I am a fellowship-trained, interventional endocrinologist at Memorial Center for Integrative Endocrine Surgery. Using advanced procedures and a patient-first approach, I offer comprehensive care for a range of gland and hormone disorders.

Early on, I witnessed the profound impact physicians can have on a person’s quality of life. This experience fueled my desire to achieve a high standard of clinical excellence and help others in a tangible way. During my clinical training, I chose to specialize in interventional endocrinology because it allows me to perform complex diagnostic evaluations while also providing direct, hands-on treatment.

I was raised to always strive for excellence in whatever I do. Today, I channel that persistence and dedication into serving my patients. By combining advanced, minimally invasive procedures with comprehensive patient education, I aim to provide the same level of transformative, high-quality care that first inspired me to enter the medical field.

I prioritize clear communication and empower my patients to be active participants in their healthcare journey.

I am an interventional endocrinologist at the Memorial Center for Integrative Endocrine Surgery, part of Memorial Healthcare System, where I care for patients with thyroid nodules, thyroid cancer, and parathyroid disease across South Florida. My practice centers on diagnostic neck ultrasound, and sonography guided biopsies and minimally invasive interventions, including thyroid radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and ethanol ablation.

Most thyroid nodules are benign. When a benign nodule grows large enough to cause neck pressure, difficulty swallowing, hoarseness, or a visible bulge, the traditional answer has been surgery to remove part or all of the thyroid gland. Radiofrequency ablation offers a different path. Under ultrasound guidance, I place a thin needle electrode directly into the nodule and apply controlled heat to shrink it from the inside, leaving the surrounding healthy thyroid tissue intact. In published multicenter North American outcomes data, benign nodules treated with RFA showed a median volume reduction of roughly 71 percent at twelve months, with a complication rate near 3 percent and no permanent voice changes reported (Russell et al., Surgery, 2023). Most patients go home on the same day. There is no incision and no surgical scar.

What drew me to this field is that it sits exactly where careful diagnosis meets direct treatment. I perform my own diagnostic neck ultrasound, I perform my own ultrasound-guided biopsies, I interpret the images myself, and when a nodule is a candidate for ablation. I perform that procedure as well and my surgical partners Dr. Bismton and Dr. Treitl take over the cases that need open neck interventions.

I particularly joined my current practice as it provides me with the opportunity of continuity of care for those patients that would need surgery. Nothing is handed off and nothing is lost in translation between specialists. That continuity is the reason I chose interventional endocrinology, and it is what the integrated model at this Center was built to deliver.
I completed my clinical fellowship in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the University of Texas Medical Branch, and before that a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, where I studied adrenal hormone mechanisms of high blood pressure through an NIH grant. During my internal medicine residency at HCA Florida Brandon Hospital and the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, I served as Research Chair. To train in ablation at the level I wanted, I traveled to the State University of Rio de Janeiro Hospital, one of the programs that helped establish the evidence base for thermal ablation of small thyroid cancers, and completed hands-on clinical training there. I also hold the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology hands-on certificate in thyroid nodule ultrasound and biopsy.

I grew up understanding what specialized care does for an ordinary day in someone's life, and I put myself through college on a donation-funded scholarship, which is a debt I have never forgotten. I see patients in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and I spend real time on explanation, because a patient who understands the options makes better decisions than a patient who is simply told what to do. Research on thyroid nodule patients bears this out: clear information about the condition and its treatment reduces cancer-related fear in a way that reassurance alone does not.

Languages

• English
• Spanish
• Portuguese

• Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital
• Memorial Hospital Miramar
• Memorial Hospital Pembroke
• Memorial Hospital West
• Memorial Regional Hospital