About Our Faculty

Albert Yuh-Jer Shen, MS, MD, FACC
Program Director

Dr. Shen received his MD degree in 1988 from China Medical College in Taiwan . He received a Master’s degree in Anatomy and Cell Biology from USC (1991). He then completed Internal Medicine residency training at LAC-USC (1994), followed by Clinical Cardiology (1997), and Interventional Cardiology (1998) fellowship training at LAMC. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Interventional Cardiology. He joined the faculty in 1999, was Assistant Program Director beginning in 2001 and became CVD Fellowship Program Director in 2004. He is Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA , Director of the Cardiac Care Unit and Research Chairman of LAMC. He received both the 2008 SCPMG Faculty of the Year Award and the 2008 SCPMG Researcher of the Year Award. His research interests are in atrial fibrillation epidemiology and racial/ethnic disparities in treatments and outcomes of warfarin therapy. He is the lead or senior author on 15 peer-reviewed manuscripts (JAMA, JACC, Stroke, AJC, etc) and 40 abstracts, as well as peer reviewer/editorial consultant for 8 medical journals, including the American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis, European Journal of Neurology, European Journal of Echocardiography, Rheumatology, among others.

Michael B. Jorgensen, MD, FACC
Assistant Program Director

Dr. Jorgensen received his MD degree from UCLA, and completed Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology training at LAMC. He has been on the faculty since 1991. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Interventional Cardiology. He served as CVD Fellowship Program Director from 1994 -2004, after which he served as Assistant Program Director. He is also an Assistant Area Medical Director (Assistant Chief of Staff) at LAMC and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA. He has co-authored over 15 peer reviewed manuscripts (JAMA, JACC, Stroke, AJC, etc) and abstracts. He is a journal reviewer for Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions and is the recipient of numerous administrative, teaching and patient care awards.

Steven S. Khan, MD, FACC
Chief, Division of Cardiology

Dr. Khan received his MD from Rush Medical College in Chicago, completed residency training in Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and then did his Cardiology fellowship and a year as a research fellow at the UCLA - West Los Angeles VA hospital program. After fellowship, he joined the cardiology faculty at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center 1987-2004 initially as a full time faculty attending in the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit and then as Director of the Advanced Heart Failure Program. He was appointed Director of Cardiology Clinical Trials at Cedars and was principal investigator on over 30 clinical trials and served as a member and then chair of the Cedars IRB. Dr. Khan joined the LAMC faculty in 2005 and became Chief of Cardiology in 2007. He has authored over 50 manuscripts, 20 book chapters and review articles, and has served as reviewer for Circulation, JAMA, JACC, JTCVS, and AJC, among others. He served as a member of the American Heart Association Heart Failure and Transplantation Committee 2003-2005 and on the American College of Cardiology Educational Programs Committee 2003-2005. He is Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA with primary research and clinical interests in the fields of heart failure and echocardiography.

Adam Kotlewski, MD, PhD, FACC

Dr. Kotlewski received his PhD in Physics in 1974 from Columbia University, then received his MD in 1978 from the University of Miami. He completed Internal Medicine residency and Cardiology fellowship training at LAC-USC. He served as Chief of Cardiology 1992- 2007. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology, and is Clinical Assistan Professor of Medicine at UCLA.

David Blumfield, MD, FACC

Dr. Blumfield received his MD degree from University of Oregon Health Sciences Center and completed Internal Medicine internship and residency at University of Wisconsin Center for Health Sciences in Madison. He completed cardiology fellowship training at UCLA - Wadsworth VAMC and stayed on for a staff year at UCLA devoted to Nuclear Cardiology training. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Nuclear Cardiology. He is the Director of the Nuclear Medicine and is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA.

Adam Howard, MD

Dr. Howard received his MD degree from UCSF in 1990 and completed internship and residency training in Internal Medicine at Stanford University 1990 - 1993. He completed a research fellowship followed by clinical CVD fellowship at Emory University in 1998. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases. He was in private practice in Kansas City until joining SCPMG in 2001. He is the Director of Cardiac Transplantation and is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA.

Anne Ichiuji, MD, FACC

Dr. Ichiuji received her MD degree from the UCLA School of Medicine and completed her Internal Medicine residency and Cardiology fellowship training at the UCLA-San Fernando Valley Program. She served as a member of the faculty in the Division of Cardiology at the UCLA-Olive View Medical Center where her research interests were in racial differences in heart disease and women’s health. She joined SCPMG in the spring of 2005. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiology and is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA.

Stephen H Lebowitz, MD, FACC

Dr. Lebowitz received his MD degree from the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago and completed his Internal Medicine and Cardiology training within the UCLA system. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases. He is Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Lebowitz is Director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation program and is Chairman of the Hospital Shock and Resuscitation Committee at LAMC.

