Fresh from a nine-day trip to the Middle East, where he mentored and trained local pediatric urology surgeons, Dr. Antoine “Tony” Khoury was back in the clinic where he spends most of his time — the Urology Center at Rady Children’s Hospital Orange County — preparing to perform a procedure.
Dr. Khoury was recruited to the hospital formerly called CHOC in 2008 from The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where he served as head of the urology division, to build the Urology Center from scratch.
Back then, about 30 patients a month were seen at the urology clinic, originally located in the CHOC West building.
In 2010, the Urology Center opened on the first floor of the Commerce building, but Dr. Khoury still was the sole pediatric urologist.
Flash forward to today.
Following the recruitment of key physicians and other team members, the publication of countless studies in leading journals, and a strong emphasis on educating and mentoring other practitioners in the field, the Urology Center is one of the top-ranked pediatric urology clinics in the nation.
And it’s one of the busiest specialties on the Orange campus. Every month, an average of 1,200 patients see either Dr. Khoury or one of the other four world-renowned, fellowship-trained pediatric urologists on his team: Dr. Elias Wehbi, Dr. Kai-Wen Chuang, Dr. Heidi Stephany, and the newest member, Dr. Alireza Alam.
Together, these five specialists perform 1,500 surgical procedures a year, with many patients coming from out of state or abroad.
“We get patients from Mexico, the Middle East and across the U.S.,” Dr. Khoury says. “This past month, I treated two patients from New York and one from Idaho.”
Built for efficiency and impact
Dr. Stephany joined CHOC in 2017.
“We’re a small but mighty program,” she says. “What I really liked about CHOC was it was a little smaller than other pediatric hospitals but was on the cusp of something bigger.”
The Urology Center is a complete suite with eight exams rooms, a Video Urodynamic suite for advanced diagnostic tests, and full ultrasound capabilities.
“When a patient comes here,” Dr. Khoury explains, “he or she doesn’t have to leave except if they need something specialized like a CT scan or a nuclear medicine scan. Ninety percent of our patients have their testing and consultations all done here. We are very efficient that way.”
On top of this, the center sees patients from Los Angeles and San Diego counties, as well as other areas, for second opinions and referrals for complex conditions.
“That’s where a lot of our added volume comes from,” Dr. Khoury says.
Strong in research
CHOC is a national leader in urology research.
“We’re really trying to take the lead into putting together multi-center studies,” Dr. Khoury notes.
Just this January, Dr. Khoury was invited to write an important editorial for the Journal of Urology, the biggest scientific journal in the field. His topic was vesicoureteral reflux, a condition that occurs when urine back flows from the bladder up to the kidneys, raising the risk of urinary tract infections.
Dr. Stephany, to cite other examples, participates in fetal medicine research and is leading a clinical trial to examine the efficacy of a peppermint extract for children who have bladder dysfunction. The idea is to see if peppermint eases urinary symptoms without the use of pharmacologic medications.
Dr. Khoury’s hiring, at the end of 2018, of Carol Davis-Dao, PhD, a clinical epidemiologist, significantly ramped up research efforts within the department.
Dr. Davis-Dao, who has a joint appointment in the UC Irvine Department of Urology, manages two full-time clinical research coordinators. She also oversees a team of medical and undergraduate students.
Key research and other projects within the Urology Center include:
- A prospective study of patients with vesicoureteral reflux that focuses on treatment by risk stratification. The multi-center study involves the use of machine learning to build a predictive model.
- Society for Fetal Urology Prenatal Hydronephrosis Task Force. Dr. Davis-Dao is a former co-chair of this task force, whose studies include a multi-center research effort on patients with hydronephrosis, the swelling of one or both kidneys caused by a blockage or urine reflux. “We now have over 10 sites that are part of this collaboration and more than 3,000 kids in our database,” Dr. Davis-Dao says. “The goal is to improve care of children with this disease. It’s a mission I’m very enthusiastic about.”
- Spina Bifida Registry. Supported by the CHOC Foundation’s One Wish Grant, this study, which involves a database that Rady Children’s Health created, examines patients with spina bifida and neurogenic bladder.
- Multiple hypospadias repair outcome studies that focus on improving surgical techniques and further understanding the causes of hypospadias, a common congenital birth defect where the urethral opening forms on the underside of the penis rather than the tip, as well as surgical outcomes.
- Various industry-sponsored clinical trials investigating treatments for urologic conditions.
“In the past,” Dr. Davis-Dao says, “research in our specialty was hampered by single centers doing their own studies, which doesn’t produce the best data. Ever since I joined CHOC, our goal has been to collaborate with other pediatric urology departments, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
Dr. Davis-Dao, whose background is in cancer epidemiology, says she loves being able to give back to kids.
“I enjoy the clinical part as well as the data collection and analysis,” says Davis-Dao, who has a 14-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter.
Teaching and collaboration
Dr. Khoury runs a mentoring program for surgeons in the region.
“They see us as this very established center and they’re extremely comfortable with us,” Dr. Khoury says. “We don’t just take their patients. We go to them and teach them and work with them. We exchange patients in a very collaborative fashion.”
Dr. Khoury is the editor of the upcoming edition of The Kelalis-King-Belman Textbook of Clinical Pediatric Urology. In addition, for the past several years, he and Dr. Wehbi have co-written sections about vesicoureteral reflux for the specialty’s main textbook, Campbell’s Urology.
In 2012, the Urology Center launched a fellowship program. Recently, recruitment has been challenging as candidates often select hospitals in less expensive areas of the nation. Last year, for example, there were 13 fellowship applicants across the country for the 26 ACGME-accredited fellowship training programs.
