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Home About Us News Physicians Of Excellence 2025

UCI Health celebrates more than 200 Physicians of Excellence

12.30.2024

More doctors recognized than any other Orange County health system

uci health hematologist oncologist dr richard van etten wearing a white coat standing in front of blue and yellow balloons speaks at the opening of the chao family comprehensive cancer center at uci health irvine
Dr. Richard A. Van Etten, director of the UCI Health Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, is named a 2025 Physicians of Excellence. He is shown above speaking at the opening ceremony for the cancer center's second clinical hub in Irvine in July 2024.



Orange, Calif. — More than 200 UCI Health doctors have been recognized as 2025 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 21st year, is regarded as having a fair, unbiased selection process for identifying 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, which was published in the January 2025 issue of Orange Coast Magazine, includes nearly 700 Orange County physicians across about 75 clinical specialties.

To be eligible for OCMA 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

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 is proud to recognize the more than 200 UCI Health doctors who have been named 2025 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.

Congratulations to all!

2025 UCI Health Physicians of Excellence


Allergy
Donald S. Levy, MD

Anesthesiology
Kyle Ahn, MD
Melissa Chang, MD
Taizoon Q. Dhoon, MD
Robert R. Field, MD
Kimberly M. Gimenez, MD
Anna L. Harris, MD
Christina Hollister, MD,/a>
Katherine T. McCartney, MD
Debra E. Morrison, MD
Ramin Rahimian, MD
Jay Y. Shen, MD
Anil Tiwari, MD
Shermeen B. Vakharia, MD

Cardiovascular Disease
Byron J. Allen, MD
Ailin Barseghian El-Farra, MD
Roxana Ghashghaei, MD
Jin Kyung Kim, MD, PhD
Pranav M. Patel, MD

Colon & Rectal Surgery
Joseph C. Carmichael, MD
Steven D. Mills, MD 

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

Diagnostic Radiology
Arash Anavim, MD
Joseph E. Burns, MD
Freddie Combs, MD
Maryam Golshan-Momeni, MD
Mohammad Helmy, MD
Roozbeh Houshyar, MD
Sonia Lee, MD
Irene S. Tsai, MD
Marisa Tseng, MD
Vahid Yaghmai, MD
Jennifer J. Young, MD

Emergency Medicine
Timothy Korber, MD
Mark I. Langdorf, MD
Megan Boysen Osborn, MD
Lindsay C. Spiegelman, 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
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
Dena E. Moskowitz, MD

Gastroenterology
C. Gregory Albers, MD
John G. Lee, MD
Nimisha K. Parekh, MD
Jason Samarasena, MD

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

Gynecologic Oncology
Robert E. Bristow, MD
Krishnansu Tewari, MD

Hematology-Oncology
Elizabeth A. Brém, MD
Deepa Jeyakumar, MD
Edward L. Nelson, MD
Richard A. Van Etten, MD, PhD

Hospice/Palliative care
Shiho Ito, MD

Infectious Disease
Douglas C. Cable, MD
Miki Watanabe, MD

Internal Medicine
Alpesh Amin, MD, MBA
Emilie L. Chow, MD
Ke-Qin Hu, MD
Sonali Iyer, MD
Bavani Nadeswaran, MD
Maryam Rahimi, MD
Bobby Sasson, MD
Katarina Veskovic, 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
Jonathan G. Steller, MD

Medical Oncology
Farshid Dayyani, MD, PhD
Nataliya Mar, 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

Neurology
Yama Akbari, MD, PhD
Cyrus K. Dastur, MD Mark J. Fisher, MD
Namita A. Goyal, MD
Xiao-Tang Kong, MD, PhD
Tahseen Mozaffar, MD
Sara Stern-Nezer, MD
Mona Sazgar, MD
Shuichi Suzuki, MD
Gaby Thai, MD

Nephrology
Wei Ling Lau, MD

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

Obstetrics & Gynecology
Donna Baick, MD
Jennifer Butler, MD
Tabetha R. Harken, MD
Christine Kim, MD
Michael Krychman, MD
Rachel Perry, MD
Manuel Porto, MD
Naghmeh Salamat-Saberi, MD
Rebecca M. Sauer, 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

Orthopedic 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
Jay M. Bhatt, MD
Roger L. Crumley, MD
Hamid R. Djalilian, MD
Yarah Haidar, MD
Edward C. Kuan, MD
Tjoson Tjoa, MD
Douglas K. Trask, MD
Sunil Verma, MD

Pathology
Cassiana E. Bittencourt, MD            

Pediatrics
Behnoosh Afghani, MD
Amy Cheng, MD
Melitza Cobham-Browne, MD
Elsie Rosso Hidalgo, MD
Daniel Kang, MD
Hanh-Uyen Nguyen-Tang, MD
Leticia C. Oliveros, MD
Candice E. Taylor, MD
Tommy Wang, MD

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

Pediatric Allergy & Immunology
Wan-Yin Chan, 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 Evans, MD
Daniel Jaffurs, MD
Raj M. Vyas, MD

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

Pulmonary Sisease
Richard A. Lee, MD

Rheumatology
Sheetal Desai, MD

Surgery
Cristobal Barrios Jr., MD
Shaun Daly, MD
Marcelo W. Hinojosa, MD
David K. Imagawa, MD, PhD
Kari Kansal, MD
Karen T. Lane, MD
Jeffry T. Nahmias, MD
Ninh T. Nguyen, MD
Maheswari Senthil, MD
Brian R. Smith, MD

Thoracic Surgery
Ali Mahtabifard, MD

Transfusion Medicine
Minh-Ha Tran, DO

Urology
Ralph V. Clayman, MD
Daniel J. Cwikla, MD
Joel Gelman, MD
Gamal M. Ghoniem, MD
Greg E. Gin, 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
Roy M. Fujitani, MD
Nii-Kabu Kabutey, MD
Isabella J. Kuo, MD

 

About UCI Health

UCI Health, one of California’s largest academic health systems, is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. The 1,317-bed system comprises its main campus UCI Medical Center, an acute care hospital in Orange, Calif., the UCI Health — Irvine medical campus, four hospitals and affiliated physicians of the UCI Health Community Network in Orange and Los Angeles counties and ambulatory care centers across the region. Recognized as a Top Hospital by The Leapfrog Group, UCI Medical Center provides tertiary and quaternary care and 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, gold level 1 geriatric emergency department 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.