It is with sincere enthusiasm that I introduce our three new faculty members in the Department of Urology at UTHSC. Dr. Ava Saidian, Dr. Nikhil Gopal, and Dr. John Carraher.
Dr. Ava Saidian is a Urologic Oncologist who recently completed her Urologic Oncology Fellowship at the University of California-San Diego. She earned a BS in Neuroscience from the University of Texas and her medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine. She then completed her Urology residency at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB). Her research interests are in kidney cancer, upper tract urothelial carcinoma and bladder cancers. She was the recipient of the 2022 Young Investigator Grant from the Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network and is active in the clinical trial work through the cooperative cancer groups. Dr. Saidian treats all Urologic malignancies with special interest in bladder, kidney, and upper tract/retroperitoneal disease, and testicular cancers.
Dr. Nikhil Gopal is a Urologic Oncologist who recently completed a 2-year Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO) accredited fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland. He attended medical school at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts and then completed his Urology residency at New York Medical College in Valhalla, New York. His research interests include the following: Bladder sparing approaches for high-risk non-muscle and muscle invasive bladder cancers, development of clinical and radiographic predictors to refine active surveillance for small renal masses, the role of anti-androgen treatment in localized prostate cancer, and the characterization of prostate, kidney, and bladder tumor biology in African Americans. Dr. Gopal treats all Urologic malignancies and is trained in minimally (robotic) and open surgical techniques.
Dr. John Carraher is a general Urologist who has been in private practice for over 20 years in Jackson, Tennessee. He has accepted a full time Veteran Administration Hospital (VAH) and an UTHSC academic appointment in August 2023. John is a product of our Urology residency program at UTHSC, and he graduated from here in 1999. He has a vast amount of experience in general Urology and will be an asset to our educational program specifically at the VA location.
Please join me in welcoming all three of these new faculty members. I am confident they will be a major asset in permitting us to expand our current Urologic Oncology coverage locally and through- out the mid-south. If you would like to contact them for any reason, please call our academic office at (901) 448-1026.
Sincerely,
Robert W. Wake M.D. FACS
Professor and Chairman
Associate Residency Program Director
Department of Urology UTHSC
Memphis, Tennessee