About PHLBI

Established in 2002, Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (”PHLBI”) is a non-profit institution 501(c)(3) focused on the treatment and prevention of malignant pleural mesothelioma.  We support the research efforts of  renowned mesothelioma surgeon Dr. Robert Cameron, who advocates the lung-sparing Pleurectomy/Decortication surgery for patients diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma.  Please click on the research tab on our homepage to learn more about Dr. Cameron’s work (in his own words) at the Punch Worthington Research Lab at UCLA, funded by Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute.

The information presented on this website is designed to help you do your homework on the topic of mesothelioma.  Patients and their families have told us repeatedly that ”arming yourself” with information is a highly effective way to help you face a mesothelioma diagnosis, and, that once you have conquered the “fear of the unknown”, everything else becomes less daunting.

Please feel free to contact PHLBI Executive Director Amy Sriberg at (310) 478-4678 or asriberg@phlbi.org for more information about PHLBI.

Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute
10780 Santa Monica Boulevard Suite #101
Los Angeles, California  90025
(310) 478-4678


PHLBI’s BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Warren S. Grundfest, MD, FACS

Dr. Grundfest is currently Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Surgery at UCLA. He received his MD degree from Columbia University in 1980 and trained in General Surgery at UCLA and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He was appointed Assistant Director of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery at UCLA in 1987. He served as a Research Professor in Biomedical Engineering at University of Southern California and as Visiting Associate in Mechanical Engineering at California Institute of Technology.

From 1991-2001 Dr. Grundfest was the Director of the Cedars-Sinai Laser Research and Technology Development Program where he held the Dorothy and E. Philip Lyon Chair in Laser Research. Dr. Grundfest developed a broad range of laser, endoscopic, and minimally invasive surgical devices and techniques to improve the efficacy and decrease the pain and cost of medical therapies. He has received 15 patents for these efforts.

In 1994 he was inducted into NASA’s Space Technology Hall of Fame for the application of Excimer lasers to biologic systems. In 1996 he was elected Fellow, American Institute of Medical & Biologic Engineers (AIMBE), and Fellow, SPIE, for his work in biomedical photonics. Dr. Grundfest served as the first Chair of the UCLA Biomedical Engineering Program from 1999-2002.

Dr. Grundfest served as a member of the Surgery and Bioengineering Study Section of the NIH, external Co-Chair of the NIH BECON Consortium, and Chair of SPIE’s Biomedical Optics Conference for many years. Dr. Grundfest currently consults for the NIH and the FDA and serves as a Senior Technology Advisor to TATRC (Telemedicine and Technology Research Center of the Army). His current research efforts include the development of minimally invasive surgical tools, robotic systems, optical and ultrasonic sensors, haptic feedback systems, and biomedical photonics.

Terry Lynch

Vice President at Large and Health and Safety Director for the International Association Heat & Frost Insulators & Asbestos Workers
Munster, IN

Terry Lynch started his career with the International Association Heat & Frost Insulators & Asbestos Workers in 1970 as an apprentice insulator with Asbestos Workers Local 17 in Chicago, Illinois. After completing his apprenticeship, he received his journeyman card in 1974. In 1980, he was elected Vice President of Local 17 and in 1982 attended the first of five conventions as a delegate representing the Local. In December of 1984, Terry was elected Corresponding Recording and Financial Secretary of Local 17 and in 1986 he was elected as Trustee for the Local Union’s Health, Welfare, Pension and Annuity Funds. Terry served the Local as Chairman of these jointly trusted funds and also for the Joint Apprentice Training Committee. In 1996, Terry was elected as Business Manager of the Heat and Frost Insulators’ Local 17.

In September of 2002, Terry was elected to his current post as International Vice President at Large. Terry also serves his International Union as Legislative Director and Health and Safety Director.

Terry comes from a pipe covering family which includes his grandfather, father, uncle, brother and many cousins. Terry’s son, Jason, now completes the fourth generation of pipe coverers in the family.

Terry has always strived to make life better for his fellow Union members and their families. He looks forward to working with the Pacific Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (PHLBI).

“The time is long past to address the underlying health crisis,” Lynch said recently. “Asbestos has decimated entire generations of insulators. We have known that asbestos is deadly for decades, but next to nothing has been done to wipe out the epidemic of asbestos cancer. Our members want hope. They want more life. They want investment in prevention and early detection strategies. They are at high risk for disease – they need assurance that if they too are diagnosed, at least there will be reasonable, affordable and accessible treatment options. Insulators, as well as all of our brothers and sisters in the building, metal and shipbuilding trades, helped build this great country. We owe it to working families to invest in a cure.”

Terry earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Northern Illinois University. He is a past Admiral of the Pirates, a group of Union Labor and Management people dedicated to helping special children. Terry also served on the Labor Council with Amalgamated Bank.

Terry has been married for 36 years to his wife Denise. They have one son, Jason, and one grandson, Connor Terrence.

