Surgical and Medical Management of Diseases of the Thyroid and Parathyroid

Ashok R. Shaha

Ashok R. Shaha, MD, FACS is an Attending Surgeon on the Head and Neck Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Jatin P. Shah Chair in Head and Neck Surgery, and Professor of Surgery at Cornell University Medical College, New York. Dr. Shaha completed his surgical training in Baroda, India and worked as a House Surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital, where he developed an interest in head and neck surgical oncology. After his arrival at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1975, Dr. Shaha did a surgical oncology fellowship and subsequently completed his surgical training at Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Shaha returned to Memorial Hospital in 1981 as a Fellow in Head and Neck Surgery. He joined the Department of Surgery at Downstate Medical Center in 1982 as a Head and Neck Surgeon, rising to the rank of Professor of Surgery in 1992. During this period, he was also Chief of Head and Neck Surgery at King's County, Brooklyn VA Hospital and University Hospital. In August of 1993, Dr. Shaha moved to Sloan Kettering.

During his post-graduate training, Dr. Shaha was awarded several gold medals and was given the Golden Apple Teaching Award at Downstate Medical Center. Other awards include: Faculty Member of the AOA Honor Medical Society, the Outstanding Teacher Award at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center in 1996, the Honor Award from the American Academy of Otolaryngology/ Head and Neck Surgery, and being named Visiting Professor of the Society of Head and Neck Surgeons in 1997 and 1998. Dr. Shaha has been honored by visiting professorships at University of Santa Tomas, Manila, and Sun Yat-Sen University, Guang Zhou, China. He has been actively involved in local and national head and neck societies, as well as having been President of the New York Head and Neck Society, the American Society for Surgeons of Indian Origin, and the Brooklyn Surgical Society, and was co-president of the American Head and Neck Society, 1998–1999, and president of the New York Cancer Society, 1999–2000 and the New York Surgical Society, 2004–2005. He is a member of many scientific organizations and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Surgical Oncology, Head and Neck, Annals of Surgical Oncology, Brazilian Journal of Surgery, and Journal of Clinical Oncology. He is an honorary member of the Brazilian College of Surgeons, the Cuban Surgical Society, Association of Surgeons of India, the Korean Head and Neck Society, Latin Head and Neck Society, Panamanian Society of Oncology, Chilean College of Surgeons, and Costa Rican Endocrine Society, and was the Program Chairman for the Fifth International Head and Neck Oncology Meeting in San Francisco (2000), and Conference Chairman for the Sixth International Head and Neck Meeting in 2004. Recently Dr. Shaha was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award by the American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery and President of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons, and was elected to the American Surgical Association. In July 2016, he delivered the Hayes Martin Lecture, and has served on the steering committee for World Congress in Thyroid Cancer.

Dr. Shaha has been academically active at national and international meetings, with approximately 650 papers, 540 of which are peer-reviewed (Pubmed and Scopus). His curriculum vitae includes 150 published abstracts, 63 posters, and 45 scientific exhibits. He has delivered more than 2,000 presentations nationally and internationally. His research interests include tracheal reconstruction and an experimental model of tracheomalacia and thyroid cancer. He has been actively involved in the training of head and neck fellows nationally and was chairman of the Advanced Training Council for head and neck fellowship in the United States. Dr. Shaha has dedicated his professional career to the training of medical students and residents and has developed a preceptorship program at Cornell University Medical College in head and neck training for medical students. He was Chairman of the Advanced Training Council for Head and Neck Oncology Fellowships in the United States for ten years and recipient of the Distinguished Service Award by the Head and Neck Society twice.

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Cherie-Ann Nathan

Cherie-Ann Nathan, MD, FACS, is the Jack Pou Endowed Professor and Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery at LSU-Health in Shreveport. She is also Director of Head and Neck Oncologic Surgery and Research at the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center. She completed her Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery residency and head and neck fellowship in 1995 at University of California, San Diego. She was a post-doctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins where she started her research career. Following her fellowship, she began her academic career at LSU-Health Sciences Center , Shreveport.

Her passion to improve outcomes for patients with head and neck cancer was the reason she moved from Mumbai India, where she went to medical school. She is a Surgeon-Scientist that maintains a busy practice treating head and neck cancer, thyroid, parathyroid, and salivary gland tumors and she leads an active research team. The National Cancer Institute has funded her translational research since 2000 and her focus is on targeted therapy for head and neck patients. She is recognized nationally and internationally for her seminal work on molecular analysis of surgical margins. She has pioneered multi-institutional clinical trials using mTOR inhibitors in HNSCC patients with both Wyeth and Novartis. She has also received NIH funding for chemoprevention of cancer with curcumin and has a patent for a curcumin chewing gum. Her new RO1 on Targeting the FGFR-2 pathway for cutaneous SCC holds potential for transplant patients with aggressive cSCC. She has published extensively, has over 180 publications in peer-reviewed journals, and has authored multiple textbooks and encyclopedia chapters.

