Simon Ashiku is a thoracic surgeon at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center. He graduated from Harvard Medical School (Boston, MA, USA). He then completed his general surgery residency, bench research, and cardiothoracic residency at the same place. Simon Ashiku remained at Harvard for five years as an Instructor in Thoracic Surgery before joining Kaiser Permanente in 2007. Simon Ashiku’s main areas of interest and research are tracheal surgery, minimally invasive lung cancer, and esophageal cancer surgery. Furthermore, he holds a Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery Board Certification and an American Board of Thoracic Surgery Certification.
Jeffrey B. Velotta, MD, FACS graduated from George Washington University School of Medicine, completed his general surgery residency at UC Los Angeles, School of Medicine, and cardiothoracic fellowship at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Velotta is currently a thoracic surgeon at the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center. Furthermore, he also serves as a clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and a clinical Professor in the Department of Clinical Science at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. Dr. Velotta is interested in all aspects of thoracic surgery, especially minimally invasive lung and esophageal surgery, image-guided surgical techniques for small lung nodules, and multimodality treatment of mesothelioma. He is currently studying about novel ways to provide better pain relief after thoracic surgery, multimodality treatment of mesothelioma, and the incidence and outcomes for never-smokers with lung cancer.