Asbestos Workers Union Joins New Medical Foundation’s Quest for Cure of Asbestos and Benzene-Related Cancers (3/20/06)

Andrea Scott

Andrea K. Scott, Esquire is an attorney specializing in bioethics, regulatory affairs and the introduction of new medical technologies. Scott earned her undergraduate degree form Princeton University (BA, magna cum laude) and a graduate degree from Yale University (MA with honors) before working as an anthropologist in pre-Columbian Mayan and Chinese epigraphy and iconography. She won a National Science Foundation doctoral fellowship while at Yale and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Marroquin in Guatemala. Scott obtained her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law where she was a member of the Editorial Board of the Law Review. Her Note, “Anencephalic Infants as Organ Donors” was published in the University of Virginia Law Review. After her first year at law school, she served as a Law Intern to the Honorable John W. Bissell of the United States District Court, New Jersey and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (sitting by designation).

Scott was retained by Dr. Jonas Salk to serve as Chief Biomedical Ethics Officer to the Salk Foundation to assist with clinical trials for Salk’s prophylactic AIDs vaccine in Africa and Asia. Dr. Salk chose Scott because of her record as both an archeologist and bioethicist in resolving problems generated by the introduction of novel medical technologies and practices in third world countries. Scott has also served as a Trustee to the Albert B. Sabin Vaccine Institute, Bioethics Advisor to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Center for Health Care Technologies. For years, Scott was a Visiting Lecturer in Law and Medicine at Loma Linda University Medical Center and Graduate School. She also acted as General Counsel to the Loma Linda Medical Research Board of Advisors.

Scott has consulted for various national governmental agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development [USAID], the Food and Drug Administration [FDA], and the National Institutes of Health [NIH]. She has been a member and officer of numerous technological societies, including the Center for Telemedicine Law, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers [IEEE], the International Society for Optical Engineering [SPIE], the Biomedical Optics Society [BIOS], the IEEE Engineering, Medicine and Biology Society [EMBS], the IEEE Workforce Committee and the SPIE / American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering [AIMBE] Joint Working Committee on Health Care Technology Policy, for which she co-chaired the Subcommittee on Bioethics and Regulatory Affairs, as well as the University of Virginia Ad Hoc Bioethics Committee.

Scott’s client list is unusually diverse, including individuals, small startup groups, national Fortune 500 corporations and multinational companies. She was a consultant to General Electric Medical Systems for their Second Generation Imaging Program and bioethics advisor to their International Clinical Investigations Program [CIP]. As an expert at trial, Scott has worked for both plaintiffs and defendants. Benchmark cases include Dow Corning Corporation et al. v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. et al.; 3M Corporation et al. V. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. Et al. regarding the silicon breast implant dispute; In re Maureen Helmick, which involved the role of managed care and a patient’s right to die; and Mullen v. Nezhat et al. The Nezhat case involved a broad array of bioethics issues from fraud by the medical device industry in the introduction of new medical technology to effective testing in clinical trials, licensing, privileging and credentialing, fraudulent medical advertising, fraudulent research and publication, informed consent, waivers of patient rights and billing fraud.

Scott’s work as an archeologist took her to Asia, Central America, the Mediterranean and Africa. Her familiarity with foreign cultures and languages is key to her method of resolving seemingly discordant ethical issues in law and medicine within Third World countries and allowed her to generate policy guidelines resulting in legislation implemented on three continents. During the 1980s, while conducting archeological research in Guatemala, Scott founded and chaired the Guatemalan-North American Association [GNAA], a non-profit inter-American relief organization promoting medical, healthcare and agricultural assistance to Guatemala’s Mayan Indian populations in both the Highlands and Peten jungle. Scott convinced political factions at war for more than three decades to adopt a strict “hands off” policy, allowing relief efforts to move forward without interference and violence. Lending support to this and other human rights initiatives by Scott were USAID, members of the military from the USA, Russia, Cuba and Canada, and thirteen political factions of Guatemala, as well as the Protestant and Catholic Churches and members of the private sector in each participating nation

Articles/Publications

Scott has published on a wide variety of subjects in bioethics, including anencephalic infants as organ donors; technology introduction, assessment and dissemination; technology transfer; allocation of health care resources; telemedicine; gender discrimination in the medical community; church versus state in medical practice; in vitro fertilization within the context of divorce; the body as property; rights and responsibilities of physicians; dangers inherent in managed medical care systems; the right of patients to refuse medical attention; embryonic stem cell research; and neuroethics. [Publications available upon request.]

John Markovich

John Markovich is CFO of EMCORE Corporation, a company which provides compound semiconducter-based components and subsystems for the broadband, fiber optic, satellite and terrestrial solar powered markets.  Mr. Markovich  has more than 20 years of executive financial management experience in working with rapid growing public and private technology-based companies.  Mr. Markovich earned a B.S. in business from Miami University, an M.B.A. in finance from Michigan State University and is a graduate of Stanford University’s Financial Management Program.

Larry Wilcox

Larry Wilcox is the Chairman, President, and CEO of UC HUB Group, Inc.  Mr. Wilcox brings to PHLBI a broad range of experience in creating and developing business ventures in the entertainment, media, telecommunications, and computer technology markets.  Mr. Wilcox is also an acclaimed television and film producer/performer, starring as CHiP Officer Jon Baker on the classic TV series “CHiPS” and producing the award winning international TV series “The Ray Bradbury Theater” for HBO.