Thomas Yohannan

Thomas Yohannan, MD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radiology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. He received his medical degree in 2011 from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago and completed his radiology residency at Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he won the Aurora Health Care Radiology Resident Teacher Award. He furthered his training with a clinical fellowship in nuclear medicine at UCSF in 2017 and a clinical instructor year at Stanford University in 2018.

Dr. Yohannan's research focuses on improving lung cancer diagnosis and staging, particularly investigating why FDG PET has limited utility for characterizing and staging subsolid lung nodules/cancer. His work also extends to developing better methods for staging and characterization of T1 lung cancers. Previous research includes factors associated with lymph node metastases in lung carcinoids, using FDG-PET/CT to predict tumor response to immunotherapy, evaluation of $$^{68}$$Ga-PSMA-11 PET in biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer, and use of $$^{18}$$F-florbetaben whole-body PET/MRI for evaluation of systemic amyloid deposition.

While at Kaiser Permanente East Bay, where he served as Chief of Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Safety Officer as well as Peer Review Liaison, Dr. Yohannan led the development of multiple tools for imaging decision and therapeutic coordination support. This included a multi-department effort to create an application that standardized physician-to-patient messaging for thyroid cancer patients in multiple languages, for which he was honored by The Permanente Medical Group Leadership Academy in 2021. He is also a frequent physician educator for Kaiser Permanente East Bay and Northern California regional medical centers.

• Aurora Health Care Radiology Resident Teacher Award (during residency)
• The Permanente Medical Group Leadership Academy Honor (2021) for work on standardized physician-to-patient messaging

Dr. Yohannan has made significant contributions to the field of nuclear medicine and radiology through his research and clinical work. His expertise spans lung cancer imaging, prostate cancer diagnostics, amyloid imaging, and the application of novel PET tracers in clinical practice. He continues to advance the field through his academic position at UCSF and his commitment to improving diagnostic imaging protocols and patient care.