Alon Aharon, MD LTC United States Army

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Dr. Choi is a cardiothoracic surgeon who specializes in heart failure surgery as well as adult cardiac surgery. His main clinical and research interests are in heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support devices. He joined the Johns Hopkins Hospital in October of 2017 as the Surgical Director of ECMO (extracorporeal membranous oxygen) Program, Associate Director of VAD (ventricular assist device) Program, and Associate Program Director of Cardiothoracic Residency. He received his undergraduate education in biochemistry and psychology from University of Washington as a Gates Millennium Scholar. He earned his medical degree from New York Medical College. He completed his general surgery residency at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where he also served as a surgical investigator during his research fellowship. Dr Choi went on to UCLA to complete his cardiothoracic surgery training. He pursued advanced cardiac training as the Cardiothoracic Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support Fellow at Stanford University, where he served as a Clinical Instructor. 

He played a key role in creating an outstanding Pediatric Surgery Division that serves the Kaiser Permanente pediatric patient population in the greater Bay Area. 

Dr. Chong is currently the Chief of Pediatric Surgery at one of the tertiary pediatric centers within the Northern California Kaiser Permanente System, located in Oakland. Working with Kaiser leadership, pediatric specialists, and pediatric anesthesiologists, he played a key role in creating an outstanding Pediatric Surgery Division that serves the Kaiser Permanente pediatric patient population in the greater Bay Area. His specialty and interests lie in minimally invasive surgery to correct congenital malformations in neonates including tracheoesophageal fistula, esophageal atresia, congenital megacolon, anorectal malformations, and pulmonary malformations. He continues to perform clinical research and works closely with UCSF medical students and Kaiser Oakland pediatric and UCSF East Bay surgical residents. He firmly believes in the integrated Kaiser system to deliver the most efficient, cost-effective, and excellent medical care to not only children but also adults. He completed his Pediatric Surgery Fellowship training at The Children’s Hospital of Alabama/University of Alabama at Birmingham under the mentorship of Dr. Keith E. Georgeson, world renowned pioneer and leader in pediatric minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Chong is Board Certified by the American Board of Surgery in three disciplines: Pediatric Surgery, General Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care.

Dr. Chong is currently the Chief of Pediatric Surgery at one of the tertiary pediatric centers within the Northern California Kaiser Permanente System, located in Oakland. Working with Kaiser leadership, pediatric specialists, and pediatric anesthesiologists, he played a key role in creating an outstanding Pediatric Surgery Division that serves the Kaiser Permanente pediatric patient population in the greater Bay Area. His specialty and interests lie in minimally invasive surgery to correct congenital malformations in neonates including tracheoesophageal fistula, esophageal atresia, congenital megacolon, anorectal malformations, and pulmonary malformations. He continues to perform clinical research and works closely with UCSF medical students and Kaiser Oakland pediatric and UCSF East Bay surgical residents. He firmly believes in the integrated Kaiser system to deliver the most efficient, cost-effective, and excellent medical care to not only children but also adults. He completed his Pediatric Surgery Fellowship training at The Children’s Hospital of Alabama/University of Alabama at Birmingham under the mentorship of Dr. Keith E. Georgeson, world renowned pioneer and leader in pediatric minimally invasive surgery. Dr. Chong is Board Certified by the American Board of Surgery in three disciplines: Pediatric Surgery, General Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care.

With over 20 years of experience, Dr. Gates serves as director of cardiothoracic surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County Children’s Heart Institute. Working in partnership with CHOC leadership, surgeons and anesthesiologists, Dr. Gates has helped create and maintain a world-class pediatric peri-operative program. He works in collaboration with UC Irvine, with whom CHOC is affiliated, to promote research and education in the program. He’s dedicated to supporting CHOC’s position as a best place to practice for physicians and staff, and a best place to receive care for patients and their families. Dedicated to clinical excellence, Dr. Gates is board certified in thoracic and cardiac surgery and congenital cardiac surgery. Prior to joining CHOC Children’s, Dr. Gates attended medical school at Yale University School of Medicine. He served his residency training in general surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York and his residency training in cardiothoracic surgery at UCLA Medical Center. He completed his fellowship in congenital heart surgery/transplant at UCLA Medical Center. 

