Newman Regional Health’s pediatrics clinic is open for business today with the arrival of a new pediatrician, Dr. Derek Brown.
Brown, who comes from the suburbs of Chicago, will be the pediatrician in the clinic on an interim basis until a permanent pediatrician is hired. Recruitment efforts are underway at Newman but in the meantime, Brown has stepped up to the challenge.
The pediatric clinic opened today and is seeing patients at 1301 W. 12th Ave. Same day and walk-in appointments will be accepted. Brown’s office will be located on the second floor of the Newman Regional Health medical building for the first few weeks while the clinic is being remodeled. The permanent clinic will be in Suite 301.
“It’s very child-friendly,” Brown said “It’s good for the city and perfect for the community.”
For an appointment or more information on the clinic, call 340-6164.
Brown said he graduated from Brown University in the top 2 percent in his class. From there he received his medical degree from the University of Illinois, Chicago Medical School. He did a three-year residency in pediatrics at the University of Illinois as well. He was in private practice for 2 1/2 years in the Chicago suburbs.
Brown was drawn to pediatrics because he loves working with children, he said. He enjoys the immediate satisfaction that he, as a physician, experiences when a child feels better. Brown will be working patients from infancy to 21 years old.
“I like the challenges that pediatrics has,” he said, adding the physicians have to be comfortable treating children of different ages. “Depending on how old they are it really does determine their level of care.”
In younger children, doctors have to solve a puzzle if the child isn’t talking yet, Brown said.
“That’s very challenging,” he said.
Brown said he landed in Emporia because he was interested in the area.
“I do like small towns,” he said. “...I wanted to meet a new challenge.”
Brown wasn’t always in the medical profession. Before going to medical school he majored in architecture and did architecture work in Rome and Florence, which led him to be interested in Italian cooking. His other hobbies include exercise and running. Architecture work was a form of delayed satisfaction for Brown, he said. The sense of immediate satisfaction working with children moved him toward the medical profession.
In medical school, Brown worked a lot with an anti-drug campaign. With 50 medical students working under him, they went into schools and showed the effects drugs have on human organs. Human organs were brought in to the school — one set was healthy and the other set showed the effect of drugs. He and his team took the message into 22 different schools in seven school districts all over Chicago.
“It was very well-received,” Brown said.
Brown also conducted research on gastric and intestinal issues. He works a lot with celiac disease in kids, he said.
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