Doctors

Dr Aruntha Jesuthasan

MBBS, FRACGP, DCH

Originally from Sri Lanka, Dr Arunthathy M. Jesuthasan graduated in Medicine from the University of Jaffna in 2002. She migrated to Australia in the same year ad completed her AMC examination. She commenced her internship at Westmead Hospital in 2005 and worked there for 3 years. She also worked at Westmead Children Hospital for 6 months and completed a Diploma in Child Health (DCH). She has also worked in a regional town in NSW notably Cowra and did her GP training there for 2 years. Following this she obtained her FRACGP in 2010.

She has since moved back to Sydney and commenced GP practice from 2011. She has been in General Practice for 8 years to date and her special interests include womens' health, child health, mental health as well as preventative and general medicine. She can also speak Tamil fluently.

Dr Chih-Yueh Yang

MBBS (UNSW), BSc (Med), FRACGP

Dr Chih-Yueh Yang consults exclusively in Mandarin for his Mandarin speaking patients.

Dr Farhana Jahan

MBBS, FRACGP

Dr Farhana JAHAN obtained her MBBS from The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Afterwards she worked as a Researcher in immunology in Finland and Australia for a few years.

After migrating to Australia she completed The Australian Medical Council Exams and started to work full time in different clinical positions and worked at multiple Hospitals across Australia as a resident and senior resident medical officer. She also worked as a GP Registrar and a Visiting Medical Officer during her training Family Medicine. She completed her fellowship exams of The Royal Australian College of General Practice (FRACGP) and also completed a postgraduate diploma in paediatrics (DCH) from the University of Sydney. She is a full time Family Physician now.

She likes all aspects of Family Medicine with particular interests in Management of Acute Medical Emergencies, Management of chronic diseases, Geriatric Care, Women's’ Health, Paediatrics, Mental Health and Skin Diseases. Apart from patient care her other passions are gardening, watching movies and spending time with her family and friends.

Dr Ilona Szekely

MBBS, FRACGP

Dr Ilona Szekely has been practicing in Cherrybrook Medical Centre since 2014.

She is bilingual in English and Hungarian.

Dr Ingrid Vaino

MBBS

Dr Ingrid Vaino graduated from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery Degree. She then worked at various hospitals in Sydney including the Children's Hospital. She enjoyed working in her own private general practice in Northern Sydney which included caring for patients in hospital.

She is interested in Women's Health and her practice is focused entirely in running Women's Health clinics. Ingrid likes to take a holistic approach when caring for her patients.

Dr Jason Uy Sison

MD, CDipPallMed, FRACGP

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Dr Lekha Silva

MBBS, FRACGP

Dr Lekha Silva completed her MBBS degree at the University of Colombo in Sri Lanka. She worked in Teaching Hospital Galle, North Colombo Teaching Hospital Ragama and base hospital Negambo. She migrated to Australia and completed her AMC exams and joined Nepean Hospital.

After three years at Nepean Hospital she completed her General Practice training in Tamworth and completed her fellowship in the Royal College of General Practitioners. She completed extended skills in diabetes management, family planning and mental health skills training while she completed her training.

After obtaining her fellowship she has been in Blacktown general practice and Cherrybrook Medical Centre to date. Her special interests are womens' health, diabetes and chronic disease management and geriatric medicine.

Dr Rajitha Thambugala

MBBS, FRACGP

Dr Rajitha Thambugala is a fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. She graduated from Fathima Jinnah Medical College in Lahore. She has migrated to Australia in 2005.

She has worked in Nepean Hospital and Concord Hospital for 6 years before becoming a general practitioner in 2011. She has completed her GP training with Wentwest training and became a fellow in 2013.

She is interested in all aspects of general practice while her special interests are chronic disease management, paediatrics and womens' health.

She can speak both English and Sinhala.

Dr Robert Lawrance

BSc, MBBS, ChB (Leeds)

Dr Robert Lawrance is a GP. B.Sc., M.B., CH.B (Leeds)

Originally from West London, Dr. Lawrance graduated in medicine at Leeds University in Yorkshire in 1975. Previously he had completed a degree in psychology at the same university, then worked in the pharmaceutical industry for four years.

After hospital and GP experience in York, the family came to Australia in 1978. Ten years in a group practice in Warners Bay (Lake Macquarie) was followed by a move to West Pennant Hills, as all of his three children came to Sydney to continue their education.

Dr. Lawrance and wife Pamela (as Nurse/Manager) then operated a G.P. service from their home for many years. Now in his 36th year of General Practice, his special interests are Preventative and General Medicine as well as minor surgery.

Personal interests are travel, sport, music and current affairs.

