Hospitals add specialists
By Angelique Soenarie
and Ken Alltucker
The Arizona Republic
MESA (Oct. 30, 2009) -- Banner Health's Cardon Children's Medical Center has been recruiting physician specialists for more than a year for its $356 million expansion at Mesa's Banner Desert Medical Center. For example, five physicians were added to the 36-member Banner Pediatric Specialists group, which is one of the groups of pediatric specialists that make up the hospital's 225 physicians.
The group serves Cardon Children's Medical Center and Banner Thunderbird Medical Center.
Here are the five recent hires:
Name: Paul Ufberg, D.O.
Age: 33.
Specialty: Gastroenterology: specializing in abdominal pain, irritable bowel, celiac disease, reflux, constipation and feeding disorders.
Experience: Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Miami Children's Hospital (internship, residency and chief residency), Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Name: Jeremy Timothy, M.D.
Age: 36.
Specialty: Neurology: treatment of seizures, epilepsy, headaches, developmental delays, regression and mitochondrial diseases.
Experience: St. Louis University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Transitional Medicine at Forest Park Hospital in St. Louis, MO, Child Neurology Residency at St. Louis University School of Medicine.
Name: J. Hunt Udall, M.D.
Specialty: Orthopedics and sports medicine: specializing in sports injuries and general pediatric orthopedic and pediatric trauma issues.
Experience: Fellow in pediatric and adolescent orthopedic sports medicine at Harvard University, Surgery Residency at University of California Irvine Medical Center, Louisiana State University Medical School, Brigham Young University undergrad.
Name: Rodney Schmelzer, M.D.
Age: 41.
Specialty: Plastic and Craniofacial Surgery. Specializes in pediatric anomalies of the head and neck, including cleft lip and palate, craniosynostosis, syndromic children, vascular anomalies, microtia, and skull and facial trauma.
Experience: Medical degree from Case Western Reserve University, general surgery and plastic surgery residency at Washington University School of Medicine, research fellow in plastic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, Craniofacial Fellowship at Medical City Hospital in Dallas, practiced at Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City.
Name: Tuan Pham, M.D.
Specialty: Surgery. Does research to improve surgical care and is seeking to collaboratively work with Biomedical Engineering faculties at Arizona State University.
Experience: Undergrad from University of Irvine, California, M.D. and Ph.D. at University of Irvine in California. General surgery residency at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., Pediatric surgery fellowship at British Columbia children's Hospital in Vancouver. He worked with a pediatric hernia team and performed more than 150 operations in Kampala, Uganda, furthering his interest in international surgery for people living in developing countries.
