SACRAMENTO MAGAZINE’S
TOP DOCTORS
Navigating today’s complex medical landscape can be a chore. Luckily, we’ve done some of the legwork by presenting Sacramento Magazine’s Top Doctors, a comprehensive list of physicians who have received a nod of approval from their peers. In fact, they were chosen through a formal process similar to the informal peer-to-peer process doctors themselves use to connect their patients to the right specialists. Professional Research Services, LLC conducted our survey, verifying each doctor’s credentials and specific areas of expertise. To learn more about the selection process, go to prscom.com. We also asked eight Top Doctors to explain the latest information on subjects ranging from stroke care to hand surgery to mental health concerns during the pandemic. Stories by Cathy Cassinos-Carr ADDICTION MEDICINE Alicia Lauren Agnoli
UC Davis Medical Center (800) 282-3284 Alok Krishna
Family Medicine Clinic of Greater Sacramento (916) 569-8585 Martin Leamon
UC Davis Health - Midtown Ambulatory Care Center (916) 734-5846 Daniel Lewis
Kaiser Permanente Sacramento Medical Center (916) 482-1132 Allison Meisner
Bradley E. Chipps
Marc Ikeda
Nayoung Kim
Rajan Merchant
Capital Allergy & Respiratory Disease Center (916) 453-8696
Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center, (916) 627-7500
Kaiser Permanente Sacramento Medical Center, (916) 480-6500
Angelina Crans Yoon
S. Rubina Inamdar
Binita Mandal
Dignity Health Medical Foundation Woodland Clinic (530) 668-2600
Dignity Health Medical Foundation - Woodland Clinic, (530) 668-2600
Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group (916) 691-8500
Dignity Health Mercy Medical Group (916) 844-1590
Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center (916) 627-7500 Asha Desai
The Allergy Center at Sacramento ENT (916) 736-6644 Victoria Dimitriades
Christopher Zegers
Gordon Garcia
ADOLESCENT MEDICINE Laura Kester
UC Davis Children’s Hospital, (916) 734-3112
ALLERGY AND IMMUNOLOGY Matthew S. Bowdish
The Allergy Center at Sacramento ENT (916) 736-6644
The Allergy Station (916) 238-6238
Sean Deane
Kaiser Permanente Sacramento Medical Center (916) 482-1132 Kaiser Permanente Sacramento Medical Center (916) 482-1132
Travis A. Miller
UC Davis Children’s Hospital, (916) 734-3112 Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento Medical Center (916) 627-7500 M. Eric Gershwin
UC Davis Health - Lawrence J. Ellison Ambulatory Care Center, (916) 734-2737 Mark I. Grijnsztein
Sutter Health (916) 478-6555 Rosemary Hallett
UC Davis Medical Group Roseville, (916) 783-7109
The professionals listed herein were selected by their peers in a survey conducted by Professional Research Services, company of Troy, Michigan. Professionals may be screened and selected through the verification of licensing and review of any infractions through various applicable boards, agencies and rating services. For further information visit prscom.com or email PRS at sshevin@prscom.com. To purchase Top Doctors plaques, please see prsawards.com.
LAURA KESTER, M.D., M.P.H. Adolescent Medicine, UC Davis Children’s Hospital Ah, the turbulent teen years. When hormones start having a party, things can get woefully wacky. Acne, anxiety, menstrual disorders, sexual issues, eating disorders—that’s just a short list of problems that can crop up around this time. But wait! There is help. Between pediatrics and adult medicine lurks a specialty not everyone knows about: adolescent medicine. “It tends to be a smaller specialty, so number-wise there aren’t as many adolescent medicine providers,” says Laura Kester, M.D., who specializes in pediatrics and adolescent medicine at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. “That may be why it’s not as well known.”
Adolescent medicine covers a wide span of ages (10–26) and an equally wide span of issues, but one of the most common is mental health, Kester says. This pandemic year has been particularly tough. “I’d say for many, mental-health issues have gotten worse during COVID,” says Kester. “There’s a pull for teens to be independent of their parents, so it’s been harder with them doing homeschooling and social distancing because many of them are not engaging as much with their peers, their support group.” Gender and sexuality issues are also common. “We’re seeing a lot more youth feeling more comfortable asking questions about gender,” says Kester. “That’s the interesting thing about working with patients of a certain age. We really need to stay in tune with the issues that are confronting their particular population.” Kester says she’s passionate about treating adolescents because it’s such a “powerful point in their lives to help them make healthy decisions that can have such a great impact on their adulthood and adult health. It’s empowering to work with this age group.”
SACMAG.COM December 2020
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