Dr. Gates speaks fluent Spanish. 

Mattson-Gates is a board certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has been a partner at SCPMG for over 25 years. While working in Los Angeles, she had a special interest in vascular birthmarks, hand surgery, microsurgery, and breast reconstruction. Over the years, she has chaired committees for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, been assistant and acting chief of the SCPMG Plastic surgery departments, and chaired the SCPMG breast cancer symposium and the National KP breast cancer symposium as well as chairing the KP Orange County Breast tumor board. Her current focus is on breast reconstruction. Gail currently resides and works in Irvine with her husband Richard Gates, MD, a pediatric cardiac surgeon. She has three adult children. 

She has chaired committees for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, been assistant and acting chief of the SCPMG Plastic surgery departments, and chaired the SCPMG breast cancer symposium and the National KP breast cancer symposium as well as chairing the KP Orange County Breast tumor board. 

Dr. Jade Hiramoto is an Associate Professor in Vascular Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree at UCLA and her Medical Degree at UCSF. She completed her General Surgery Residency at UCSF, and fellowships in both Interventional Radiology and Vascular Surgery at UCSF. She also earned a Master’s Degree in Advanced Studies in Clinical Research. Her clinical interests include treating patients with thoracic and abdominal aortic dissections and aneurysms, peripheral vascular disease, extracranial cerebrovascular occlusive disease, renovascular disease, and venous disease. She performs both open vascular surgeries as well as less-invasive endovascular procedures. She serves as a Principal Investigator or as a Sub-investigator on several clinical trials within the Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery at UCSF. She is the Quality Improvement Chief for the Vascular Surgery Service, the Faculty Site Director for the Vascular Surgery rotation for the UCSF Interventional Radiology Fellowship, and the Associate Program Director for the UCSF Vascular Surgery Fellowship Program. 

She is the Quality Improvement Chief for the Vascular Surgery Service, the Faculty Site Director for the Vascular Surgery rotation for the UCSF Interventional Radiology Fellowship, and the Associate Program Director for the UCSF Vascular Surgery Fellowship Program. 

Dr. Lam is currently an Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery and Emergency Medicine at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center in the Division of Trauma, Acute Care Surgery, and Surgical Critical Care which is the busiest trauma center on the west coast. She is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is board certified in general surgery and surgical critical care. Due to her interest in the education of surgeons, she serves as the Associate Program Director of the Critical Care Fellowship and is the Medical Student Surgery Faculty advisor. She graduated from UCLA with a BS in biochemistry, and went to medical school at Rosalind Franklin University/The Chicago Medical School. She then completed her general surgery residency at UCSD and subsequently did her fellowship LAC-USC Medical Center in trauma and surgical critical care. In her free time, she volunteers in humanitarian medical missions to various parts of the world and is currently a co-medical director for Pacific Island Medical Aid. She has been deployed by the Dean at Keck School of Medicine on multiple Haiti relief efforts and, recently, to Nepal for disaster relief. 

In her free time, she volunteers in humanitarian medical missions to various parts of the world. She has been deployed by the Dean at Keck School of Medicine on multiple Haiti relief efforts and, recently, to Nepal for disaster relief.

Beyond the medical field, Dr. Lee has always had an interest in space exploration. As an adult, he turned his interest into a career researching the effects of space microgravity on muscles and the heart. Dr. Lee has been funded by NASA and the NIH and has had experiments on numerous space missions, including the space shuttle, the International Space Station (ISS), and suborbital flight. Dr. Lee’s most recent experiment in March of 2020 involved sending bio-engineered heart tissue to the ISS for one month to study the effect of space flight on the heart with the goal of using the results to help patients with heart disease on Earth. Dr. Lee is also a U.S. Air Force Lt. Col., where he serves as a surgeon and flight surgeon in the Air National Guard.

