Dr. Ghobad Azizi is fellowship trained and board certified in Endocrinology and Metabolism. He has extensive background and training in treating thyroid nodules and thyroid cancer. He has performed thousands of FNA biopsies of thyroid nodules and lymph nodes annually for the past decade. He has more than 10 years’ experience with strain elastography, over 8 years’ experience with Shear Wave elastography, and 5 years expertise with 3D Ultrasound.
In the past decade, he has published several large prospective studies on thyroid nodules, thyroid cancer, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and the effect of elastography in thyroid nodule management. These studies have been cited more than 500 times.
The goal of our practice and our research is to detect thyroid cancer as early as possible. This may help prevent second surgeries and metastatic disease, as well as detecting Hashimoto’s thyroiditis sooner to prevent prolonged untreated hypothyroidism. We do this by carefully studying sonographic features with high-tech diagnostic imaging modalities.
We also have great interest in diagnosing parathyroid adenomas with ultrasound and other modalities. Differentiating between benign and malignant lymph nodes with ultrasound is also part of our interest and research. Dr. Azizi’s previously published study is one of the largest on thyroid nodules. He is also currently involved with several prospective studies.
Dr. Azizi was recently invited to join the 2017 UnitedHealthcare Southeast Region Medical Advisory Committee. This is an important forum for engaging in open dialogue that leads to improvements in quality management, preventative health and health management programs, technology assessments, medical policies and consumer engagement initiatives.