Son T. Nguyen, MD

As someone who is focused on providing high quality patient care, continuing her love of learning and contributing to her community, Dr. Chow is perfectly suited for her role as family medicine physician at Hoag Medical Group. With a focus on preventative medicine, Dr. Chow’s approach to treating her patients focuses on building trust and a long-term partnership. Dr. Chow is focused on listening to her patients in order to create individualized solutions to help them reach their goals. As she states, “I enjoy treating patients of all ages and being a partner to them. I genuinely enjoy helping my patients and it is a privilege to be their trusted physician.” Dr. Chow chose her specialty in family medicine due to the variety of patients and the ability to serve her patients in all aspects of their health care. In her practice, she ensures that there is ongoing collaboration and communication to create successful outcomes. A graduate of Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio, Dr. Chow completed her residency at Adventist Health in Glendale, California. After spending most of her life growing up in Orange County, she is excited to return home and serve her community. Dr. Chow leads an active and healthy lifestyle and during her free time, she enjoys weight lifting, running and experiencing new restaurants and cuisines.

Being a mother of three young boys has instilled in Dr. Birkhauser a strong desire to keep children as healthy as possible by emphasizing preventive medicine.“Sick kids break my heart, so my goal is to work as a team with parents to get children healthy and keep them that way,” says Dr. Birkhauser, who is excited to be a part of Hoag Medical Group. She hopes to become an educational resource for parents on a wide variety of medical and childrearing topics. “I treat my patients as I would want my own children to be treated,” she says.Prior to joining Hoag Medical Group, Dr. Birkhauser was the Chief Resident of Pediatrics at UCI Medical Center. She earned her medical degree from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, IL. Her other work experience includes editing and writing on a variety medical topics for online and printed publications.When she’s not taking care of her young sons and patients, Dr. Birkhauser enjoys cooking, mystery novels, and classic rock music.

Dr. Shin realized that medicine was his calling during a medical mission trip where he had the privilege of visiting the home of Mother Teresa. It was during this trip that he realized that he wanted to serve the community and help those in need. As a family medicine physician, Dr. Shin views his role as the first line of help when it comes to health care. He is proud to serve as a resource and advocate and welcomes patients with open arms. He enjoys sharing his wide breadth of knowledge with his patients and providing accurate and timely information to help them guide their way through their health care decision-making. Dr. Shin makes it his mission to provide patient-centric care where he and his patients can participate in collaborative discussions rooted in evidence-based medicine. As he states, “I enjoy being there for my patients and appreciate the trust they place in me. As a father and patient, myself, I bring empathy to my patients, and it is a great feeling that I can be there for them and their families.” A Southern California native, Dr. Shin is fluent in Korean and attended University of California, Los Angeles for his undergraduate education. He received his medical degree from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and completed his residency at University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. When he is away from the office, Dr. Shin enjoys spending time with his wife and kids, cooking, exercising, playing basketball and golfing.