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--PATRICIA WARNER

Breathing is easy to take for granted—unless you are an adult or child who lives with acute or chronic respiratory illness. The Division of Pulmonology at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital provides comprehensive care to babies, children, and teenagers coping with asthma, cystic fibrosis, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and other pulmonary diseases.

This issue of Michigan Cares focuses on the division of pulmonology and the technology, teamwork, and research that make the department unique. Technology is extremely important, but it is the people who add an extra dimension to patient care. This combination is quite powerful.

There are many features that set Mott Children’s Hospital apart from other programs in Michigan and across the nation. For example:

• The pediatric and adolescent home ventilator program serves the largest population of ventilator-dependent children within the state and is the largest program of its kind in the country.
• Mott Children’s Hospital is the only hospital in Michigan to offer pulmonary function testing for infants and toddlers (on the same level as adult testing).
• The recently renovated state-of-the-art pulmonary function lab provides testing for patients from throughout the state as well as some patients from Ohio and Indiana.

The department is led by internationally recognized scientist and researcher Marc Hershenson, M.D., whose work has already advanced medicine’s understanding of asthma and cystic fibrosis. You’ll learn more about the rest of the team in this issue as well as the comprehensive care that meets more than just the patients’ medical needs.

For more information, please visit www.med.umich.edu/pediatrics/divisions/pulm/index.htm.

Sincerely,

Patricia A. Warner
Associate Hospital Director
Chief Administrative Officer, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital
The University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers