The Palos Verdes Peninsula welcomes Dr. Kunal Patel to the community. He joined the UCLA Health Palos Verdes office in the summer of 2023. He also sees patients at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in West Los Angeles but he has a special place in his heart for Palos Verdes.
“Seeing patients in the PV clinic is my favorite part of the week. I used to live in RPV and I really love the area,” he says.
Dr. Patel shares more about his life in the following interview.
PVM: Please tell us what you love about your work.
Dr. Patel: Neurosurgery is a highly specialized and complex field. Even more, I specialize in surgery for brain tumors. Brain tumors that require surgery require highly trained surgeons and medical centers like UCLA Health. Studies have found that clinical trials are biased towards a population that lives close to the main medical center. To try to address this, UCLA Health is bringing Neurosurgical care into the community. By offering Neurosurgical care in the community I am able to care for more patients closer to their home, and being able to provide residents of PV the highest level of care is really the goal.
PVM: What do you want the community to know about you and your practice?
Dr. Patel: I am a fellowship trained neurosurgeon focused on the treatment of brain tumors. I see patients with neurosurgical conditions in the UCLA Health Palos Verdes clinic and perform surgery at Ronald Reagan Medical Center in West Los Angeles. Mygoal is to provide access to high level pre and post operative care in Palos Verdes. This allows patients full access to highly specialized Neurosurgical care and UCLA’s clinical trials in a convenient location, close to home.
PVM: Talk about your education and experience.
Dr. Patel: I am a neurosurgeon focused on the treatment of brain tumors. I completed my undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College and my medical degree at Weill-Cornell Medical College. I completed my residency at UCLA and a CAST accredited fellowship in neurosurgical oncology at UCLA. I am now a full-time faculty member and assistant professor at UCLA.
I teach undergraduates, medical students, and residents. I have published over 75 peer-review publications and have been the recipient of research grants from the National Institutes of Health, Jonsson Cancer Center, Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, Tower Cancer Foundation, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute. I am passionately working to find better treatments for brain cancer to increase the options and outcomes for patients with brain tumors.
My father was a physician and always taught me the importance of treating your patient’s like family. People always ask me, “what would you do if it were your mother”, but I always make medical decisions as if my patient was my family member. My field is very special in that the conditions are serious, and I make every effort to see my patients as soon as possible, spend time to explain what exactly is going on and carefully review all options with my patients. Having a brain problem or needing brain surgery is a major event in people’s lives and I treat it as such. I believe communication is an important part of providing care to my patients so I make sure patients are able to contact me before and after their surgery with any questions.
PVM: What do you enjoy doing with your free time?
Dr. Patel: I enjoy spending time with my family. When I do have some free time, I play in a rec basketball league and enjoy hot yoga with my wife.
