Freeport Medical Center, a three-story medical facility that opened for business at 23 Durham Road in June, will have its full complement of practices – and something brand new for Freeport, as well – when Freeport Pediatrics opens its doors on Jan. 4.

Drs. Kristen Brown and Ann Tuddenham are the two pediatricians at the practice, which will also feature pediatric nurse practitioner Elena Wagner, as well as support staff. All three providers are residents of the communities the new practice will serve.

All will work in an environment meant to put children at ease. Artist Jane Burke recently completed a huge mural of underwater scenes that covers the Freeport Pediatrics walls.

Nikki Knighton, owner of ACD Properties, which owns the building, also is manager of Freeport Medical, the first-floor practice operated by her husband, Dr. Brian Knighton, an osteopath. Knighton is excited that children in the Freeport area finally will have pediatricians of their own.

“We’ve lived here 13 years and as far as I know we’ve never had a pediatrician in town,” Knighton said. “People take their children to Yarmouth or Brunswick or Portland or Lewiston-Auburn, and that’s a long way to go when you have a sick kid.”

NorDx Labs, a blood-drawing facility, operates on the same floor as Freeport Medical. Freeport Pediatrics has the second floor and Freeport Osteopathic Health is on the ground floor.

Keith McBride, executive director of the Freeport Economic Development Corp., said that Freeport Pediatrics will enhance the town’s status.

“It makes us more of a self-contained business community,” he said. “There’s less things that you can’t do in Freeport. We’re becoming self-contained.”

McBride said that families in town will be thrilled that they no longer have to go to other communities to get medical care for their children.

“There’s a comfort level in that,” he said.

Brown is on staff at Central Maine Medical Center’s Family Medicine Residency in Lewiston. She will continue her involvement with the program while serving pediatric patients in Freeport.

In a press release from Central Maine Medical Center, residency program director Dr. Raj Woolever said Brown “has a gift and great enthusiasm for providing care to young people. She is also focused on connecting with the community to help all kids maintain good health.”

Brown completed her undergraduate studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., and earned her medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. She served an internship and residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Brown is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics, and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Tuddenham comes to Freeport Pediatrics from Bayview Pediatrics in Yarmouth, where she saw patients for eight years, according to the press release. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and is certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. Her professional interests include infant mental health, pediatric psychopharmacology and maternal postpartum depression.

A graduate of Poole College in Dorset, England, she earned her medical degree from Guy’s Hospital Medical School in London. In 2012 she was named one of U.S. News & World Report’s “Top Doctors.”?Wagner is a graduate of the Columbia University School of Nursing, where she received her master’s degree in nursing in 1998.

Wagner is a member of the clinical staff at Brunswick Primary Care. She is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner and a fellow of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.

Calls to the doctors in Lewiston were not returned by the Tri-Town Weekly’s deadline Monday.

The Freeport Pediatrics team includes, from left, pediatric nurse practitioner Elena Wagner, Dr. Ann Tuddenham and Dr. Kristen Brown. Courtesy photo

Copy the Story Link