MEET OUR SPECIALISTS
Health Comes First
NICOLAS N. DOAN VAN, MD, FACC
Dr. Doan Van is an interventional cardiologist. He is board certified in cardiovascular disease. He has been in practice since 1995, and in Orange County since 2000. He went to medical school at the University of Toulouse in Toulouse, France. Dr. Doan Van completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Minnesota, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He completed his fellowship in cardiovascular diseases at Case Western Reserve University, MetroHealth and Mount Sinai Medical Centers, Cleveland, Ohio and his fellowship in interventional cardiology at Tufts University, Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, Massachusetts. Dr. Doan Van is a Fellow of American College of Cardiology. In addition to his training as a physician and specialist in interventional cardiology, Dr. Doan Van holds a M.P.H. from Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut.
SARAH ELSAYED, M.D.
Originally from New Jersey, Dr. Elsayed found herself on the west coast attending Medical School at USC. She graduated at the Keck School of Medicine, USC in Los Angeles, CA. Prior to that, she relocated to Egypt where she spent several years developing her initial skills in the medical field and volunteering at Kaplan Medical, Cairo, Egypt. She has publications in journals such as ‘Vascular Medicine’, ‘Future Medicine, Interventional Cardiology’, and was awarded the American College of Cardiology “Excellence in Cardiology Fellowship Award”.
Dr. Yu-Ming Ni is a board-certified general cardiologist and lipidologist specializing in preventive and integrative cardiology. He attended medical school at New York Medical College and completed his internal medicine residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in West LA. He trained in general cardiology at Scripps La Jolla Medical Center with a specialization in integrative cardiology and concurrently went through an integrative medicine fellowship at the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine, both in San Diego. Dr. Ni is passionate about whole health and preventive medicine. He is board certified in Clinical Lipidology, with expertise in familial hypercholesterolemia, injectable cholesterol therapy, and statin intolerance. His procedural expertise includes coronary angiography and transesophageal echocardiography. Dr. Ni speaks Chinese and Spanish.
HOANG NGUYEN, M.D.
Dr. Nguyen is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, and Interventional Cardiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. His medical education started at UC San Diego in La Jolla, CA. He continued after graduating with a residency at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco, CA then his fellowship at USC/LAC Medical Center in Los Angeles. For Dr. Nguyen practicing medicine is more than just science and medicine, it’s the interactions and discussions with his patients that he finds truly rewarding. He finds that practicing Interventional Cardiology allows him to make huge impacts in patient’s lives and outcomes.
YU-MING NI, M.D.
SANJIV M. PATEL, MD, FACC, FSCAI
Dr. Patel is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, Nuclear Cardiology and Adult Echocardiography. He has been in practice in Orange County since 2008. He went to medical school at St. George’s University in Grenada, West Indies, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Patterson, New Jersey. Dr. Patel completed his Cardiovascular fellowship at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, where he also completed his fellowship in Interventional Cardiology.
ARVIND S. NIRULA, MD, FACC, FSCAI
Dr. Nirula is board certified in Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology. He has been in practice in Orange County since 2001. Dr. Nirula earned his MD degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, MD. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. He trained in Cardiovascular Diseases at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center in Orange, CA, and in Interventional Cardiology at the University of California, Irvine/Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in Long Beach, CA. Dr. Nirula has been holding the position of Director, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, for Fountain Valley Regional Hospital since 2006. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and is a Fellow of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. He performs both coronary and peripheral arterial angiography and stenting.
JENNIFER LEE WONG, MD, FACC
CHRISTOPHER BERG, M.D.
Dr. Christopher Berg is a non-interventional cardiologist who joined California Heart Associates in September 2023. Born and raised in southern California, he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from UCSD's Muir College. He completed his medical education at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and continued at UCLA Medical Center for his residency and cardiology fellowship, during which he also held the role of chief fellow. Dr. Berg's primary passion lies in the intersection between cardiovascular health and cancer, a dynamic field known as cardio-oncology. His clinical pursuits extend to echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, and preventive cardiology.
NIKHIL WARRIER, MD
Dr. Warrier is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, Echocardiography, Nuclear Cardiology, and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology. He joined California Heart Associates in July 2018. Dr. Warrier went to medical school at Ross University. He completed his Residency in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Disease fellowship at SUNY Downstate. He subsequently completed his Electrophysiology fellowship at the NYU Langone Medical Center. Dr. Warrier specializes in Cardiac Electrophysiology. He performs implantation of cardiac pacemakers (including leadless pacemakers), defibrillators, performs complex ablations for atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, and also implants WATCHMAN device. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and a Fellow of the Heart Rhythm Society.
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Dr. Jennifer Lee Wong joined California Heart Associates in July 2011 Dr. Wong went to college at Stanford University, and medical school at the University of California, San Diego, where she also completed a residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine. She went on to complete residency training in Nuclear Medicine at UCSD. She then went to UCLA and completed a fellowship in Cardiology, and then joined the clinical faculty at UCLA as a Clinical Instructor before coming to California Heart Associates. Dr. Wong brings a high level of expertise in Nuclear Cardiology and Echocardiography to California Heart Associates. She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, Nuclear Cardiology, and Echocardiography. She is fluent in Korean and Spanish.
TAE YANG, M.D.
Dr. Yang joined California Heart Associates in 2016 coming from a large cardiovascular group out of Los Angeles County. He received his medical degree from David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. He continued with cardiovascular disease training at Henry Ford Hospital, Wayne State University School of Medicine. Dr. Yang is also board certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases. Dr. Yang specializes in interventional cardiology, has expertise in pacemaker implantation, rotational atherectomy, laser atherectomy, and complex coronary intervention.
STACEY HOWELL, M.D.
Dr. Stacey J Howell is a board-certified cardiologist and board-eligible cardiac electrophysiologist who specializes in heart rhythm disorders. Her expertise includes performing catheter ablation and implanting pacemakers and defibrillators to treat abnormal heart rhythms including atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, supraventricular tachycardia, and ventricular tachycardia.
She has been recognized as a clinician, educator, researcher, and leader: awarded the UCSF Cardiac Electrophysiology Fellow Award in 2023, UCSF Distinguished Cardiology Fellow Teaching Award in 2023, and Chief Cardiology Fellow in 2020-2021. She was a finalist for the Heart Rhythm Society Young Investigator Award in 2020, first-author of Heart Rhythm Journal’s featured research article in May 2022, and author of 30+ peer-reviewed journal articles. She was selected for Heart Rhythm Society’s Growth and Leadership Opportunity for Women in Electrophysiology Program for 2022-2023.
Howell graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Biophysics and minor in Mathematics from Loyola University Chicago where she received a merit scholarship. She earned her medical degree and completed internal medicine residency at University of California Davis in her hometown of Sacramento, CA. After completing cardiology fellowship at Oregon Health & Science University, she completed her cardiac electrophysiology fellowship at University of California San Francisco.