grade for patient safety from The Leapfrog Group. It was rated among the nation’s best hospitals for the 22nd consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report, which highlighted the excellence of UCI Health programs in obstetrics and gynecology (rated No. 24), geriatrics (rated No. 42) and cancer (ranked No. 46) among similar programs nationally. UCI Medical Center ranked No. 6 in the Los Angeles metropolitan region.

In addition to the medical center campus in Orange, UCI Health physicians practice at primary and specialty care locations across Orange County, including clinical offices in Anaheim, Costa Mesa, Irvine, Laguna Hills, Newport Beach, Orange, Placentia, Santa Ana, Tustin and Yorba Linda. In coastal Orange County, UCI Health specialty care in cancer, breast health, digestive diseases, orthopedics, plastic surgery, neurosurgery and women’s health is available in Costa Mesa. Urology, executive health, behavioral health and sleep medicine services are available at UCI Health Newport — Birch Street. Integrative services in cardiology, gastroenterology, pain management, dermatology, sports medicine and plastic surgery are offered at UCI Health — Newport Beach.

A new medical campus, UCI Health — Irvine, also is taking shape at the corner of Jamboree Road and Birch Street in Irvine, where the Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care and the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care center are expected to open in late 2023 or early 2024, followed a year or so later by a 144-bed acute care hospital with a 24-hour emergency department and services in oncology, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics and digestive health.

UCI Health — Irvine will bring excellence in healthcare closer to the communities of coastal and south Orange County.

To be eligible for OCMA recognition, physicians are required to:

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

To be considered for the Physicians of Excellence award, 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 2023 Physicians of Excellence

Allergy
Donald S. Levy, MD

Anesthesiology
Jane Ahn, MD
Melissa Chang, MD
Katherine Chiu, MD
Robert R. Field, MD
Anna L. Harris, MD
Debra Morrison, MD
Ariana M. Nelson, MD
Corey K. Nelson, MD
Kyle P. Paredes, MD
Aaron Przybysz, MD
Coral Sun, MD
Shermeen B. Vakharia, MD
Trung Q. Vu, MD

Cardiovascular Disease
Ailin Barseghian El-Farra, MD
Jin Kyung Kim, MD, PhD
Shaista Malik, MD, PhD, MPH
Pranav M. Patel, MD
Satinder Swaroop, MD

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

Clinical Biochemical Genetics
Virginia Kimonis, MD

Critical Care Surgery
Sebastian Schubl, MD

Dermatology
Kristen M. Kelly, MD
Patrick K. Lee, MD
Natasha Mesinkovska, MD, PhD

Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics
Peter Chung, MD
Thusa Sabapathy, MD

Diagnostic Radiology
Arash Anavim, MD
Joseph E. Burns, MD
Daniel S. Chow, MD
Eleanor Chu, MD
Freddie Combs, MD
David Floriolli, MD
Maryam Golshan-Momeni, MD
Mohammad Helmy, MD
Roozbeh Houshyar, MD
Sonia Lee, MD
Irene S. Tsai, MD

Emergency Medicine
Carrie Chandwani, MD
Robert J. Katzer, MD, MBA
Mark I. Langdorf, MD
Megan B. Osborn, MD
Warren Wiechmann, MD, MBA
Alisa V. Wray, MD

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

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

Family Medicine
Brian Y. Kim, MD
José Mayorga, MD
Tan Q. Nguyen, MD
Charles Vega, 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
Sunhee (Sandra) Park, MD
Jason Samarasena, MD

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

Gynecologic Oncology
Krishnansu Tewari, MD

Hematology
Richard A. Van Etten, MD, PhD

Hospice/Palliative Care
Shiho Ito, MD

Infectious Disease
Miki Watanabe, MD

Internal Medicine
Emilie L. Chow, MD
Ke-Qin Hu, MD
Sonali Iyer, MD
Bavani Nadeswaran, MD
Maryam Rahimi, MD
Bobby Sasson, MD
Martha Sosa-Johnson, MD

Internal Medicine/Hospitalist
Alpesh Amin, MD, MBA

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

Maternal-Fetal Medicine
Judith H. Chung, MD, PhD
Jennifer A. Jolley, MD

Medical Oncology
Farshid Dayyani, MD, PhD
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
John Sy, MD

 Neurology
Yama Akbari, MD, PhD
Cyrus K. Dastur, MD
Mark J. Fisher, MD
Namita A. Goyal, MD
Xiao-Tang Kong, MD, PhD
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
Sumeet Vadera, MD

Nuclear Medicine
Tatiana Kain, MD

Obstetrics & Gynecology
Donna Baick, MD
Jennifer Butler, MD
Afshan Hameed, MD
Tabetha R. Harken, MD
Tamera J. Hatfield, MD, PhD
Christine Kim, MD
Michael Krychman, MD
Carol A. Major, MD
Rachel Perry, MD
Manuel Porto, MD
Rebecca M. Sauer, MD

Ophthalmology
R. Wade Crow, MD
Marjan Farid, MD
Sumit (Sam) Garg, 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

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

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

Pathology
Sherif Rezk, MD

Pediatrics
Behnoosh Afghani, MD
Melitza Cobham-Browne, MD
Elsie Rosso Hidalgo, MD
Daniel Kang, MD
Penny R. Murata, MD
Hanh-Uyen Nguyen-Tang, MD
Leticia C. Oliveros, MD
Varalakshmi Reddy, MD
Candice Taylor (Lucas), MD
Tommy Wang, MD

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

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Danielle Perret Karimi, MD
Bi-Ying Yeh, MD

Plastic Surgery
Gregory Evans, MD
Raj M. Vyas, MD

Psychiatry
Rimal B. Bera, MD
Anju Hurria, MD
Robert McCarron, DO

Pulmonary Disease & Critical Care
Richard Anthony Lee, MD
Bassam Yaghmour, MD

Rheumatology
Sheetal Desai, MD
Dan Mandel, MD
Alan R. Schenk, MD

Surgery
Marcelo W. Hinojosa, MD
David K. Imagawa, MD, PhD
James Jakowatz, MD
Karen T. Lane, MD
Jeffry Nahmias, MD
Ninh T. Nguyen, MD
Brian R. Smith, MD

Surgical Oncology
Maki Yamamoto, MD

Transfusion Medicine
Minh-Ha Tran, DO

Urology
Kai-wen Chuang, MD
Ralph V. Clayman, MD
Joel Gelman, MD
Gamal M. Ghoniem, MD
Greg E. Gin, MD
Cory Hugen, MD
Mark L. Jordan, MD
Jaime Landman, MD
Ross Moskowitz, MD
Roshan M. Patel, MD
M. Leon Seard II, MD
Heidi A. Stephany, MD
Edward Uchio, MD
Elias Wehbi, MD
Faysal A. Yafi, MD

Vascular Surgery
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.

Gabrielle Comfort
Author: Gabrielle Comfort