Who is Dr. Larry McKean?

He can be described by the profound human emotion:COMPASSIONATE

This is being reprinted in part from the Summer of 2002 “Reaching Out” newsletter written by Monique Colie and updated by Susan Burroughs.

Dr. Lawrence McKean (Dr. Larry) grew up in New Berlin, Wisconsin in a large family with 5 sisters and 2 brothers. He is the only M.D. in the family and the only sibling to look for warmer winters and leave Wisconsin. He and his wife, Martha, have a son Jonathan and another son, Peter, who died in 1999 at the age of 23.

Dr. Larry has an interest music, including classical, rock-n-roll and country-western. He enjoys listening to bands play in some of the college clubs around Athens. Dr. Larry’s other interest is his hardwood tree farm, which he started as a “legacy” to his son Peter. He shares with us that Peter was very creative and artistic, particularly working with hardwoods. In fact, he made wooden bowls and even constructed his own guitar.

He graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin and completed his residency training in Pediatrics and his fellowship training in Allergy and Immunology at Emory University in Atlanta. He then joined the faculty at Emory University as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and started working with Dr. Daniel Caplan at the Cystic Fibrosis Center. He gives credit to Dr. Caplan for teaching him not just about CF, but about practicing medicine and caring for patients, not just prescribing medications. He has done research and published papers and book chapters on cystic fibrosis (CF), CF-related diabetes, and mechanisms of allergic reactions. In 1993, he left the faculty at Emory University to establish the Asthma & Allergy Clinic for Children, PC in Athens, GA. In 2002, he was asked to return to the Fibrosis Center after Dr. Caplan had a stroke. He helped to keep the CF Center running until Dr. Caplan could return. He treated both children and adults with CF and participated in studies involving treatment of infections that occur in CF patients. He is particularly proud of developing a protocol that has cleared cepacia in 5 patients. In addition to specializing in the treatment of patients with Cystic Fibrosis, Dr. McKean specializes in the evaluation and treatment of recurrent infections
in young children and the evaluation and treatment of asthma and allergic diseases.

Dr. Larry has worked with cystic fibrosis patients with his mentor Dr. Dan Caplan for many years. He had a role in helping design the CF Center that stood on the corner of Clifton and Houston Mill Road until June of this year. Even though he has not always been at the CF Center he has continued practicing medicine and treating cystic fibrosis patients throughout the years. Many of us have continued to rely on his expertise in the field of cystic fibrosis and we are thankful that he remains in the Atlanta area. He has a private practice in Atlanta with Atlanta ENT, Sinus & Allergy Associates, PC.

There have been a lot of change at the Emory Cystic Fibrosis center for the adult patients. Many of us have already felt how complicated the Emory system is to work with. In addition, we have been denied access to the physicians, social workers and healthcare team we have grown to love and trust. I am now 48 years old with cystic fibrosis. These people are the ones that I attribute to making it to this “ripe old age”. I personally need to have Dr. Dan Caplan and Dr. Larry McKean in my life: monitoring my care and coordinating my care with my lung transplant team.

When I received my “letter” telling me who I would have to see for my cystic fibrosis care, I was most upset. Then I realized I do have a choice. THANK YOU DR. MCKEAN for being there for me and all my cystic fibrosis friends.

Dr. Larry McKean
17 Executive Park Drive, Suite 250
Atlanta, GA 3032
(678) 904-4390 Office
http://www.atlantaent.com/
ehandsome@atlantaent.com Office Manager

Ms. Jessica Enders, CF Registered Dietician

Ms. Jessica Enders, in her own words.... I received my Bachelor of Science in Human Ecology: Food, Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, graduating in 2002. I then moved to Nashville to complete my Dietetic internship at Vanderbilt Medical Center completing the program in June 2003. I then moved to Atlanta where I began working at Emory University Hospital in September 2003 at which time I passed the Registered Dietitians Exam to become a RD. Outside of work I enjoy running in various races around Atlanta, scrapbooking and I am a black belt in USA GoJu Federation karate where I have been working out for the past 6 years. I have been married to my husband Jamie for 3 years this past May. We have two "children", Gracie a gray feisty feline, and Shadow a 70 pound sensitive black lab that allows the cat to run the house! Contact e-mail address: Jessica.Enders@emoryhealthcare.org

Ms. Welela Berhanu, CF Registered Nurse

Ms. Welela Berhanu is Emory University's CF Registered nurse. In her own words... I am originally from Ethiopia. I have been working as a nurse since 1989. I received an Associate Degree in Nursing from Massachusetts Bay Community College in Wellesley, MA. In 2005, I received a Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Georgia State University. I joined Emory ten years ago. the last eight years I have been working in 6G in the General Medicine Unit as a bedside RN, where I had the opportunity to care for patients with many acute and chronic illnesses, including CF. Emory University Hospital's General Medicine Unit is the only specialized inpatient care unit that cares for the adult cystic fibrosis population in the Emory Healthcare system. I have gained a great deal of experience and understanding of this disease and its treatment by working closely with patients and an interdisciplinary team. Outside work, I am a full time mom taking care of my two wonderful children. Tihute is almost four and full of energy, with a great imagination. He is in a "rescue mission" each day as a fire fighter or on a helicopter rescue team. Luam is 20 months. She is quiet, ladylike and loves her shoes. I am excited about this new opportunity and loof forward to working with adults in the Cystic Fibrosis adult program. You may contact Welela at welela.berhanu@emoryhealthcare.org

