Home › News › OCMA honors UCI Health 'Physicians of Excellence'

UCI Health will see you now: Welcome to our new co-workers and patients from Fountain Valley, Lakewood, Los Alamitos and Placentia Linda! 

OCMA honors UCI Health 'Physicians of Excellence'

More doctors recognized than any other Orange County health system

December 28, 2023

UCI Health is home to more than 190 doctors who have been named 2024 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 20th 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 2024 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 23rd consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report. Vizient., Inc. recognized UCI Medical Center as a five-star hospital and a top 10 performer nationally in the 2023 Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Annual Ranking. Vizient, Inc. also recognized the outpatient network at UCI Health as one of the top 10 ambulatory systems in the country.

In addition to the medical center campus in Orange, UCI Health physicians practice at primary care 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.

An innovative new medical campus, the 1.2 million-square-foot UCI Health — Irvine, also is under construction at the corner of Jamboree Road and Birch Street in Irvine, bringing access to the world-class experts at UCI Health to coastal and south Orange County. The Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care will open early 2024, followed by the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building later in the year. In 2025, a 144-bed acute care hospital begins serving patients with a 24-hour emergency department and services in oncology, neurology, neurosurgery, orthopedics and digestive health. 

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 2024 Physicians of Excellence

Allergy
Donald S. Levy, MD

Anesthesiology
Kyle Ahn, MD
Melissa Chang, MD
Scott Engwall, MD
Robert R. Field, MD
Anna L. Harris, MD
Richard J. Kelly, MD
 Debra Morrison, MD
Ariana M. Nelson, MD
Kyle P. Paredes, MD
Anil Tiwari, MD
 Shermeen B. Vakharia, MD
Trung Q. Vu, MD

Cardiovascular Disease
Roxana Ghashghaei, MD
Jin Kyung Kim, MD, PhD
Pranav M. Patel, MD

Clinical Biochemical Genetics
Virginia Kimonis, MD

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

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

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

Diagnostic Radiology
Arash Anavim, MD
Biraj Bista, MD
Joseph E. Burns, MD
Freddie Combs, MD
Dayantha Fernando, MD
David Floriolli, MD
Maryam Golshan-Momeni, MD
Mohammad Helmy, MD
Roozbeh Houshyar, MD
Sonia Lee, MD
Irene S. Tsai, MD
Marisa Tseng, MD

Emergency Medicine
Isabel M. Algaze Gonzalez, MD
Megan Boysen Osborn, MD
Jennifer S. Roh, MD
Warren Wiechmann, MD, MBA
Alisa V. Wray, MD

Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism
Andrew R. Reikes, MD

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

Family Medicine
Lynette Bui, DO
Brian Y. Kim, MD
Christopher A. Kroner, MD
José Mayorga, MD
Tan Q. Nguyen, MD
Charles Vega, MD
Baotran N. Vo, MD

Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery
Taylor Brueseke, MD
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-Oncology
Elizabeth A. Brém, MD
Lauren C. Pinter-Brown, MD
Richard A. Van Etten, MD, PhD

Hospice/Palliative Care
Shiho Ito, MD

Infectious Disease
Lanny Hsieh, 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
Simin Torabzadeh, MD 

Interventional Radiology
Nadine Abi-Jaoudeh, 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

Medical Oncology
Paul Coluzzi, MD
Farshid Dayyani, MD, PhD
Deepa Jeyakumar, MD
Nataliya Mar, MD
Ritesh Parajuli, 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
Ekamol Tantisattamo, MD

Neurology
Yama Akbari, MD, PhD
Daniela A. Bota, MD
Cyrus K. Dastur, MD
Mark J. Fisher, MD
Namita A. Goyal, MD
Ali A. Habib, MD
Xiao-Tang Kong, MD, PhD
Manisha Korb, MD
Lilit Mnatsakanyan, MD
Tahseen Mozaffar, MD
Sara Stern Nezer, MD
Mona Sazgar, MD
 Shuichi Suzuki, MD
Gaby Thai, 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

Ophthalmology
Andrew W. Browne, MD
Robert W. Crow, 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
Ranjan Gupta, MD
Andrew R. Hsu, MD
Yu-Po Lee, MD
Gregory Rafijah, MD
John A. Scolaro, MD
Dean Wang, MD

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

Pathology
Cassiana E. Bittencourt, MD
Sherif Rezk, MD 

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

Pediatric Cardiology
Anjan S. Batra, MD
Nafiz Kiciman, 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
Bi-Ying Yeh, MD

Plastic Surgery
Gregory Evans, MD
Daniel Jaffurs, MD

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

Pulmonary Disease
Richard A. Lee, MD

Rheumatology
Sheetal Desai, MD

Surgery
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
Brian R. Smith, 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
Nii-Kabu Kabutey, MD
Isabella J. Kuo, MD

About UCI Health

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 23 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.