Dr. Irfan Ahmad, Neonatology

An expert in neonatology medicine, Dr. Ahmad is dedicated to providing the highest quality of care for infants. He works on several projects with California Perinatal Quality Care Improvement Collaborative and serves as the co-director of quality improvement for the CHOC Specialists network of NICUs. His expertise is in taking care of infants who require surgeries in the newborn period and is involved in projects to decrease intra-operative hypothermia and standardize postoperative management including pain control.

Dr. Ahmad has worked in close collaboration with the pediatric surgeons in establishing a Surgical NICU at CHOC and serves as its medical director. He is involved in training pediatric residents in the combined UCI-CHOC Pediatric Residency Program and serves as the education director for the CHOC NICU.

Dr. Irfan Ahmad is board certified in pediatrics and neonatal-perinatal medicine. He attended medical school at the Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan. He completed his residency training program in pediatrics at University of Oklahoma. He served as a pediatrician in Tahlequah, Oklahoma before resuming his training and completed his fellowship in perinatal-neonatal medicine at the University of California, Irvine.

Dr. Ahmad teaches at UC Irvine and holds the academic appointment of clinical associate professor of pediatrics. Dr. Ahmad has authored several publications and continues to be involved in clinical research in collaboration with UCI. He is a co-investigator in NIH supported research on infant exercise.

Locations

CHOC Hospital
1201 W. La Veta Ave.
Orange, CA

CHOC at Mission Hospital
27700 Medical Center Rd. 5th Floor
Mission Viejo, CA 92691

Western Medical Center
1001 N. Tustin Ave.
Santa Ana, CA 92705

St. Jude Medical Center
101 E. Valencia Mesa Dr.
Fullerton, CA 92835

Parkview Community Hospital
3865 Jackson St.
Riverside, CA 92503

Education

• Chief Fellow, Neonatal-Perinatal Fellowship program
  UC Irvine, Irvine, CA
• Internship
  Aga Khan University
  Karachi, Pakistan
• Medical School
  Aga Khan University Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan
• Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Fellowship
  UC Irvine, Irvine, CA
• Pediatric Residency
  The University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, OK

Academic Appointments

• Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
  David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
• Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics
  University of California, Irvine
• NICU Educational Director
  Pediatric Residency Program, University of California, Irvine

Administrative Appointments

Neonatology, CHOC Specialists

Board Certifications

• Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
  American Board of Pediatrics
• Pediatrics
  American Board of Pediatrics

Book Chapters

Necrotizing Enterocolitis and Spontaneous Intestinal Perforation in Neonatology Manual by T. Gomella, sixth edition, LANGE Clinical Science, Mc Graw-Hill publishers, New York, published June 19, 2009.

Necrotizing Enterocolitis. The 7th edition of Neonatology by Gomella. LANGE Clinical Science, Mc Graw-Hill publishers, New York, published May 22, 2013.

Spontaneous Intestinal Perforation. Accepted for publication in the 7th edition of Neonatology by Gomella. LANGE Clinical Science, Mc Graw-Hill publishers, New York, published May 22, 2013

Honors and Awards

• Orange County Physician of Excellence
  Orange County Medical Association, Multiple years
• Top Doctors: Southern California
  Castle Connolly

Lectures and Presentations

Fetal and Neonatal Growth and body composition
Nutritional Conference at CHOC, 2011
Infectious Diseases related to Prematurity
CME lecture at Coastal Communities Hospital, March 6, 2006
Retinopathy of Prematurity
UCI: Advanced topics in Neonatology, September 27, 2006

Publications

Body composition and its components in preterm and term newborns: A cross-sectional, multimodal investigation. Irfan Ahmad, Dan Nemet, Alon Elaikim, Robin Koeppel, Donna Grochow, Maria Coussens, Susan Gallitto, Julia Rich, Andria Pontello, Sharon Leu, Dan Cooper, Feizal Waffarn. American Journal of Human Biology. 2010. 22(1): 69-75.

Growth factors, inflammatory cytokines and postnatal growth in preterm infants. Eliakim A, Nemet D, Ahmad I, Zaldivar F, Koppel R, Grochow D, Waffarn F, Cooper DM. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2009 Aug. 22(8): 733-40.

Left ventricular cardiac output is a reliable predictor of extracorporeal life support in neonates with congenital diaphragmatic hernia. Gaffar S, Ellini AR, Ahmad I, Chen Y, Ashrafi AH. J Perinatol. 2019 May;39(5):648-653. doi: 10.1038/s41372-019-0348-3. Epub 2019 Mar 5. PMID: 30837654

Our neonatologists commonly treat the following conditions in newborns and babies:

• Apnea
• Bradycardia
• Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD)
• Coarctation of the aorta
• Gastroschisis
• Heart valve abnormalities
• Hypoglycemia
• Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR)
• Intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH)
• Jaundice
• Macrosomia
• Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC)
• Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA)
• Persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn (PPHN)
• Pneumonia
• Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS)
• Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP)
• Sepsis
• Septal defects
• Tetralogy of Fallot
• Transposition of the great arteries
• Trouble keeping warm