Lindy Wolfenden, MD

Lindy Wolfenden, MD
Director, Adult CF Program
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine
Emory Healthcare, The Emory Clinic
Phone: 404-778-3261

There's a new face of cystic fibrosis, and it is significantly older than you might expect. That's the message of the Cystic Fibrosis Adult Program at Emory University, the only program in Atlanta providing care specific to the needs of adults living with Cystic Fibrosis (CF).
Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic disease affecting 30,000 children and adults in the United States, impacts pulmonary function, digestion and reproduction. Symptoms include mucus in the lungs, lung infections, gastrointestinal problems and impaired breathing. Defective CF genes, carried by one in 30 Americans, have been pinpointed as the root cause of the disease, and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation estimates that up to 10 million Americans are unknowing carriers.

Emory's Cystic Fibrosis Adult Program began in 2002 in response to the unique needs of adult CF patients, and complies with a national mandate from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation that adults with CF be treated at adult centers. As a distinct unit in Emory's Cystic Fibrosis Center, Emory's program provides care to the increasing numbers of adult patients with CF. Lindy Wolfenden, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care in Emory University School of Medicine, notes that the median age of cystic fibrosis survival has risen from 14 in 1969 to age 35 in 2004. Now, almost 40 percent of cystic fibrosis patients are 18 or older, according to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and doctors, including Dr. Wolfenden, expect the median age to rise even higher through increased research capabilities.

"As we learn more about the disease, more adults are being diagnosed as adults," Dr. Wolfenden says. "An adult who is diagnosed later in life is different than an adult diagnosed as a child in terms of their disease and their medical needs." Responding to those unique needs, the adult program advises patients not just on preserving lung function, but on smoking cessation, lung transplants, fertility, gastrointestinal complications and the diabetes and osteoporosis that often result in adults with the disease.

The comprehensive program pulls together Emory pulmonologists, gastroenterologists, nutritionists, respiratory therapists, nurses and social workers who have been specially trained to support adult patients living with CF. Emory's program, which includes a 10-bed inpatient facility and access to Emory University Hospital, now serves more than 140 adult patients from throughout the Southeast, with another 100 expected to transition fully into the program within the next two years.

The program is also dedicated to aiding Emory's mission as a research institution, says Dr. Wolfenden, "We want to further the mission of patient care and research, because it's through research that we have achieved this tremendous increase in median survival." Through funding from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and pharmaceutical companies, the adult program is contributing to a number of different studies designed to treat CF symptoms, identify exacerbating factors of the disease and improve patient quality of life.

That process results from the urgency of researchers to lengthen life spans of CF patients. "When you're in the lab, you only change one thing at a time," notes Arlene Stecenko, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at Emory School of Medicine and the Cystic Fibrosis Center's director and director of research. "When you're trying to add five or ten years of life to an individual, you can't just do one thing at a time." Instead, Dr. Stecenko says, by testing multiple hypotheses at the same time she hopes her team can make as large a difference as possible in the lives of patients.

New Pulmonologist at Emory

Dr. Viranuj Sueblinvong in her own words... I am originally from Thailand. After finishing medical school, I moved to the United States to pursue my passion in scientific research. At first, I worked in molecular biology lab at the Children's Hospital in the suburb of Chicago. I then completed my residency training in Internal Medicine at the St. Joseph's Hospital associated with Northwestern University in Chicago. Finally, I completed my fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine at the University of Vermont. That's where my first encounter with CF patients occurred. After my clinical training, I returned to "the bench", aka the research lab, where I could unite my interest in CF disease with my love of science. My goal is to further the understanding of CF disease as well as to find better treatments (and even better, the cure). In September 2008, I joined the Emory adult CF team from the University of Vermont adult CF program. The Emory University CF team was attractive to me because of its mission to improve the quality of care delivered to CF patients. I am very excited to be part of the team and the CF community as a whole. Dr. Sueblinvong can be reached at the main office number 404-778-3261.

NEW SOCIAL WORKER AT EMORY

The new adult social worker at Emory University Hospital is Ms. Lysandra Brown. In her own words....I received my Bachelor of Arts in English from Emory University in 1996. I volunteer with the Emory Alumni Association to give back to the community. I received a Master of Social Work from Boston University in 1999. While in Boston, I was active with the Natioal Association of Social Workers. I served on a committee for ethnic and racial affairs and presented a workshop on stress management. I returned to Atlanta after 7 years in Boston. I worked as a medical social worker at South Fulton Medical before joining the Emory Hospital and Emory clinic team. I am currently a licensed master level social worker. Outside of work, I enjoy walking in the AIDS walk, Heart walk, and plan to participate with the 65 Roses Team in the ING walk in March. I enjoy jazz, painting and discussing current events. You may contact Lysandra Brown at lysandra.brown@emoryhealthcare.org or contact their main office at 404-778-3261. Lysandra's direct number is 404-778-4751.