Juan Carlos Caicedo, Northwestern Memorial Hospital (2009)

40 UNDER 40: 2009
Tired of bad news? We are, too. So we asked this year's 40 Under 40 honorees to tell us something anything good. And they delivered, with tales of triumph over adversity, inspiration drawn from family and friends, good advice from mentors and lessons learned in this historic economic downturn. Read Juan Carlos Caicedo's profile below.

After completing his fellowship and joining Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital staff three years ago, Juan Carlos Caicedo met with a Spanish-speaking patient who needed a kidney transplant.
The patient had called 10 transplant centers, and when they answered the phone in English, the patient promptly hung up.
"That was very eye-opening for me," says Dr. Caicedo, a Colombian-born surgeon who leads the only organ transplant program in the state, possibly the nation, designed to reach the Hispanic community.
Hispanics have a higher risk of kidney and liver disease due to an increased incidence of diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure. But Dr. Caicedo found most weren't getting the medical attention they needed.
The key, he believed, was educating and treating Hispanic patients in their native language.
He formed a team of about 20 bilingual staff — doctors, nurses, social workers, financial coordinators and research assistants — to manage all aspects of patient care. The team runs educational clinics in Spanish and hands out Spanish-language brochures.
Acknowledging the importance of family in Hispanic culture, Dr. Caicedo and his team regularly meet with patients and their extended families — including grandparents — to provide emotional support, to communicate about the patient's needs and, sometimes critically, to get the elder generation's blessing before going forward with an organ donation or treatment.
Adapting a culturally sensitive approach has helped nearly double the number of Hispanic patients who have received a kidney transplant since the program's inception in 2006. Last year, Northwestern had the largest number of Hispanic patients added to the transplant wait list compared to other centers in Chicago. And Latinos now have the highest organ donation rate of any ethnic group for Northwestern patients; they are below-average donors elsewhere.
"Dr. Caicedo explains things in a way that people understand and in a way that can create consensus," says Raiza Mendoza, Hispanic outreach coordinator for Gift of Hope Organ and Tissue Donor Network in Elmhurst, who has worked with the doctor to build awareness about organ donation. "He believes in what he does, and he loves what he does. He's a good collaborator."
The doctor also is a pediatric transplant surgeon at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago and an assistant professor of surgery at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

Monica Ginsburg

SOMETHING GOOD: Dr. Caicedo hopes to work with transplant centers across the country to replicate the program. "We're trying to change some general behavior based on education," he says. "When you know your options, everything is possible."

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