Memorial Hermann Southeast Esophageal Disease Center

Dr. Farzaneh Banki, M.D.

Director of the Memorial Hermann Southeast Esophageal Disease Center
Associate Professor of Cardiothoracic Vascular Surgery, The University of Texas Medical School at Houston

Farzaneh Banki, M.D., associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery, focuses on benign and malignant diseases of the foregut and lungs. Her clinical interests include the diagnosis and treatment of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), esophageal motility disorder, malignant diseases of the esophagus and stomach as well as benign and malignant diseases of lungs and airway. Her current focus of research is to assess the role of plasma DNA in the screening and diagnosis of primary, metastatic and recurrent esophageal cancer.

Dr. Banki obtained her medical degree from the University of Montreal, Canada. She subsequently completed her internship and residency training in general surgery at the University of Southern California, including a year of clinical research in the esophageal motility laboratory. She then acquired further experience in esophageal disease during her thoracic and foregut fellowship under the direction of Tom R. DeMeester, M.D. Subsequently, she worked for a year as a clinical fellow in Response Genetics, Inc. and focused on plasma DNA as a diagnostic tool in treatment of patients with esophageal cancer. She completed her training in cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Washington, Seattle, and joined the faculty of the University of Southern California from July 2007 to 2009. She then joined the department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in July 2009. Dr. Banki's practice is managed through UT Physicians and she is affiliated with Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, where she is the Director of the Esophageal Disease Center, and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center.

Dr. Michele Kafrouni, M.D.

Co-director of the Memorial Hermann Southeast Esophageal Disease Center

Michel I. Kafrouni, M.D., co-director of the Memorial Hermann Southeast Esophageal Disease Center, focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of benign and malignant diseases of the digestive organs. He has expertise in treating esophageal diseases, motility of the gastrointestinal tract, prevention and diagnosis of malignancies of the gastrointestinal tract and inflammatory bowel disease. Dr. Kafrouni practices general gastroenterology and hepatology with specific interest in diseases of the esophagus, including gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), achalasia, Barrett’s esophagus, esophageal cancer, dysphagia and other conditions.

Dr. Kafrouni received his medical degree from the American University of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon. He subsequently completed his internal medicine internship and residency at Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, a teaching hospital affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He continued his medical education at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he completed a fellowship in gastroenterology in 2008.
Board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine since 2005 and the American Board of Gastroenterology since 2009, Dr. Kafrouni is a member of the American Gastroenterology Association, the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the American College of Gastroenterology and the Texas Medical Association. He is fluent in Arabic and French, and speaks conversational Spanish.

Surgeons

Kamal G Khalil, MD
Thoracic Surgery

Hazim Jawad Safi, MD
Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery

Directors

Blu Baillio
Director of Perioperative Services

Carol Burnett
Manager of Endoscopy