Dr Lisa Liu

MBBS, FRACGP, PhD of Medicine

Dr Lisa Liu is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College General Practitioners. Before moving to Australia, She was trained as a endocrinologist and worked in Geriatrics and in a Diabetes Centre in China. She has completed her PhD of Medicine (diabetic complication) in University of Sydney.

Before joining Cherrybrook medical centre, she has worked in Rural areas (Western NSW health and Queensland health) and Urban areas (Hornsby and Kellyville). She has special interests in Women’s and Children’s Health (family planning and sexual health), Chronic medical conditions and is keen on minor skin procedural work. She also performs acupuncture for some medical conditions. 

In addition to speaking English, Dr Lisa also speaks Mandarin Chinese. And she enjoys cooking, reading and some outside sports .

Dr Talal Serhan

MBChB, FRACGP, Diploma of Dermoscopy, Diploma of Skin Cancer Medicine and Surgery

Dr Talal Serhan graduated in Basrah university, Iraq in 1994.

He is an Accredited Skin Cancer Doctor from the Skin Cancer College Australasia.

He practised medicine in Iraq and Yemen until he found love and migrated to Australia in late 1999.

He practised as a general practitioner in Swan Hill, VIC in 2001 and then moved to Wagga Wagga, Hay, Singleton, Barham and then Sydney.

He works as a GP with Cherrybrook Medical Centre and Dr Serhan's main interest is skin diseases and skin cancers. He attended a lot of courses in the field and gained diplomas in dermoscopy and skin cancer medicine and surgery and gained the title of ACCREDITED SKIN CANCER DOCTOR from the Skin Cancer College Australasia.

Being a busy doctor and a father of 3, Dr Serhan is in continuous education and professional development in the field of skin cancer and skin diseases.

Dr Laleh Janalizadeh

MD, FRACGP

Dr Janalizadeh achieved her MD at the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 1994. This was followed with a specialisation in Paediatrics. She then spent over a decade practicing medicine in Iran, with stints in underserved communities.

In 2011, she immigrated to Australia with her family and began work as a GP, spending three years in a rural community in South Western Australia. Following her move to Sydney she has spent time in various practices. Her most recent career move was to aim for her second Australian fellowship, currently training as a Pain Medicine specialist whilst she enjoys her part-time work as a GP.

As expected from her experiences, her interests include ongoing care of chronic disease, children's health, women's health, and chronic pain management medicine.

Dr Peng Wang

MBBS, MMed (Renal), FRACGP

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Dr Shaheen Islam

MBBS, MPH, MSc, FRACGP

Dr Shaheen ISLAM obtained his MBBS from The University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Afterwards he worked as a medical researcher and obtained his Masters Degree in Public Health (MPH) from The University of Sydney and MSc in Genetic Epidemiology from The European School for Advanced Studies at The University of Pavia, Italy. He worked as a Fellow in Neurology at the George Institute in Global Health in Sydney and at the Atherosclerosis Genetics Lab in Tampere, Finland researching Cardio / Neuro vascular diseases.

He has published multiple original articles in renowned medical journals in Australia, Europe and the United States. After completing The Australian Medical Council Exams he started to work full time in clinical positions and worked at multiple Hospitals across Australia. He worked as a Medical registrar and an Emergency Registrar and a Visiting Medical Officer during his training in Australia. He decided to pursue a career in Family Medicine and completed his fellowship exams of The Royal Australian College of General Practice (FRACGP) and became a full time Family Physician.

Although he likes all aspects of Family Medicine his particular interests are management of acute medical emergencies, management of chronic diseases and small surgical procedures which could be performed easily in a General Practice setting. Apart from patient care his other passions are music, photography, cooking and spending time with his family and friends.

Dr Harathi Nagella

MBBS, FRACGP

Graduated in 1999 from NTR university of health sciences, India. She had been working in Australia since 2006. She has progressed in her career, attaining her FRACGP, DRCOG (UK). She is trained in Dermoscopy, Skin cancer surgery. She has special interest in Women's health and trained in insertion of IUD's and implanon. She is fluent in Hindi and Telugu.

Dr Maree Costandi

MBBS, FRACGP, BPharm (Hons)

Maree completed her Bachelor of Medicine/ Bachelor of Surgery at the University of Sydney in 2009, having previously worked as a Pharmacist.

She did her internship and residency years at Westmead Hospital and affiliated hospitals including rural terms at Bathurst Base Hospital.

Maree completed her FRACGP in September 2015. Maree’s Professional interests include: Womens Health, Mental Health, Chronic Disease and Chronic pain management and Paediatrics.

In her spare time Maree’s interests include travel, baking and cake decorating , cooking, reading and spending time with her children.

Dr Rekha Sharma

MBBS FRACGP ( Clin Dip Pal Med)

Dr Sharma is an Australian Trained GP specialist who has more than 12 years of experience
in the Australian Health Care System. She has worked in different clinical setting and has
gathered a wealth of knowledge whilst training in Queensland, Northern Territory and New
South Wales. Dr Sharma has special interests in preventative health, child health,
immunisation, chronic disease management and women’s health.   Dr Sharma is also able
to provide medical consultation in various languages including Nepali, Hindi and Mandarin.

Dr Omid Zarghom

Gastroenterologist

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Dr Dhruv Nayyar

Cardiologist

Dr Dhruv Nayyar is a consultant Cardiologist with a subspecialty interest in preventative cardiology, pre-operative cardiac risk assessment, and the use of advanced cardiac imaging in the management of coronary artery disease, heart failure and arrhythmias.

Dr Nayyar graduated with distinction from the University of New South Wales. He completed cardiology training at Liverpool Hospital and a fellowship in advanced cardiac imaging at Royal North Shore Hospital. He is a Level A accredited specialist in Cardiac CT. He has also presented at international conferences, published in peer-reviewed journals and holds a Master of Public Health.

Dr Bita Rajabipour

Geriatrician

Dr Rajabipour is a Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine. She is currently appointed as a Staff Specialist at Campbelltown and Camden Public Hospitals and is a Visiting Medical Officer at Campbelltown Private Hospital.
Dr Rajabipour graduated in 2001 from Iran and completed her specialist degree in Geriatric Medicine in Australia. She has done her training in major tertiary hospitals across Sydney, including St George and Blacktown hospitals.  She was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP) in 2019. She is also a member of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Geriatric Medicine.
Dr Rajabipour has interest in neurodegenerative disorders, Parkinson’s and Dementia, Comprehensive general medical and geriatric assessment and perioperative care. She has extensive experience in Falls and Frailty prevention.
Dr Rajabipour is also involved in various teaching roles as a clinical lecturer at the University of Western Sydney. She is proficient in both English and Farsi languages.
To make an appointment with Dr Rajabipour, please phone 02 9484 5676.

John Ibrahim

Podiatrist

John Ibrahim graduated from Western Sydney University with a Bachelor of Health Science & Masters of Podiatric Medicine. During this time he was exposed to all avenues of podiatry including multiple hospital and private placements.

He has always been passionate about medicine and is interested in all aspects of podiatry as well as using the latest evidence to achieve the best possible outcomes. He has a special interest in ingrown toenail surgery, heel pain and diabetes foot care as well as always striving for optimal patient results and satisfaction.

John speaks fluent english and arabic and enjoys playing squash, going to the gym and catching up with friends over the weekend.

Here at the clinic he provides multiple services and treats numerous conditions including:

- General foot and nail care
- Diabetic foot assessment/managment
- Neurovascular assessment
- Corns and calluses
- Custom made orthotics
- Dry needling
- Heel pain
- Tibialis posterior dysfunction
- Achilles tendinopathy
- Peroneal tendinopathy
- Forefoot pain
- Osteoarthritis
- Plantar warts
- Ingrown toenails
- Fungal nails
- Medial Tibial Stress syndrome (shin splints)
- Padding and strapping
- Footwear advice/modification
- Childrens feet

Geetu Kohli

Dietician

Geetu Kohli is an Accredited practicing Dietitian (APD) and a member of the Dietitians Association of Australia. Geetu has a broad work experience of more than 21 years which includes helping patients with Diabetes (gestational, NIDDM and IDDM), Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), Obesity (Childhood and Adult), General healthy eating, Underweight and Malnourishment, Osteoporosis, Coeliac Disease, Gastro Intestinal Disorders, Anaemia, Liver disorders, Cardiovascular health and Renal disease.

Geetu understands that every client is different and therefore develops individualised and realistic nutrition goals with her clients to achieve great overall outcomes.

In addition to English, Geetu can fluently communicate in other languages such as Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi.

Prior to migrating to Australia in 2005, Geetu was working as a Dietitian in Dubai (UAE) and India. Having work experience in the Middle East and India has enabled Geetu to treat patients with different cultural backgrounds.

Ayesha Farooq

Clinical Psychologist

Ayesha is a registered psychologist who has extensive 10 years of multi-industry experience in the domains of leadership, emotional capability development, emotional health and interpersonal relations. Ayesha adopts a client-centred approach utilising evidence-based interventions, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Mindfulness, Solution-focused therapy and Motivational Interviewing to assist clients with addressing their concerns and achieving their goals.

Ayesha has had strong training in skill development, diagnostic interviewing, assessment and interventions for a variety of disorders as well as applied training and practice in administering, interpreting, and reporting on a range of standardised psychometric assessments.

Ayesha works with adolescents and adults to address a range of mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, trauma and stress-related disorders.