Toni P Iurcotta, MD

Yi Cai, MD is an Assistant Professor and Director of Sleep Surgery at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She is driven by the desire to improve patients’ sleep through innovative clinical and research approaches. As one of the few fellowship-trained sleep surgeons in the New York City area, Dr. Cai has expertise in the diagnosis and surgical management of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). She devotes significant attention to upper airway evaluation in personalizing treatment for her patients and offers the full spectrum of surgical sleep apnea care, ranging from nasal and pharyngeal surgery to skeletal surgery to hypoglossal nerve stimulation (Inspire therapy). Dr. Cai received her undergraduate degree with honors from Harvard College and her medical degree from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she was awarded the Coakley Memorial Prize and Donald M. Palatucci Prize. She then completed her residency in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. There, she led quality improvement initiatives as a chief resident, received a Patient Care Fund Award, and served as Co-Chair of the UCSF Resident and Fellow’s Council. Dr. Cai then completed fellowship training in both Sleep Medicine and Sleep Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was selected to attend the AASM Young Investigators Research Forum. Since specializing in sleep surgery, Dr. Cai has given several presentations at the premier global conferences in otolaryngology, sleep medicine, and sleep surgery. As one of <10 fellowship-trained sleep surgeons in the nation with active, peer-reviewed grant funding for sleep apnea research, Dr. Cai’s clinical expertise is uniquely strengthened by her academic experience. She is dedicated to advancing the field of sleep apnea surgery through novel therapeutic target identification and research on the cardiometabolic outcomes of OSA surgery. For this work, Dr. Cai has been supported by competitive grants from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Triological Society, American Heart Association, and Columbia Technology Ventures, as well as awards at international conferences. Additional research interests and ongoing projects include the use of wearable technologies and applying shared decision-making to enhance care in OSA. Dr. Cai has also served on hospital and national academic committees, mentored numerous medical trainees, and reviewed articles for various research journals. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed research articles and textbook chapters, including first-author publications in JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, SLEEP, and the leading otolaryngology textbooks.

Dr. S. Sunghyun Yoon is the Chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and Vice-Chair of Surgical Oncology Research and Education in the Department of Surgery at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC). Dr. Yoon is a national and international expert in the treatment of patients with sarcomas and other soft tissue tumors, gastric (stomach) and gastroesophageal cancers, gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), and melanoma. He also has over 18 years of experience in the treatment of other gastrointestinal and abdominal tumors, hepatobiliary tumors, neuroendocrine/adrenal tumors, lymphomas, and spleen tumors. He has been the principal investigator of several clinical trials examining novel treatment strategies and given numerous invited national and international lectures in relation to these cancers. Several of these trials have investigated the treatment of sarcomas, especially abdominal/retroperitoneal sarcomas, with advanced radiation techniques such as proton beam radiation and aggressive surgical resection to minimize local recurrence. Read More About These Treatments: https://columbiasurgery.org/conditions-and-treatments/retroperitoneal-sarcomas-and-pelvic-sarcomas Dr. Yoon was an early advocate for minimally invasive robotic surgery and has performed over 300 robotic procedures including robotic gastrectomies (stomach removal). He has one of the world’s largest experiences in performing prophylactic total gastrectomies for patients with hereditary diffuse gastric cancer (HDGC syndrome) secondary to germline CDH1 mutation. He pioneered a technique for connection of the small bowel to the esophagus after total gastrectomy that is used by former surgical trainees and colleagues throughout the country due to its extremely low leakage rate. Dr. Yoon graduated from Harvard University and received his M.D. from the University of California at San Diego. He completed his residency in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and his fellowship in surgical oncology at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He was an Associate Professor of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School before joining the staff at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2012. Dr. Yoon was an Attending Surgeon in the Division of Gastric and Mixed Tumors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a Professor of Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College before joining CUIMC in 2021. Dr. Yoon’s main research interests are in cancer stem cells and targeted biological agents in combination with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. His laboratory has been funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute for 18 years and strives to translate new research discoveries into the clinic. Dr. Yoon is also part of multi-institution research groups funded by Stand Up To Cancer and the DeGregorio Family Foundation to discover early diagnostics and new therapies for gastric cancer. His clinical and research efforts have led to over 150 original research articles, book chapters, and reviews. For a complete list of publications, please visit NCBI.