Inside Pediatrics Winter 2018

NETWORK FOR CHANGE

The Children’s of Alabama and University of Alabama at Birmingham Cystic Fibrosis Center plays a leading role in efforts to develop multidisciplinary cystic fibrosis centers in Latin American countries.

F rom his office on the south side of Birmingham, Alabama, pediatric pulmonologist Hector Gutierrez, M.D., shares his passion to help cystic fibrosis (CF) patients around the world. In addition to being director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Division of Pediatric Pulmonology and the Cystic Fibrosis Center at Children’s of Alabama, Gutierrez is also principal investigator of the Cystic Fibrosis Training Network for Latin America (CFTN-LA). He leads a specialized team whose goal is to establish CFTN-LA as a permanent presence in Latin America. “Unlike the United States, most Latin American countries lack a center network to provide shared information and collaboration to help improve the care of patients. Because of this, they have been at a great disadvantage,” Gutierrez said. “A sustainable training program for CF centers can help improve quality of care, clinical outcomes and life expectancy for Latin American CF patients.”

The CFTN-LA strives to meet the same goals of the CF Foundation, which over the past 60 years has established itself as a global leader in rare disease research and advancement of new CF therapies in the U.S. The network aims to provide high-quality care for thousands of Latin American patients, to establish comprehensive, multidisciplinary CF centers and to address preventive barriers. Gutierrez said the network would open important avenues for future research and drug development. “Several factors limit the optimal CF delivery of care in these countries,” Gutierrez said. “Whereas diagnostic testing and medications are increasingly available here in the United States, there has been a paucity of expert manpower and the lack of a multidisciplinary team approach in Latin America.” Gutierrez said the CFTN-LA would lay the foundation for a well-integrated infrastructure for CF centers and their

teams, with future training efforts led in qualified Latin America centers, ensuring continued growth and sustainability of the network. Since 2014, Gutierrez has led eight benchmarking visits to Chile to help ensure access to high-quality care and establish the CFTN-LA. In turn, the Santiago, Chile-based Hospital Clínico San Borja Arriaran (HCSBA) CF team, among the partners in this endeavor, visited Birmingham for a two-week training to accelerate the project. Because the current Latin America healthcare delivery systems do not integrate or share information, patients may change from one system to another without proper follow-up and data acquisition. In addition, some health professionals essential to the CF team work as independent contractors to both public and private systems, resulting in higher costs to insurers and families. The CF Center at Children’s has proposed establishing a multidisciplinary

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