Qualification
- Postgraduate diploma Breast Oncoplasty, University of East Anglia, UK (2024)
- Breast, thyroid and parathyroid surgeon, Department of Surgery, Akershus University Hospital, Oslo, Norway (2020-2025)
- General surgeon (University Hospital of North Norway HF, Skien Hospital, Akershus University Hospital) 2014-2020
- Assistant surgeon on the organ donor harvest surgical team, Department of transplant surgery, Oslo University Hospital-Rikshospitalet, Norway (2009-2013)
- PhD, Department of transplant Surgery, Oslo University Hospital, Norway (2009-2013)
- MD, University of Oslo, Norway (2008)
Dr Afaf is a trained surgeon from Norway and is board-certified by the Norwegian Directorate of Health as both a General Surgeon, and a Breast, Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgeon. Her career spans over a decade with 8 years of experience from Akershus University Hospital, one of the largest and busiest hospitals in Norway with a catchment area of 650.000 inhabitants. This has provided a large patient base, resulting in an average of 100 breast cancer surgeries per year and around 30-50 cases of thyroid and parathyroid surgeries the last 5 years.
As a Consultant Breast, and Thyroid/Parathyroid Surgeon, she has been an integral part in building a high-quality and high-volume unit at Akershus University hospital. Dr Afaf is extremely dedicated to my patients and focused on patient-centred care. With the majority of her patients being cancer patients, she is acutely aware of the value of patience and excellent communication skills to obtain patient trust and compliance. This is one of the reasons why she implemented remote patient monitoring in her department, so that patients who lived great distances away from the hospital, could use an app to get in touch with healthcare practitioners in the department when they needed to without having to travel to the hospital.
Dr Afaf has a keen interest in keeping up with the latest evidence-based research and treatments in her field of expertise and actively seek out arenas that can enhance her knowledge. Her focus is particularly on oncoplastic principles of breast surgery, and she therefore hold a postgraduate diploma from the University of East Anglia (UK). She also has a deep sense of obligation towards training and supervising young surgeons, and she was the Education Manager for the residents in the Department of Breast and Endocrine Surgery at Akershus.
She is a member of The Norwegian Medical Association, and The Norwegian Association for Breast-, and Endocrine surgery.
Expertise
- Breast conserving surgery with a special focus on principles of oncoplastic surgery
- Mastectomy
- Sentinel lymph node biopsy
- Axillary lymph node clearance
- Follow-up after surgery for breast cancer and pre-malignant conditions
- Breast surgery for benign conditions like fibroadenomas
- Open biopsies of the breast
- Ultrasound of thyroid and parathyroid including ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology
- Total thyroidectomy
- Hemithyroidectomy
- Parathyroidectomy
- Central lymph node neck dissection
- Follow-up after thyroid cancer surgery
