Speakers and Participants
Jeffrey A. Singer, MD, FACS
Founder of Valley Surgical Clinics. Dr. Singer received his MD from New York Medial College in New York City, where he was elected into Alpha Omega Alpha (Iona Chapter), the Honor Medical Society. He completed his Surgical Residency at Maricopa County General Hospital, Phoenix, Arizona. He is Board Certified in the specialty of General Surgery. He has over 20 years of experience in his field of general and laparoscopic surgery. Dr. Singer is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the International College of Surgeons, the Southwestern Surgical Congress, & the American Society of Abdominal Surgeons.
Francisco N.S. Rodriguez, MD, FACS
Received his MD from the Catholic University in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Dr. Rodriguez completed his Internship in General Surgery at Indiana University and Purdue University Hospitals in Indianapolis, Indiana. He completed a General Surgery Residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Cook County Hospital, after which he went on to a fellowship in Transplant Surgery at Ohio State University School of Medicine in Columbus, Ohio. His experience in transplant surgery has given him a special expertise and interest in major pancreatic and liver surgery, in which he has earned a local reputation for excellence. He has become a Phoenix-area leader in the performance of laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication for severe gastro-esophageal reflux disease. Dr. Rodriguez is Board Certified in the specialty of General Surgery, is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeon, the International College of Surgeons, and the southwestern Surgical Congress. Dr Rodriguez is fluent in Spanish.
Alan M. Bornstein, MD, FACS
Received his MD from the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida in 1991. He then completed his Internship and Residency in General Surgery at Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Illinois. In 1996-1992, while at Loyola, he received the “Intern of the Year Award.” He went on to complete a fellowship in Surgical Oncology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he also did 6 months of clinical research. Board Certified in the specialty of General Surgery. Dr. Bornstein is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, as well as the Society of Surgical Oncology. He has special interest and expertise in the surgical treatment of cancer, including “state of the art” approaches to breast cancer and melanoma. He is also a skilled laparoscopic surgeon and surgical endoscopist.
Rick A. Low, MD, FACS
Received his MD from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland in 1994. He then went on to complete his residency in General surgery, with an emphasis on laparoscopic surgery, at UCLA/Cedars- Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, he received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Hawaii, where he was elected into the PHI BETA KAPPA HONOR SOCIETY (University of Hawaii Chapter), and was elected Chartering President of the University of Hawaii Chapter of the Golden Key National Honor Society. Dr. Low is Board Certified in the specialties of General Surgery and also in Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Advanced Trauma Life Support. Dr. Low is in the Candidate Group as a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and a member of the Association of Academic Surgery and the American Medical Association.
J. Bradford Doxey, MD, FACS
Dr. Doxey received his MD from Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia in 1990. He completed his Internship and Residency at Eastern Virginia Graduate School of Medicine. Dr. Doxey was associated with Southeastern Surgical Associates, P.C. for 7 years before moving to Arizona in 2003. At that time he joined a solo surgical practice and in May 2004, joined Valley Surgical Clinics. He published clinical research on “Early pattern of Survival and Recurrence after Laparoscopic-Assisted Colectomy for Malignancy.” He also participated in the study of Modifiers of Mutagenesis at the Jones Institute for In Vitro Fertilization. Dr. Doxey has a special interest in advanced laparoscopy, having performed more than 600 advanced laparoscopic cases.
Luis Hashimoto, MD, FACS
Dr. Hashimoto received his MD from San Marcos National University School of Medicine in Lima, Peru. Dr. Hashimoto’s post-graduate training was done at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio where he received the Resident Achievement Award presented by the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. He studied abroad at Tohoku University in Sendai City, Japan where he received his PhD (Doctor in Medical Science). At Tohoku University he also received additional training on hepatobiliary and gastric cancer surgery, abdominal ultrasound, and was a member of the Liver Research Group.
Roozbeh Rassadi, MD
Dr. Rassadi comes to Valley Surgical from Methodist Dallas Medical Center. He went to McGill University in Montreal, Canada where he obtained his masters in Physiology. He completed his residency in General Surgery at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received the Golden Stethoscope nominee for excellence in teaching as a resident. Dr Rassadi then completed his fellowship in Upper GI/Hepatobilliary Surgery at Methodist Dallas Medical Center. Dr. Rassadi is a Candidate Member of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Rassadi was a member of the Editorial Board for the McGill Journal of Medicine.
Enrico Benedetti, MD, FACS
Dr. Benedetti is currently the Head of the Department of Surgery at the University of Illinois at Chicago. As Chief, Division of Transplantation from 1999-2007, Dr. Benedetti established his team as global leaders in state-of-the-art kidney, liver, kidney-pancreas, isolated pancreas, islet cell and small bowel transplantation services. His career—spanning more than two decades—has focused on abdominal organ living donor transplantation.
An active member of The Transplantation Society, American Society of Transplant Surgeons, National Kidney Foundation of Illinois and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Benedetti has written more than 200 scientific publications and was the recipient of the 1998 Young Investigator Award from the American Society of Transplant Physicians. He received his medical degree from the University of Florence (Italy) College of Medicine. He completed his residency at University of Illinois Medical Center.
Among the most important contributions in transplantation surgery that he has provided:
- First living donor kidney-pancreas transplant in Illinois
- First robotic donor nephrectomy for living donor kidney transplant in the world
- First combined living donor liver-bowel transplant in the world
- First robotic combined donor nephrectomy and pancreatectomy for living donor
His pioneering work in living donor intestinal and liver transplantation for children less than five years of age has saved the lives of children with no hope of survival with standard treatments. For more information on the Department of Surgery, please visit www.surgery.uic.edu. Contact: enrico@uic.edu or 312.996.1774