Shin Lin, MD, PhD, MHS, is currently an advanced heart failure/transplantation cardiology fellow at UCLA. He attained his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and then earned his MD/PhD and MHS degrees from Johns Hopkins University. He completed his residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and his general cardiology fellowship at Stanford University, where he was also appointed clinical instructor. Dr. Lin has actively conducted research in genomics and epigenomics and has published a number of papers in leading medical journals. 

Avedis Meneshian, MD, has joined Anne Arundel Medical Center as a thoracic surgeon. Dr. Meneshian’s clinical focus will include surgery for lung and esophageal cancer, as well as benign disorders of the chest, with an emphasis on innovative minimally invasive and robotic surgical approaches. He is dedicated to a multi-disciplinary approach to thoracic cancer care, in collaboration with colleagues from medical and radiation oncology, pulmonology, gastroenterology and pathology. Dr. Meneshian received his undergraduate degrees from Stanford University in Stanford, CA and earned his medical degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md. He completed his residency training and cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and also completed a fellowship program in esophageal surgery at Oxford University in England. He has served as assistant professor of surgery and director of robotic and minimally-invasive thoracic surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and as the surgical director of the multi-disciplinary lung cancer program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital prior to coming to Anne Arundel Medical Center. He is board certified in thoracic surgery, and a member of the AAMC robotic surgery team. 

Acute Kidney Injury, Critical Illness, Sepsis 

Dr. Kulmeet Sandhu is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She obtained her medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. She then completed her general surgery internship and residency at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. She completed her fellowship training in minimally invasive and bariatric surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center before joining USC. She is currently the Associate Medical Student Surgery Clerkship Director at USC. Dr. Sandhu's interests include bariatric surgery, surgery for reflux disease, and surgery for hiatal and paraesophageal hernias. Her publications focus on bariatric and foregut surgery. She is also interested in complex incisional and ventral hernia repair, robotic surgery, and therapeutic endoscopy. She is also committed to staying current on new technologies in these areas. 

She is dedicated to teaching residents and medical students and won the USC Department of Surgery Medical Student Education award in 2017.

Steve Kelvin Singh, M.D., M.Sc., F.R.C.S.C, is currently the Surgical Director for Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support, at the Heart and Vascular Center at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is a faculty member in the Division of Cardiac Surgery, as well as part of the Lung Transplantation and ECMO program, in the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the Brigham. Dr. Singh joins the BWH community from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, where he served as Assistant Professor of Surgery, Surgical Director of Lung and Heart-Lung Transplantation, and the Interim Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Transplantation and Assist Devices. Dr. Singh completed his undergraduate, medical school training (MD, 2003) and cardiac surgery residency training (2010) at the University of Toronto. During that time he also completed a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology (MSc, 2007). His chief resident year was spent at Stanford University in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, after which he continued as their clinical fellow in Cardiothoracic Transplantation and Mechanical Circulatory Support (2011). Dr. Singh began his professional career as an assistant professor of surgery in the Division of Cardiac Surgery at McMaster University, Canada, where he was also residency program director (2011-2013). Dr. Singh is board certified by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC, 2010) and UNOS Certified in Heart and Lung Transplantation. His clinical and academic interests are end-stage heart failure, mechanical circulatory support (VAD, ECMO), lung-transplantation, and adult cardiac surgery: including coronary surgery (on and off pump beating heart surgery), valvular repair and replacement, ascending aorta surgery, surgery for arrhythmias and re-operations. He has written over 45 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and presented at numerous national and international meetings. He holds multiple peer-reviewed grants as a principal investigator. 

Dr. Singh has written over 50 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and presented at numerous national and international meetings, as well as serving on journal editorial boards.