Our Doctors

Dr. Aung graduated from the Institute of medicine (1) Burma, in 1998 and later trained in Internal medicine and Geriatric medicine in Liverpool, United Kingdom. There she specialized in Orthogeriatrics for years with strong interest in Osteoporosis, while receiving Master of Science in Geriatric medicine from Keele University School of Medicine, MRCP and FRCP titles from the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh; and subsequently worked as a consultant physician at the Nottingham University Hospitals. After 13 years of patient care, teaching, clinical research and service development activities in the United Kingdom, she perused her career path in the United States. She completed residency training in Internal medicine at St May medical center, Long Beach, California and Rheumatology fellowship at UCLA. Dr. Aung is interested in the wide range of the rheumatic diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout, pseudo-gout, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, reactive arthritis, lupus, anti-phospholipid syndrome, polymyalgia rheumatica, giant cell arteritis, osteoporosis and various autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Kristal Choi is a general rheumatologist who practices in Santa Monica. She enjoys treating the full spectrum of rheumatic diseases, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, vasculitis, myositis, scleroderma, gout, osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. She is also skilled in musculoskeletal ultrasound and ultrasound-guided joint and soft tissue injections. She earned her medical degree from the Saint Louis University School of Medicine, and then completed her internal medicine residency training at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, and her rheumatology fellowship at Loma Linda University.

Medical Board Certifications - Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, 2017
Fellowship - Rheumatology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, 2017-2019
Residency - Internal Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, 2014-2017
Degree - Jefferson Medical College, MD, 2014

Medical Board Certifications
Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine, 2018
Fellowship
Rheumatology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 2018-2020
Residency
Internal Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 2015-2018
Degree
Texas Tech University-Paul L Foster School of Medicine, MD, 2015

Dr. Kermani received her medical degree from New York Medical College. She completed her residency in internal medicine and fellowship in rheumatology at Mayo Clinic, Minnesota. She then stayed on at Mayo Clinic and pursued an additional 2 years of clinical and research experience in the field of vasculitis through a prestigious fellowship awarded by the Vasculitis Clinical Research Consortium. Dr. Kermani is interested in general rheumatology. She maintains a special clinical interest in vasculitis.

Dr. Liu grew up here in Los Angeles and graduated from St. George's University for my medical degree. I completed my residency and rheumatology fellowship at SUNY Upstate University Medical Center. My interest is in general rheumatology and its wide variety of rheumatic diseases. I completed the USSONAR training course and have an interest in applying and incorporating musculoskeletal ultrasonography for patients. I believe in the holistic health of the patient and working in a partnership with the patient to improve their wellness.

In my spare time, I like to spend time with my family as well as participate in outdoor activities whether it be from playing sports or hiking to exploring new restaurants in Los Angeles.

Dr. Masoom Modi completed her rheumatology training at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Originally from Northern California, she obtained her bachelor’s degree at the University of California at Berkeley. She attended medical school at St. George’s University School of Medicine, and completed internal medicine training at Maricopa Medical Center. Dr. Modi is an active member of the American College of Rheumatology. She enjoys participating in teaching activities with first year medical students at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and dog.

Dr. Sravani Penumarty practices general rheumatology at Westwood. She treats a wide spectrum of conditions, including lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, osteoarthritis, myositis, vasculitis, gout, and connective tissue diseases. She frequently performs joint and trigger finger injections. She also specializes in doing skin biopsies for rheumatic skin conditions.

Dr. Penumarty grew up in California, completed her internal medicine training at Baystate Medical Center, Massachusetts, and rheumatology fellowship at Rutgers University, New Jersey. After her medical training, she returned to California to settle back in her home state.

In her free time, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her family and friends.

Dr. Rania Shammas is a board certified rheumatologist and an assistant clinical professor of rheumatology at UCLA. She was born and raised in Los Angeles. She completed her undergraduate studies at UCLA and then went to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons for medical school, where she was part of the Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society and received the Joseph Garrison Parker Award for arts in medicine. She completed her internal medicine training at Albert Einstein and then her rheumatology fellowship at UCLA. She spent several years in private practice, while also actively participating in teaching and as an investigator for multiple clinical trials. In her spare time, she enjoys musical theater, playing the piano, tennis, and spending quality time with her family.

Dr. Ben Tiong completed medical school at New York Medical College and did his internship and residency in internal medicine at Harbor-UCLA. He completed rheumatology fellowship at UCLA. Dr. Tiong completed his undergraduate education at UCLA and grew up in Los Angeles. He practices general rheumatology and treats the full spectrum of diseases, including Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjögren’s syndrome, Spondyloarthritis, Osteoarthritis, and Lupus.

