About

Nima Kokabi, MD, is an Associate Professor of Radiology, Vice Chair of Clinical Research, Interventional Oncology Director, and Cancer Imaging Director. He recently joined the UNC Department of Radiology from Emory University, where he spent the last five years of his career. Dr. Kokabi was born in Iran and grew up in Canada. He graduated with honors from the University of Sydney Medical School in 2011. From there, he completed his internship at MetroWest Medical Center, Harvard Medical School before moving on to his Diagnostic Residency at Emory University School of Medicine. He completed his Vascular Interventional Radiology Fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine in 2017.

Dr. Kokabi was majoring in engineering during his undergraduate education. During that time, he worked on image-processing projects. That was his first introduction to Radiology. While collaborating with some doctors on those projects, he realized there needed to be more connection between people who practice medicine and those who create medical devices. He intended to bridge that gap as much as one person could. That is where his interest in Radiology originated. He thought that of all the fields in medicine, it’s the one that relies heavily on technology and advancement. During medical school, he was in a unique small group of people that wanted to do Radiology from the beginning. So many of his peers and colleagues didn’t even know what Radiology was when they entered medical school.

He eventually chose to pursue Interventional Radiology as his specialty because the beauty of IR is that you get to do life-saving procedures. Many areas of radiology are heavily diagnostic and have no interaction with patients. However, IR is integral to many treatment teams for cancer or non-cancer-related diseases.

Expertise

Interventional oncology

Specialty

• Treatment of liver cancer
• Treatment of kidney cancer
• Treatment of bone cancer
• Treatment of lung cancer
• Treatment of benign bone tumors
• Vertebral augmentation
• Palliative pain therapy

Professional Interests

Dr. Kokabi is actively involved in various clinical research areas in interventional oncology. Additionally, he is passionate about global health and creating access to minimally invasive therapies/procedures for patients in developing and less developed countries.

Research

Dr. Kokabi’s research interests include personalization of care for patients with GI, GU and bone cancers. He wants to improve clinical outcome and reduce treatment related complications. The long-term goal of his research is to improve overall survival and quality of life for these patients.

Philosophy of Care

My philosophy of care is simple. To treat the patients as if they are your loved ones.

Honors and Awards

• Resident/Fellow Research Award, Society of Interventional Radiology Annual Scientific Meeting, Atlanta, GA 2015
• Radiology Society of North America (RSNA) Roentgen Resident Research Award, Chicago, IL 2016
• Outstanding Mentor, Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA 2019
• Outstanding Contribution to Research (Junior Faculty), Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA 2020
• Featured Researcher, 2020 Researcher Appreciation Day, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 2020
• Mentoring Award, Emory School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA 2021
• Young Investigator Award, Society of Interventional Radiology, Boston, MA 2022