“This will be an ongoing challenge for us,” notes Dr. Khoury, who in a couple of years will start looking for a successor to mentor for a year or two before he slows down. “Having the best people here involved in important research certainly helps.”
Dr. Stephany works closely with urology residents and fellows who also have rotations in general surgery.
“We have great collaboration across disciplines,” says Dr. Stephany, who goes to Africa two or three times a year to train urologists and pediatric surgeons to perform complex urologic reconstructions.
In 2020, CHOC was instrumental in founding the Western Pediatric Urology Consortium (WPUC), a group of several leading pediatric healthcare centers. Dr. Davis-Dao has been active in developing WPUC, which now has 18 member institutions.
One recent study to come out of this collaboration examined how the COVID-19 pandemic caused patients to delay seeking emergency treatment for testicular torsion, an emergency condition that afflicts young males.
“This study is a good example of CHOC leading the way and bringing together institutions to answer new questions,” Dr. Davis-Dao says.
Another collaboration formed a few years ago involves 10 pediatric centers with patients who have posterior urethral valves (PUV), a rare congenital anomaly that causes bladder outlet obstruction in baby boys, potentially leading to damaged bladder and kidneys.
“We only see three to four of these patients a year at Rady Children’s, so it’s difficult to study this condition on our own,” Dr. Davis-Dao says. “So, we work with a team of institutions including the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto because together we see many more patients.
“So far,” she continues, “we’ve collected data on more than 400 kids and presented data at a conference in Vienna in fall 2025. Not a lot is known about this rare population, so this is an important collaboration.”
Meet the team
Dr. Antoine Khoury
A world-renowned expert in pediatric urology, Dr. Khoury specializes in the medical and surgical management of complex pediatric urology anomalies, including reconstructive surgery for incontinence, genital anomalies, renal transplantation, and oncology. Dr. Khoury is the chief of pediatric urology at both CHOC and UC Irvine Medical Center.
Dedicated to clinical excellence, Dr. Khoury is board certified in urology. Prior to joining CHOC, Dr. Khoury received his medical degree at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt and completed a residency in urology at the University of Toronto. Dr. Khoury completed his clinical fellowship and a research fellowship in pediatric urology at the Hospital of SickKids in Toronto, Canada followed by a research fellowship at the University of Calgary, where he focused on biomaterial-related infections.
Dr. Elias Wehbi
An expert in the field of urology, Dr. Wehbi’s clinical interests include complex reconstruction, urologic malignancies, renal transplantation, and minimally invasive treatment for pediatric urology. In Canada, he helped perform the first laparoendoscopic single site (scarless) urologic surgeries for children.
An internationally recognized urologist, Dr. Wehbi has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, given presentations at national and international meetings, and received several awards for his novel clinical research. He has been an invited speaker and lecturer at various residency training programs.
Dr. Wehbi is board certified in urology. Prior to joining CHOC, Dr. Wehbi received his Royal College certification and medical doctorate at the University of Toronto. He completed his residency training in urology at the University Health Network in Toronto and conducted his fellowship in pediatric urology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario.
Dr. Wehbi has an interest in international health and has completed more than a dozen medical missions to Central America, service that has been recognized by his predecessors with humanitarian and patient care awards.
Dr. Heidi Stephany
Dr. Stephany’s clinical interest include complex reconstructive surgery, pediatric urologic oncology, and congenital anomalies specifically working in the fetal center with expecting mothers. She participates in clinical outcomes research with an interest in both neurogenic and non-neurogenic voiding dysfunction.
Resident and fellow education is also a primary focus in her academic career both locally and internationally. She served as the associate program director at UCI from August 2017 to August 2024 and is the fellowship director for the pediatric urology fellowship since 2017. Dr. Stephany is the chair of the board for International Volunteers in Urology (IVU Med), an international urologic non-governmental organization, and volunteers biannually in Africa to conduct workshops to share her expertise in pediatric urology with local urologists.
She received her medical degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Lawrence, Kan. She completed her general surgery internship at the University of Missouri Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, Mo., her urology residency at theUniversity of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., and her pediatric urology fellowship atVanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn.
Dr. Kai-Wen Chuang
Dr. Chuang earned her medical degree from the UC San Francisco School of Medicine. She completed her general surgery internship fromNorth Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y, and her urology residency from theSmith Institute for Urology in New Hyde Park, N.Y. She completed her pediatric urology fellowship from UCSF Medical Center.
Dr. Alireza Alam
Dr. Alam earned his medical degree fromTehran University of Medical Sciences in Iran and completed fellowships atNicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, Fla., and UCI Medical Center in Orange.
Research Manager Dr. Carol Davis-Dao
Dr. Davis-Dao received her Ph.D. in epidemiology and her master’s degree in applied biostatistics and epidemiology from the Keck School of Medicine at USC. Dr. Davis-Dao’s research interests include developing risk stratification strategies to help dictate follow-up, treatment and surgical intervention for congenital urologic conditions.
Nurse practitioner Christina Chalmers
A certified pediatric nurse practitioner (CPNP), Christina earned a master’s degree from Cal State University Los Angeles.
Nurse practitioner Lauren Brown
A graduate of California Baptist University in Riverside where she received her master’s degree in family practice nursing, Lauren received her undergraduate degree in biopsychology from UC Santa Barbara.
CHOC Children’s Hospital was named one of the nation’s best children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report in its 2025-26 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings and ranked in the urology specialty.
