Faculty

She is a native El Pasoan, born and raised on the west side of El Paso. She completed her Bachelors of Science degree at the University of Dallas and attended medical school at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine in Fort Worth, Texas. She completed her General Surgery Residency here at Texas and Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso and then completed additional training with the UT Health Houston Advanced Colorectal Fellowship. She is excited to return to the Sun City to offer her patients colon and rectal surgical care. Her focus is on minimally invasive colon and rectal surgery with the Da Vinci robot but she also offers screening colonoscopy, treatment for hemorrhoids, anal fissure, fecal incontinence, inflammatory bowel disease, and anal fistula.

Dr. Applebaum has been an El Pasoan and Texan since 1978. He graduated from Coronado High School in 1982, from the University of Texas at Austin in 1986, from medical school at Texas Tech Medical School in 1991, and completed a general surgery residency and fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine at Houston in 1997. He has been practicing surgery in El Paso since 1997. 

He has been board-certified in general surgery since 1997. He is also a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of Texas Surgical and Michael E. DeBakey Surgical Societies. He is also a member of the Texas Medical Association and El Paso County Medical Society. He served as president of the El Paso County Medical Society in 2012. In addition, he has been a ringside doctor for USA Boxing.

Alex Flaris, MD, MSc is a board certified general surgeon and an endocrine surgeon. He is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Surgery at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. Dr. Flaris obtained his medical degree from the Aristotle University School of Medicine (AUSOM) in Thessaloniki, one of the most prestigious medical schools in Greece. He completed his Masters of Science in “Physiology in Extreme Conditions” in Lyon, France. Following that, Dr. Flaris completed 7 years of training in General Surgery at Tulane in New Orleans. During that period of time, Dr. Flaris had the opportunity to travel back to Lyon, France for a clinical and research year and explored HIPEC for advanced cancers. He subsequently completed his fellowship in Comprehensive Endocrine Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.

Dr. Flaris is very excited to be in El Paso and to join Texas Tech. He is looking forward to serving the population of the city and surrounding areas with a special focus on thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal and neuroendocrine pancreas diseases as well as general surgery pathology.