Dr. Michaela Straznicka is a board certified thoracic surgeon with a special interest in the evaluation and management of lung cancer and minimally invasive thoracic surgery. She joined the medical staff at John Muir Medical Center in 2003. In 2006, she was elected as the first Medical Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program at John Muir Health in Walnut Creek and Concord. She has dedicated the last eight years as medical director to increasing recognition of lung cancer while minimizing the progression of this disease in the communities she serves.Her particular interests include early detection via CT screening, accurate diagnosis with state of the art technologies like EBUS (endobronchial Ultrasound) and Super Dimension bronchoscopy, and minimally invasive resection via thoracoscopy and robot-assisted surgery.
Good morning. My name is Michaela Straznicka, and I’m a board-certified thoracic surgeon. I have worked with BASS Medical Group for 20 years here at the Walnut Creek location. My background includes attending college and medical school at the University of Miami. I completed my general surgery training at UMDNJ in New Jersey, followed by a cardiothoracic fellowship at UC Davis in Sacramento. I then began my career at MD Anderson in Texas before joining BASS Medical Group in 2003. Since then, I have been on staff at John Muir in Concord and Walnut Creek. Medical school is challenging—it’s a commitment that lasts many years. Most people complete four years of college, four years of medical school, and then a residency in their specialty field before they even begin working, often well into their late 20s or early 30s. However, it’s a very rewarding career where you meet great people. It’s wonderful to take care of patients, and as long as the commitment is there, it is a great field to pursue. The majority of my patients are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and even 80s. Most of them see me for cancer care, though there are also benign diseases that require surgical attention. Many of my patients have other specialists involved in their care to determine whether they can tolerate surgery, including pulmonologists, cardiologists, and other providers. If there is a cancer diagnosis, I work closely with a team of specialists, including medical oncologists and radiation oncologists, to develop the best treatment plan. One of my biggest success stories comes from patients who undergo imaging for unrelated reasons. Many patients come to the ER after a trip and fall, where they receive a chest X-ray. Others may be preparing for a knee replacement, and their preoperative workup includes a chest X-ray. In these cases, we sometimes find a tiny nodule that ultimately turns out to be cancer—something we would have never known about without that incidental finding. Catching cancer early can be life-saving, and in these cases, it allows us to treat the disease before it becomes advanced. Fortunately, with lung cancer screenings, more patients are being diagnosed earlier. With today’s advancements, I have patients returning to work just two weeks after their curative cancer surgery. And five years later, when they are officially deemed cancer-free, they can say, "I cannot believe I survived lung cancer." Those moments are incredibly fulfilling for me. Thank you very much for taking the time to learn about lung cancer and thoracic surgery. I have offices in both the Walnut Creek and Brentwood areas. For more information, please visit our website at BASSMedicalGroup.com. Again, my name is Michaela Straznicka, and I am a proud member of the BASS Medical Group.