Dr. Howard Yang is a Southern California native and grew up in Orange County. He received his medical degree from St. George's University. He completed his internal medicine training in University of Hawaii on the beautiful island of Oahu. He developed his interests in rheumatology and later completed his rheumatological training in Loma Linda University. He practices general rheumatology and treats the full spectrum of rheumatic diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, vasculitis, myositis, gout, and osteoporosis. Dr. Yang has a special interest in musculoskeletal ultrasound and is board certified by American College of Rheumatology (Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Certification in Rheumatology, RhMSUS). He frequently preforms ultrasound guided injection at the wrist, elbows, shoulders, hips and knees to improve accuracy. He believes in the whole well-being of the patient instead just the specialized area of the wellness. He also speaks fluent Mandarin and Taiwanese.

Dr. Bae received her medical degree from Yonsei University College of Medicine in South Korea. She came to UCLA where she started out her research in rheumatology and remained for her training in both internal medicine and rheumatology. Dr. Bae practices general rheumatology and treats the full spectrum of diseases, including Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjögren’s syndrome, Spondyloarthritis, Osteoarthritis, and Lupus and a particular interest in inflammatory myositis. She is an active researcher in inflammatory myositis and a member of the International Myositis Assessment and Clinical Studies Group

Dr. FitzGerald is a health-service researcher who has focused on improving care for patients with gout. He also evaluates patients outcomes after joint replacement surgery with interest in gender and racial equity. Dr. FitzGerald completed his medical school at Tufts University in 1993. He completed his medical residency training in 1996 and specialty fellowship in rheumatology in 1999, both at UCLA before joining the faculty as a member in the Division of Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Kafaja received her MD in UCLA School of Medicine and completed internal medicine traing at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. She completed dermatology and rheumatology training at UCLA School of Medicine. Her research interest includes scleroderma and raynaud's phenomenon.

Dr. McMahon graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1997. She completed a residency in internal medicine at Rush Presbyterian St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago in 2000, and also served as chief resident in medicine in 2001. Dr. McMahon completed a fellowship in rheumatology at UCLA in 2003 and received a master's degree in clinical research from UCLA in 2005. Her clinical interests include lupus, vasculitis and general rheumatology. She is an active investigator in multiple clinical trials of novel therapies for lupus. Her research interests also include the study of accelerated atherosclerosis in patients with lupus.

Dr. Singh trained in autoimmune diseases at All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi and in rheumatology at UCLA. He is particularly interested in managing and understanding inflammatory disorder that occurs in patients with lupus SLE), rheumatoid arthritis, myositis, scleroderma, anti-phospholipid syndrome, Sjogren's syndrome, and vasculitis. Dr. Singh provides consultation for patients with these diseases. His research on lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and scleroderma is funded by the National Institutes of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Lupus Foundation of America, Arthritis Foundation, and American College of Rheumatology Research and Education Foundation. Dr. Singh has served as a regular and ad-hoc member of several NIH Study Sections, and reviews grants for Arthritis Foundation, ACR REF, Dutch Arthritis Association, Swedish Knowledge Foundation, and Arthritis Research Campaign UK. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Altman received his medical education and training in internal medicine and rheumatology at the University of Miami in Florida. He was formerly a professor of medicine and orthopedics and chief of rheumatology at the University of Miami and chief of rheumatology and clinical director of the Geriatric Center at the Miami Veterans Administration Medical Center. Since 2003, Dr. Altman has been a member of the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology in the Department of Medicine. His recent research and clinical interests have been in osteoarthritis, Paget's disease of the bone and osteoporosis.\

Dr. Clements conducts clinical trials in scleroderma, and his research interest includes analysis of clinical features and response to therapies in scleroderma: emphasis on pulmonary interstitial disease and pulmonary hypertension.

Dr. Hahn received her M.D. from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she later trained in rheumatology. She trained in internal medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. Dr. Hahn heads research groups that do basic studies in the immune abnormalities that cause systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and is developing interventions that help restore the immune response to normal. She also heads a group that studies clinical problems in patients with SLE, including accelerated atherosclerosis and potential new therapies (clinical trials).

David Yu MD is an Emeritus Professor of Medicine. He specializes in two areas. The first area is spondyloarthritis which includes ankylosing spondylitis (AS) and non-radiographic axial spondyloarthritis (nr-axSpA). For his decades of study, he has been awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Spondyloarthritis Research and Treatment Network (APARTAN). The other area of his interest is fibromyalgia. Fibromyalgia can exist by itself or in association with various arthritis such as rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Yu specializes in non-pharmacological and non-procedural therapy. This is especially useful in patients who have failed multiple drugs or multiple procedures. Treatment by Dr. Yu will start with a detailed explanation of the neurobiological basis and psychological basis of central pain.

Bench Research. Basic science research in monocytes in rheumatic disease.