Dr. Mai Brooks currently owns her own practice in Thousand Oaks, California and is dedicated to fulfilling her patients’ needs and assisting in their healthcare concerns. Here, Dr. Brooks offers a wide range of surgical treatments to her patients. While the focus of the practice rests largely on breast disease and skin/soft tissue, Dr. Brooks provides general surgery to address hernia, gallbladder, stomach, intestine, colon, spleen, and anorectum concerns. With regard to breast disease, Dr. Brooks offers solutions to breast-related issues, cancer prevention, counseling for high-risk patients, cancer detection, ultrasounds, biopsies, surgical treatments, oncoplastic surgery, cancer treatment follow-up, consultation for a second opinion, MammoSite, and the coordination of care across multiple medical disciplines. In terms of skin/soft tissue concerns, Dr. Brooks provides early cancer and sarcoma detection, surgical treatments, biopsies, oncoplastic surgery, follow-up treatment, and the coordination of care. Outside of her work at the practice, Dr. Brooks contributes to the medical care that is provided by the team at the VA Hospital in Los Angeles.
Aside from her professional work, Dr. Mai Brooks is involved in her church’s charitable activities. She has participated in a compassion and recovery mission that offered emotional and spiritual support to individuals within the community who were in need. Additionally, she has earned certification as a Christian Counselor and is an active member of the Cancer Support Community throughout Valley, Ventura, and Santa Barbara. Dr. Brooks is looking forward to further serving those in need by participating on a volunteer surgical mission in Vietnam, which is where she is originally from.
Dr. Mai Brooks traveled to the United States from Vietnam with her family in 1975. Through immigration, Dr. Brooks and her loved ones were able to avoid the war and create happy, successful lives for themselves in America. Although she is extremely grateful for the opportunities that this country has provided her, Dr. Brooks is eager to return to Vietnam on an upcoming service mission in order to help the people living there access a higher quality of medical care.
In 1984 Dr. Mai Brooks graduated from the University of California, Irvine. She received a bachelor of science in biology and earned the designation of summa cum laude. Dr. Brooks decided that she wanted to enter medical school right away. After a great deal of preparation and study during her undergraduate years she was able to enroll as a medical student at Harvard University. Four years later she graduated with her medical degree from this esteemed educational institution.
Like all other medical professionals, Dr. Mai Brooks had to complete an internship and residency before she could receive the certification necessary to practice on her own. Dr. Brooks landed a residency at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which is one of the leading medical facilities in the Untied States. Here she earned a top education in terms of how to practically apply all of the knowledge that she learned in her medical school classes. During her residency, Dr. Mai Brooks focused her training on surgery and oncology, allowing her to specialize in the field that interested her most.
After completing her residency, Dr. Brooks moved to the Thousand Oaks, California, area. She worked at UCLA in the Breast Center and the Oncology Center from 1995 until 2008. Since 2009, she started her own private practice . In addition to her work at her Thousand Oaks practice, Dr. Brooks has taken to providing care at the Los Angeles VA Hospital. Both of these positions allow her to do what she set out to do when she became a doctor. Namely, she helps people to achieve a higher degree of health while educating them in order to assist them in making informed decisions about their physical wellbeing.
Since starting her career, Dr. Mai Brooks has earned several different awards and forms of recognition. In 2008, Los Angeles Magazine named her one of the best physicians in southern California. In 2012, Dr. Brooks was listed as one of the best physicians by Top Doctors Los Angeles. Finally, Dr. Brooks was recognized in Los Angeles Super Doctors in 2007.
When determining the shape of her career, Dr. Mai Brooks opted to practice in two different categories of the medical field. General surgery is the first, and this aspect of surgical care is one that is extremely valuable for many patients. Ultimately, the areas that Dr. Brooks treats with regard to general surgical procedures include the gallbladder, intestine, stomach, colon, spleen, and other organs. Simply put, the role of a general surgeon is to perform any operation that does not fall under the umbrella of a specialty. For instance, appendectomies, , hemorrhoid removal, gallbladder removal, and the removal of blockages within various organs are all performed by general surgeons.
The other aspect of surgery that Dr. Brooks has pursued is surgical oncology. This is the surgical treatment of cancer, and Dr. Brooks has opted to focus on breast and soft tissue cancer (which includes skin cancer). In this capacity, Dr. Brooks is an extremely important resource to patients who are facing cancer or who are looking to prevent it from occurring. Some of the services that she provides in this regard include: breast complaint solutions, high-risk counseling, surgery, MammoSite, follow-up treatments and examinations, oncoplastic surgery, early detection, and cancer prevention.
In her role as a surgical oncologist, one of the responsibilities that Dr. Mai Brooks holds is to educate her patients with regard to breast cancer detection. Self-examination methods are critical in helping individuals to pinpoint any skin irregularities, lumps, pain, or other abnormalities that may indicate that breast cancer is present. Dr. Brooks takes this responsibility seriously and encourages all of her patients to perform monthly self-examinations in order to detect the problem as early as possible if it does develop. Areas of the skin that look different from the rest, lumps, thick tissue, changes in the size, color or shape of the breast, inflammation, redness, and discharge are all signs that indicate that an individual needs to see a doctor immediately to determine whether or not breast cancer is present.
Once individuals receive a diagnosis of breast cancer they may find it difficult to cope with this illness. Dr. Brooks knows that this can be an extremely hard experience for people of all ages, so she provides the support that patients need by offering them tips for reacting as positively as possible to the news. She asserts that talking about the diagnosis with trusted friends and family members is a wonderful way to alleviate the anxiety that this diagnosis can cause. Additionally, staying physically active, engaging in meditation or yoga, and working to further the cause of non-profit organizations that are raising awareness about breast cancer are all ways in which individuals can positively act while coping with the disease.
One such organization is Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Dr. Brooks supports the efforts of this non-profit as it tries to fight breast cancer via fundraising. The funds that are collected during the organization’s walks are used to research a wide range of topics related to the disease, such as treatment options, prevention, and detection processes. Furthermore, the walks serve to raise awareness about the condition and educate individuals regarding the impact that the disease has on members of today’s society. Ultimately, Dr. Brooks appreciates the work that the organization does to call attention to breast cancer and, she hopes, encourage individuals to perform monthly self-examinations.
Dr. Brooks has done a great deal to benefit her patients since starting her career. The awards, recognitions, and honors that she has received serve to showcase just how much Dr. Mai Brooks has done to improve the lives of others since starting her work as a surgeon.
Dr. Mai Brooks is extremely hopeful about the future of the medical field. With so much research taking place in the industry, she is certain that today’s professionals will contribute to major discoveries and breakthroughs made tomorrow.
The field of cancer research is one that has received a great deal of attention lately, and Dr. Brooks is happy to see so many individuals contributing to the efforts to raise awareness about the importance of research, prevention, and treatment. Non-profit organizations have played a major role in spreading the word about the essential nature of cancer research, and many individuals have become involved with these organizations in an effort to continue the momentum that has been generated with regard to funding important initiatives.
In the future, Dr. Mai Brooks hopes that individuals will continue to focus both on curing and preventing cancer, as she believes these activities are equally as important. Skin cancer and other forms of the disease are preventable in many cases, and it is essential, Dr. Brooks asserts, that individuals educate themselves about how they can best protect their health against this illness.
One of the hurdles that Dr. Brooks sees facing the continued development in this field is the lack of STEM education that is taking place in the United States. While there are certainly STEM-based educational programs throughout the country, she believes that it is integral to encourage students to pursue these education opportunities in order to contribute to the medical research that will take place in the future.