Colin Watanabe, MD, FACC

Dr. Watanabe completed CVD Fellowship training at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and joined LAMC as faculty upon graduation. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and Echocardiography. He is Clinical Instructor in Medicine at UCLA and the Director of the echocardiography Laboratory at LAMC. His research interest is in echocardiography.

Somjot S. Brar, MD

Dr. Brar completed IM training at Kaiser Oakland, CVD fellowship at LAMC, and Cardiovascular Interventional training at the Center for Interventional Therapeutics of Columbia University Medical Center in 2009. He joined the LAMC faculty upon completion of fellowship training in 2009 as the Director of Internal Medicine Housestaff Research. He is the author of several manuscripts and numerous abstracts, and is a reviewer for AJC.

 

Regional Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory

Vicken J. Aharonian, MD, FACC, FCCP, FSCAI
Director, Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
Director, Regional Cardiac Catherization Laboratory 

Dr. Aharonian completed his Internal Medicine residency training in  New Jersey and his Cardiology Fellowship training at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland , Ohio . He has been Director of the Regional Cardiac Catherization Laboratory at Kaiser, Los Angeles Medical Center since 1992. He is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA. His research interest is in all aspects of Interventional Cardiology.

Prakash W. Mansukhani, MD, FACC
Assistant Director, Interventional Cardiology Fellowship
Assistant Director, Regional Cardiac Catherization Laboratory

Dr. Mansukhani received his medical degree from Bombay University , India . He completed his Internal Medicine training at Coney Island Hospital in New York , and his Cardiology Fellowship at Kaiser LAMC. He is board certified in Internal medicine, Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology. He is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA. His research interest is in all aspects of Interventional Cardiology.

Naing Moore, MD

Dr. Moore received his MD degree from Burma. He completed Internal medicine residency in New Jersey, and both Cardiology and Interventional Cardiology fellowship at Kaiser LAMC. He is board certified in internal medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Interventional Cardiology.

 

Regional Electrophysiology Laboratory and Services

Nigel Gupta, MD, FACC
Director, CCEP Laboratory

Dr. Gupta received his MD degree from University of California, Irvine and then completed Internal Medicine residency training at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He then completed CVD fellowship training at LAMC in 2004, followed by Electrophysiology fellowship training at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He then returned to join our faculty. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and CCEP. He is Clinical Instructor in Medicine at UCLA and abstract grader for the heart Rhythm Society Scientific Sessions.

Jonathan Doris, MD, FACC
Assistant Director, CCEP Laboratory
Assistant Director, CCEP Fellowship

Dr. Doris received his MD degree from Albany medical college, completed Internal Medicine residency at Brown University, then completed CVD fellowship training at LAMC in 2004. He left to complete Electrophysiology fellowship training at West Los Angeles VA hospital/UCLA before returning to join the faculty at LAMC. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and CCEP. His research interest is in cardiac resynchronization therapy among other aspects of CCEP. He is Clinical Instructor in Medicine at UCLA.

Maged F. Nageh, MD
Program Director, CCEP Fellowship

Dr. Nageh received his MD degree from Cairo university/Egypt, then completed Internal Medicine residency and general Cardiology fellowship training at Baylor College of Medicine, followed by Electrophysiology fellowship training at Hahneman-MCP University. He was awarded NIH grant support for research in molecular genetics during CVD fellowship training, and received awards from NASPE/HRS for his research/presentation. His research interests include mechanisms and therapies of ventricular arrhythmias. He is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA.

Sen Ji, MD, PhD, FACC 

Dr. Ji received his MD degree from the Medical College of Xi’an Jiaotong University in China and followed with a PhD in ion channel gating from the Department of Physiology at UCLA. He stayed on at UCLA to complete internship and residency in medicine as well as CVD fellowship. He then completed a clinical cardiac electrophysiology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Upon graduating, he joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine with his research interest focusing on atrial fibrillation. Shortly after, he joined the Electrophysiology Division at KP LAMC and is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology.

Michael Lee, MD, FACC 

Dr. Lee received his BS from the Johns Hopkins University and his MD from the University of Vermont.  He completed internship and residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation where he also served as a 4th year Chief Resident.  His cardiovascular diseases fellowship was completed at Harbor-UCLA.  He completed CCEP fellowship training at Kaiser LAMC in 2008 after which he remained as a staff physician.  He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases.

Simon Kangavari, MD, FACC 

Dr. Kangavari received his MD from University of California at Irvine College of Medicine in 1998 and completed internship and residency training in Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center 1998-2001.  Dr. Kangavari went on to complete cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology training at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center 2001-2005. He was in private practice for 3 years prior to joining SCPMG.  He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Cardiac Electrophysiology, and is Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA.