CATALINA POINTE - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Tucson Osteopathic Medical Foundation and Has Been Elected to the Board of Trustees
Deborah Jane Power, D.O. is a native of San Pedro, California and has been practicing medicine in Arizona for over ten years. She received her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Master of Science in Exercise and Sport Sciences at The University of Arizona. She earned her D.O. degree in 1997 at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, Kirksville, Missouri and interned at Midwestern University/Arizona Graduate Medical Education Consortium at Tucson General Hospital. Dr. Power completed her rheumatology fellowship at the University of Arizona in 2002 where she still has an appointment as a an adjunct faculty member.
Dr. Power has a special interest in pediatric Rheumatology, and is one of the few rheumatologists in the state with this expertise. In addition to caring for children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, (formerly called Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis), she specializes in the care of children with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Vasculitis, Dermatomyositis and Spondylarthropathies. In addition to seeing children and adolescents at Catalina Pointe, she continues to see patients at the Children's Clinics for Rehabilitative Services affiliated with Tucson Medical Center three afternoons a month.
Dr. Power is an active member of the Tucson Osteopathic Medical Foundation and has been elected to the Board of Trustees from 2004-present. She has been a member of the Steering Committee for the Southwestern Conference on Medicine since 2000, and served as chairman, 2014-2016.
She has participated as an investigator in over 70 clinical trials and has presented both nationally and internationally.
Dr. Sudano joined us from the University of Arizona where he was an assistant professor of medicine, associate program director for the rheumatology fellowship, and the primary investigator for the clinical research unit. He completed his rheumatology fellowship in 2014 and his internal medicine residency in 2012 both at the University of Arizona. He was a chief resident at the University of Arizona prior to starting his rheumatology fellowship. He earned his bachelor's degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at Pennsylvania State University in 2001, and his medical doctorate from Drexel University College of Medicine in 2008.
While at the University of Arizona, Dr. Sudano participated in research involving the diagnosis and management of coccidioidomycoses (Valley Fever) in patients with rheumatic diseases. He also led the Rheumatology Interest Group at the University of Arizona which promoted and mentored research in rheumatology for students, residents, and fellows. He was extensively involved in teaching trainees at all levels: rheumatology fellows, internal medicine resident, medical students (MS1-4).
Dr. Sudano is Board Certified in Rheumatology and Internal Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM).
Dr. Alpana Dhar is board-certified in Rheumatology and Internal Medicine. After receiving her medical school degree from Grant Medical College, University of Bombay, India, she went on to complete residency in Internal Medicine at the same institution. After coming to the US, she completed a second residency in Internal Medicine at Detroit Medical Center, Wayne State University from 1995-1998, where she was also chief resident. She did her fellowship in Rheumatology and Immunology at Tufts Medical Center, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts in 2000. She subsequently joined as faculty, Rheumatology, at Tufts University where she was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine. In 2006, she completed the Master of Public Health Program at Harvard University. She moved to Richmond, Virginia where she was appointed faculty/ Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University and worked at the VA Medical Center for 3 years before moving to Tucson.
Dr. Dhar treats all adult rheumatic diseases with a special interest in rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout and temporal arteritis. Dr. Dhar was actively involved in teaching medical students, residents and fellows and has received teaching awards including Outstanding Teacher from Internal Medicine residents and Best Teacher Award for Medical students at Virginia Commonwealth University. She received the Best Intern award during her residency. She was also involved in clinical research in Boston studying the role of biopsy lengths in the diagnosis of giant cell arteritis and exploring the role of cytokine gene polymorphisms in Osteoarthritis. Dr. Dhar is currently accepting new patients in her practice.
Dr. Ruta Tesfamicael grew up in San Diego, CA and completed her BS in Biology at UCLA. She attended medical school at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago in 2013. She completed internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Tesfamicael completed her fellowship in Rheumatology at University of California, Los Angeles in 2018. Her interest is in general Rheumatology.
Laurie Bergstrom, M.D. earned both her Bachelor of Science in Psychology (cum laude) and her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson. She went on to complete her residency in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology Fellowship at the University of Arizona. During both her undergraduate and graduate experience, Dr. Bergstrom received a number of honors and awards including the Residency Award for Outstanding Humanism and Professionalism. Dr. Bergstrom is a member of the American College of Rheumatology and Pima County Medical Society. She treats all adult Rheumatological conditions. Currently, her patient panel is closed.
Li-Ting Sudano completed her Family Nurse Practitioner training and received her Master's degree in Nursing from the University of Phoenix in 2016. She has 8 years of experience as a Registered Nurse at the Banner University Medical Center, Northwest Medical Center, and a home health agency in Tucson. She was born in Taiwan and came to the United States in 2002 for her Bachelor's degree in Nursing from the University of Arizona.
Job Titles:
- Fellow of the American College of Rheumatology
Michael Maricic, M.D. received his BA from Brown University and his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Zagreb in Croatia. He completed his training in Internal Medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, and his Rheumatology Fellowship at the University of Arizona. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona School Of Medicine. He is an experienced clinical investigator, having participated in over 90 clinical trials for osteoporosis and all areas of rheumatology since 1984.
While at the University of Arizona, Dr. Maricic served as Head of the Section of Rheumatology and as Program Director for both the Internal Medicine Residency and the Rheumatology Fellowship Programs. He has chaired both the Curriculum Committee and the Graduate Medical Education Advisory Committee. Dr. Maricic has received the Dean's Teaching Award for Excellence, the Virginia Furrow Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education and was elected AOA by the Medical Student Class. The Internal Medicine Housestaff named him the Outstanding Attending in both 2003 and 2004.
Dr. Maricic is a fellow of the American College of Rheumatology and a past Chairman of its Educational Materials and Audiovisual Aids Committees. He is a past member of the Committee on Rheumatological Care. He is a member of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research, past member of the National Osteoporosis Foundation Newsletter Editorial Board, and past Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Densitometry. He is currently on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Densitometry.
He has authored over 40 peer-reviewed articles on osteoporosis and rheumatology, numerous chapters, and has co-edited textbooks on "Decision Making in Internal Medicine," "Clinical Care in the Rheumatic Diseases" and "Bone Disease in Rheumatology".
Dr. Maricic has been selected to the list of Best Doctors in America annually since 2007.
His panel is closed to new patients.