For immediate release: Sept. 12, 2008
Contact: Anne McMillin, APR
Health Science Communications
Office 775-682-9254
Mobile 702-292-4247
amcmillin@medicine.nevada.edu
Four specialty surgeons join School of Medicine
Las Vegas-based physicians add to expertise of multispecialty practice
LAS VEGAS, Nev.— The University of Nevada School of Medicine announces the addition of four new specialty surgeons to its Department of Surgery in Las Vegas. These surgeons will teach medical students and practice within University Health System, the clinical practice of the School of Medicine.
T.J. O-Lee, M.D., assistant professor, Division of Otolaryngology/Head & Neck Surgery; Alexander Feliz, M.D., assistant professor in the Division of Pediatric Surgery; Jennifer De La Pena, M.D., assistant professor, Division of Oncology and Shawn Tsuda, M.D., assistant professor, Division of Bariatric Surgery all come to the School with excellent skills in their respective areas of surgical expertise and will contribute greatly to the practice, said William A. Zamboni, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery.
O-Lee is a fellowship trained pediatric otolaryngologist and director of the pediatric otolaryngology program at University Medical Center in Las Vegas. His special interests include pediatric airway problems such as sleep apnea, noisy breathing, airway stenosis and airway reconstruction. His clinical interests also include surgical correction of hearing loss and other congenital deformities of the head and neck. He has extensive experience in surgical correction of sleep apnea and chronic ear infections. O-Lee is also an expert in complicated airway reconstruction, placement of bone-anchored hearing aids and cochlear implantation. He is board certified by the American Academy of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Following medical school at the University of California, Irvine and residency at Loma Linda University, he completed subspecialty training in pediatric otolaryngology at Stanford University Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
Feliz is a board certified surgeon whose clinical interests include surgical treatments for children. Fluent in Spanish, Feliz graduated from Mount Sinai School of Medicine, completed surgical residency at the University of South Florida College of Medicine and a fellowship in pediatric surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
De La Pena is board certified in general surgery and trained at Stanford University in a multidisciplinary Susan G. Komen SSO accredited breast surgery fellowship. She has received several honors and awards including the Chairman’s Professionalism Award as well as the Gold Foundation Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award and Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society. She has also done research in breast cancer and has presented her work at the Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Society of Breast Disease. She completed medical school at the University of Southern California and did her surgical residency with the University of Nevada School of Medicine.
Tsuda, a board certified general surgeon, is also fellowship trained in laparoscopic weight loss surgery and is currently serving as vice chief in the School’s Division of Bariatric Surgery. His specialties include minimally invasive surgical techniques, ventral and inguinal hernia repairs, endoscopy, and basic laparoscopy. Tsuda is director of surgical skills and simulation for the School’s surgical residency program. He is certified in the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS) and serves as an FLS course instructor. In 2008 he won first place in the Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills Shoot-Out at the Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons meeting. He graduated medical school from the University of Hawaii, completed his general surgery residency with the University of Nevada School of Medicine and his fellowship from Harvard Medical School (minimally invasive/bariatric surgery).
As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been a leader in healthcare, medical education and research in Nevada since 1969. The School of Medicine includes 16 clinical departments including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and five nationally recognized departments in basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. The more than 185 doctors of University Health System, the school’s clinical practice, offer care in more than 40 medical specialties and subspecialties with eight physician offices in the Reno/Sparks area and seven in Las Vegas. The school is committed to a best practices approach to medicine and is dedicated to exceptional healthcare for Nevada now and in the future. For more information visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.