Dr. John C. Lewellen of Gainesville was remembered Tuesday as both a passionate healer and good friend.“The thing that comes to mind is he made a difference, obviously to the patients he treated and the members of this community, but also to all of the staff here,” said Carol Burrell, president and CEO of Northeast Georgia Health System.Lewellen died at 61 on Friday at his home, surrounded by family and friends, after a two-year battle with cancer.A memorial service was held Tuesday at Memorial Park North Riverside Chapel in Gainesville.Fellow staff described Lewellen as a tireless worker, even in his final days.“Last Tuesday, at 6:30 a.m., he walked in for a medical executive staff meeting, and I’m sure he didn’t feel like being there,” Burrell said.A native of El Paso, Texas, Lewellen joined the health system’s medical staff in October 1989 and served as chief of emergency medicine since 2008.In March, he received the lifetime achievement award from Northeast Georgia Medical Center.Dr. Tim Scully, Northeast Georgia’s chief of staff, said that among Lewellen’s accomplishments was a regional program that centers on the need to quickly determine whether a patient is suffering a heart attack.As part of the initiative, patients receive an electrocardiogram while in the ambulance en route to the emergency room.Lewellen also “was integral in developing the (24-hour) emergency observation unit ... that prevents some people from being admitted into the hospital,” Scully said. “He would do anything for patient care and for fellow physicians and other co-workers at the hospital,” Scully said. “He was just a great fellow all around.”Burrell said the ER has been “at the forefront of some of our new information technology initiatives and ... (they) can be extremely frustrating.“Change is hard for all of us, but when you’re in a busy, busy ER and when you’re implementing change and it’s around communication and information, that can be very frustrating,” Burrell added.