By Dr. Reed Dimmitt, Director, Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology
David E. Dixon Endowed Chair in Pediatric Gastroenterology
With the addition of two more physicians in the coming months, Children’s of Alabama will soon be able to expand the care we provide to pediatric patients with liver disease.
Gillian Noel, M.D., is finishing her fellowship at Emory and will join us soon. Within a few months, we will welcome Mike Leonis, M.D., from Cincinnati, Ohio, as the director of our new pediatric liver center. Both are board certified in pediatric hepatology and will be the first two such certified physicians in the state.
These staff additions are the realization of a longtime goal to establish a liver center benefitting children across Alabama. We will be able to increase the number of liver transplants performed on children around the state, allowing physicians to refer more patients to Children’s instead of Vanderbilt and Emory. We will also expand specialized clinics for other conditions such as liver disease associated with cystic fibrosis, pediatric fatty liver disease and metabolic diseases.
These clinics will be multidisciplinary, including nutrition, genetics, pulmonary, psychology and child life. When patients come in from around the state, they will be able to see everyone at one time without making multiple appointments. Even local patients will find the process to be more efficient, requiring less time off school and work to get the care they need.
In addition to helping simplify the process for patients and their parents, these multidisciplinary clinics have proven to improve outcomes. The collaborative nature of the clinics will enable us to discuss cases from our own specialty while developing a transdisciplinary approach to the care of patients. We are able to care for the total patient, not only addressing their physical needs but also how their condition affects them emotionally and developmentally in a programmatic manner.
In conjunction with the liver clinics, we are planning an expanded pediatric obesity program so we can have interventions with these children as well. The clinics will partner as needed to provide the full scope of care for all our patients.
With the addition of these doctors Leonis and Noel, we’ll have three physicians dedicated to liver disease and 13 faculty members in our group. We are pleased to welcome them in our efforts to continually improve care through the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology at Children’s.