Dr. Nathan is currently the President-Elect of the American Head and Neck Society. She serves on many National committees some of which include the NCI Steering committee, the American Cancer Society-CDC HPV Steering Committee, Executive board of directors for the Head and Neck Cancer Alliance, Council Member for the Society of University Otolaryngology, and the Larynx Preservation Guideline Panel. She is currently co-President of the ASTRO-ASCO Multidisciplinary meeting and Secretary Treasurer of the Association of Academic Depts. of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery. She has served on the Nominating committee for the American Academy of Otolaryngology-HNS Program and is the Head & Neck CORE grants research leader. She is also Associate editor for “Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology”. At the local level she is active, having been on the board of directors for Shreveport Medical Society, Disaster Reform committee and the Science Museum.

The Shreveport-Bossier Commerce Department awarded her the Athena Award for community service and she received the Leonard Tow Humanism award from the Arnold Gold Foundation. The Board of Regents in Louisiana established the “Cherie-Ann Nathan Endowed Professorship in Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery” initiated by grateful patients to honor her dedication and expertise.

Dr. Nathan is married to pulmonary and critical care physician Raghu Nathan and they have two boys Sean and Neil. Her favorite hobby was to perform with the "Nathan Family Trio" to raise money for the Arts and Cancer research in Shreveport.

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Jyotika K. Fernandes

Jyotika K. Fernandes, MD, MBBS is currently Professor in Internal Medicine—Endocrine Division at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston (MUSC) South Carolina. She is also Chief of the Endocrine Section at the Ralph H. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Charleston. Dr. Fernandes completed her early medical training in India — MBBS from Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, India and MD Medicine at PGIMER (Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research), Chandigarh, India.
After her move to the United States, she did her internship at Mayo Clinic Rochester, and finished her residency at University of Texas, Houston. This was followed by a joint endocrine fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine and The MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas. Her clinical interest is endocrine neoplasias and she leads a Multidisciplinary Endocrine Neoplasia Clinic at the Hollings Cancer Center at MUSC. The Multidisciplinary Endocrine Neoplasia Clinic comprises specialists from Endocrinology, Endocrine Surgery, Head and Neck Surgery, Neurosurgery, Radiation, and Medical Oncology. Dr. Fernandes is actively involved in endocrine medical education and mentorship of the training fellows and residents at the Medical University and the VA hospital. She has authored several publications in peer-reviewed journals and is the lead investigator in several NIH and pharmaceutical trials.

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Chris de Souza

Chris de Souza MS, DORL, DNB, FACS, FRCS trained at the University of Minnesota with Dr. Michael Paparella, and completed his externship in otology and neurotology with Dr. Michael Glasscock and Dr. C. Gary Jackson at Baptist Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. He furthered his training in India and was given the gold medal in the DORL exam from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Mumbai, India. In 1995, Dr. de Souza was the second person in the world to be awarded the Orbit Silver Medal for his work on the nose, paranasal sinuses, and skull base. He was appointed visiting assistant professor of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the State University of New York, Brooklyn and also at the Louisiana State University Health Science Center, Shreveport, where he has conducted temporal bone surgery workshops. He has held these appointments for the past 16 years. Dr. de Souza has published extensively in internationally peer-reviewed journals and several of his publications are considered landmark papers. He has published 18 postgraduate ENT medical textbooks in the United States, Germany, and India. Currently, he is editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Head and Neck Surgery. Dr. de Souza's current clinical appointments include senior ENT consultant at Lilavati Hospital, Tata Memorial Hospital, Holy Family Hospital, and the Holy Spirit Hospital in Mumbai, India, and he is also the coordinator for implantable hearing devices in children and adults at Holy Family Hospital.

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Shashank R. Joshi

Shashank R. Joshi, MD, DM, FRCP, FACE, FACP, FICP is the President, API (Association of Physicians of India), President of Indian Academy of Diabetes, and Past President of RSSDI (Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India). He is also an endocrinologist at Lilavati and Bhatia Hospitals. He is on the faculty at Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Group of Hospitals in Endocrinology. Dr. Joshi is a practicing endocrinologist and diabetologist who has topped all years of MBBS, MD, and DM with Gold Medals. He is a Fellow of the American College of Endocrinology, American College of Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians (Glasgow and Edinburgh). He has more than 600 research publications to his credit. He is the Hon. Emeritus Editor of JAPI (Journal of The Association of Physicians of India), and former editor of the Indian Journal of Obesity, Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Indian Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics as well as several other leading medical journals. He is affiliated with several leading hospitals, including Lilavati and Bhatia Hospitals, Association of Advancement for Research in Obesity, IASO Affiliate), Chapter Chair (India), and American Association of Clinical Endocrinology (AACE). He is visiting faculty to several Indian and international universities. Dr. Joshi is actively involved with evidence-based work in endocrinology including diabetes, obesity, thyroid, osteoporosis, and growth. He was awarded “International Clinician of the Year 2012” by the American College of Endocrinology. He has been conferred “Padma Shri” in 2014 by the Government of India.

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