AnorectalFistula near Paramus, NJ

Biography: Dr. Usama Ahmed Ali is a colorectal surgeon who has expertise in the whole gamut of colorectal surgery, including minimally invasive and open colorectal surgical procedures, anorectal operations, and colonoscopy. He completed his medical training at Utrecht University in the Netherlands in 2007. He then did colorectal research as a PhD researcher and was a colorectal research fellow at the Cleveland Clinic in 2011 under the guidance of Dr. Pokala Ravi Kiran. He trained in general and colorectal surgery at the University Medical Center Utrecht and the St. Antonius Hospital in The Netherlands after which he worked as a general and colorectal surgeon in Riverieland Ziekenhuis in Tiel until 2022. Dr. Ahmed Ali has an interest in a wide spectrum of colorectal conditions including benign colorectal conditions, diverticular disease, colon and rectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, polyposis and anorectal disorders such as hemorrhoids, abscesses and anal fistulas. Dr. Ahmed Ali trained extensively with Dr. Kiran and Dr. James Church. He works collaboratively with Dr. Church on complex fistula disease within the Anal Fistula Center and is part of the Hereditary Cancer and Familial Polyposis Center. He also works closely with Dr. Kiran in the management of various conditions including complex and reoperative colorectal surgery. Dr. Ahmed Ali has a double PhD in medicine, one of which is in the surgical treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. He also has a Masters in Evidence-Based Medicine from Oxford University. He is a Member of Dutch Society for Surgery and Dutch Society for Gastro-intestinal Surgery (2021).

Care Philosophy: In my practice we strive to treat our patient with the highest standard of care for the best quality of life.

Biography: Dr. Dionigi is a double board certified colon and rectal surgeon with a specific interest and expertise in colon and rectal cancer, polyposis syndromes, re-operative colorectal surgery, as well as robotic and minimally invasive procedures. Dr. Dionigi obtained her medical degree with highest honors from the University of Pavia, Italy. After a surgical internship at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, she completed her general surgery residency at the Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard Medical School in Boston. During this time, she also did a two-year translational research fellowship related to mesenchymal stem cells at Boston Children Hospital. She then completed a colon and rectal surgery fellowship at the Salvati Fellowship Program at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson in New Jersey, followed by two years of advanced training in complex reoperative colorectal surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio. Dr. Dionigi then joined the Division of Colorectal Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center as Assistant Professor of Surgery. Since her arrival at NYP/Columbia, she has created the Women in Surgery Association (WINGS) first of its kind at Columbia with the goal of promoting women in leadership, she has served as Associate Program Director of the General Surgery Residency Program, and she is the founder and co-Chair of the collaborative translational project on Early Onset Colon and Rectal Cancer within the Columbia Research Cancer Center. Her dedication to the education of surgery residents was recognized with the 2023 Teacher Award. She is the author of several publications, received national and international awards for her research, and has been an invited speaker to national and international meetings.

Biography: James Church, MD is a colorectal surgeon who cares for all aspects of colorectal disease, with a particular focus on hereditary colorectal cancers and polyposis. Born and raised in New Zealand, Dr. Church did his medical school, postgraduate research and general surgical training in Auckland before training in colorectal surgery at the Cleveland Clinic and eventually joining the faculty there. Over the 34 years that followed, he played an instrumental role in developing what was widely considered the finest Department of Colorectal Surgery in the world. Dr. Church has been co-Investigator of the Collaborative Colorectal Cancer Family Registry, funded by a research grant from the National Cancer Institute. In addition, he has served as the Chairman of the Leeds Castle Polyposis Group and the International Collaborative Group on Hereditary Non-Polyposis Colorectal Cancer and President of the Collaborative Group of the Americas on Inherited Colorectal Cancer. These international societies are dedicated to the care of patients with inherited colorectal cancer and research into their disease. Dr. Church's other areas of interests include colonoscopy, functional colorectal and anal problems including constipation and incontinence, perianal and perineal infections and inflammatory bowel disease. As head of the Section of Endoscopy at Cleveland Clinic, he helped develop several advances in the art of colonoscopy for the benefit of patients. He is also deeply commitment to education and is currently a Fellow of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, American College of Surgeons, Costa Rican Society of Surgery, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, American College of Gastroenterology, American Surgical Association and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons, Glasgow.

Biography: Dr. S. Sunghyun Yoon is the Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Vice-Chair of Surgical Oncology Research and Education in the Department of Surgery at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). Dr. Yoon is a national and international expert in the treatment of patients with sarcomas and other soft tissue tumors, gastric (stomach) and gastroesophageal cancers, gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), and melanoma. He also has over 18 years of experience in the treatment of other gastrointestinal and abdominal tumors, hepatobiliary tumors, neuroendocrine/adrenal tumors, lymphomas, and spleen tumors. He has been the principal investigator of several clinical trials examining novel treatment strategies and given numerous invited national and international lectures in relation to these cancers. Several of these trials have investigated the treatment of sarcomas, especially abdominal/retroperitoneal sarcomas, with advanced radiation techniques such as proton beam radiation and aggressive surgical resection to minimize local recurrence. Read More About These Treatments: https://columbiasurgery.org/conditions-and-treatments/retroperitoneal-sarcomas-and-pelvic-sarcomas Dr. Yoon was an early advocate for minimally invasive robotic surgery and has performed over 300 robotic procedures including robotic gastrectomies (stomach removal). He has one of the world's largest experiences in performing prophylactic total gastrectomies for patients with hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC syndrome) secondary to germline CDH1 mutation. He pioneered a technique for connection of the small bowel to the esophagus after total gastrectomy that is used by former surgical trainees and colleagues throughout the country due to its extremely low leakage rate. Dr. Yoon graduated from Harvard University and received his M.D. from the University of California at San Diego. He completed his residency in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and his fellowship in surgical oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He was an Associate Professor of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School before joining the staff at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2012. Dr. Yoon was an Attending Surgeon in the Division of Gastric and Mixed Tumors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College before joining CUIMC in 2021. Dr. Yoon's main research interests are in cancer stem cells and targeted biological agents in combination with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. His laboratory has been funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute for 18 years and strives to translate new research discoveries into the clinic. Dr. Yoon is also part of multi-institution research groups funded by Stand Up To Cancer and the DeGregorio Family Foundation to discover early diagnostics and new therapies for gastric cancer. His clinical and research efforts have led to over 150 original research articles, book chapters, and reviews. For a complete list of publications, please visit NCBI.