Shadow Me Next!

Medicine Without Borders: What global healthcare perspectives reveal about American medicine | Dr. Gregory Adaka

• Ashley Love • Episode 35

Share episode

What happens when a physician practices medicine across three different continents? Dr. Gregory Adaka's remarkable journey from Nigeria to the UK to the United States reveals surprising truths about global healthcare that every medical professional should consider.

Born in Manchester and raised in Nigeria, Dr. Adaka's path to emergency medicine began with an unexpected source of inspiration: the American TV show "ER." His story weaves through vastly different healthcare systems, highlighting both technological advancement and accessibility challenges that shape patient care worldwide.

A powerful moment comes when Dr. Adaka shares his shock at encountering cost barriers in American healthcare that reminded him of practicing in Nigeria. "I've not practiced medicine like that since I left Nigeria," he recalls telling a nurse after a patient couldn't afford a prescription, a jarring reality in the world's wealthiest nation. This perspective challenges us to reconsider what truly constitutes an advanced healthcare system.

Beyond comparing healthcare models, Dr. Adaka offers thoughtful insights on artificial intelligence in medicine, predicting it will augment rather than replace clinicians in the near term. His discussion on reconciling scientific practice with religious faith provides a nuanced view of how these seemingly opposing worldviews can harmoniously coexist, drawing inspiration from scientists like Dr. Francis Collins who bridge this perceived divide.

For pre-health students and practicing clinicians alike, Dr. Adaka's global perspective demonstrates how understanding different approaches to healthcare delivery enhances our ability to improve medicine at home. It's a powerful reminder that sometimes we need to look beyond our borders to solve problems within them.

Virtual shadowing is an important tool to use when planning your medical career. At Shadow Me Next! we want to provide you with the resources you need to find your role in healthcare and secure your place in medicine.

Check out our pre-health resources. Great for pre-med, pre-PA, pre-nursing, pre-therapy students or anyone else with an upcoming interview!
Mock Interviews: shadowmenext.com/mock-interviews
Personal Statement Review: shadowmenext.com/personal-statement
Free Downloads: shadowmenext.com/free-downloads

Want to be a guest on Shadow Me Next!? Send Ashley Love a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/175073392605879105bc831fc

Ashley:

Hello and welcome to Shadow Me Next, a podcast where I take you into and behind the scenes of the medical world to provide you with a deeper understanding of the human side of medicine. I'm Ashley, a physician assistant, medical editor, clinical preceptor and the creator of Shadow Me Next. It is my pleasure to introduce you to incredible members of the healthcare field and uncover their unique stories, the joys and challenges they face and what drives them in their careers. It's access you want and stories you need, whether you're a pre-health student or simply curious about the healthcare field. I invite you to join me as we take a conversational and personal look into the lives and minds of leaders in medicine. I don't want you to miss a single one of these conversations, so make sure that you subscribe to this podcast, which will automatically notify you when new episodes are dropped, and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at shadow me next, where we will review highlights from this conversation and where I'll give you sneak previews of our upcoming guests.

Ashley:

From Nigeria to the UK, to the United States, dr Adaka has practiced emergency medicine on three continents. In this episode, we trace his fascinating career path, from his early aspirations of becoming a surgeon to discovering emergency medicine thanks to a surprising source, the TV show ER. But beyond the geography and accolades, dr Adaka shares powerful stories about practicing medicine in vastly different healthcare systems and how those experiences shaped his philosophy of care. We'll explore cost barriers in the United States that echo his time in developing nations, the promise and limitations of AI in medicine, and the surprising ways his faith deepens his commitment to science and healing.

Ashley:

Please keep in mind that the content of this podcast is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered as professional medical advice. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. This is Shadow Me Next with Dr Gregory Adaka. Hey, dr Adaka, thank you so much for joining us today. I cannot wait to discuss your journey in medicine, because it does not only span time, it spans continents.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Thank you very much, Ashley.

Ashley:

You started in the UK, and then Nigeria, and then the United States.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Well, if you're talking from my life story, yes, started in the UK. I was born in Manchester in the north of England. I left the UK when I was still young I was eight in Nigeria because my parents were Nigerian and they returned to the country. As was a trend back in the 1960s and 1970s, they would go to the UK or America to get higher education, the plan being that they they go back to Nigeria and land a great job or something like that. But, as often happens, they go abroad to study and then start having kids and things like that and plans all change. Even up until the 80s, there were many Nigerians in the UK or in America for that matter who'd been there for more than 10 years and started raising a family People like me. We later returned with our parents to Nigeria where, essentially, I did most of my growing up. I like to tell people I was educated in Nigeria because I got to Nigeria when I was still in elementary school. So all of my education, from the elementary through secondary to university level, was done in Nigeria, started to practice medicine there with a heart of returning to the UK. I wanted to be a surgeon at the time.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

I was in Nigeria for five years as a doctor before I went to the UK where I stumbled upon emergency medicine.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

That specialty does not exist, or did not exist in Nigeria at the time.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

It was still a relatively new specialty even in the UK at that time in the mid-90s Same in America, as a matter of fact, because the emergency medicine as a field was just a part of somebody else's specialty.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

I remember in England in the 1970s it was called casualty, later changed its name to accident and emergency. That's the name of the specialty and the accidents and emergency department. The ER is a very American expression, the emergency room and it's a specialty that developed again through the 1970s and by the 1980s it had become an arm of surgeons basically, and that was similarly how it started in the UK, although when it became a royal college we were under the auspices of the Royal College of Anesthetists. It became a royal college, we were under the auspices of the Royal College of Anesthetists, and emergency medicine is an offshoot of internal medicine rather than an offshoot of surgery in the UK which I discovered. My inspiration to become an emergency physician in the UK in the mid-90s was one certain television show that I saw several times, which you may have heard of, is called ER.

Ashley:

I love it.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

And it was quite to my surprise. A few years after that I discovered that what had happened to me was actually a thing. Quite a few medical students were inspired to join the practice of emergency medicine because of the show ER, because back in the 90s it was very, very popular and was enjoyed by so many people. It was a lot better than, say, general Hospital and the other soap operas of the 1970s and 1980s. It was on another level. Even I as a doctor used to watch it and think this looks pretty good and I got bit by the ER bug, as I say, and the rest is history the ER bug, as I say, and the rest is history.

Ashley:

You know, what is so amazing to me is that you have worked in, you've worked as a doctor on three continents. I mean not just three different hospitals.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

I've lost count of the hospitals.

Ashley:

I'm sure you have, which is amazing. But what are some, maybe one or two of the most striking differences that you've noticed, either? Working for the NHS in the UK, I would imagine, versus healthcare systems in Nigeria, maybe, and the United States?

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Okay, the NHS is a national health service of England and Wales and there's a national health service of Scotland as well, but the UK, basically the health system, 90% of the people who receive healthcare in the UK do so through the National Health Service. There is no National Health Service in Nigeria. I can tell you that. And then again, anything I tell you about healthcare in Nigeria is what? 30 years old, because I left Nigeria in the mid 90s, so a lot has changed. A lot has changed. A couple of years ago, my uncle had severe kidney failure and was told my uncle in Nigeria, that is. I got wind that he required a kidney transplant and I thought, gosh, how are we going to manage that? But the information I was getting from the Nigerian practitioners was as if it was routine. So I had to like put my modern Nigeria hat on to recognize the fact that, yes, they do do kidney transplants routinely in Nigeria these days, unlike 30 or 40 years ago. So yes, they have come a long way. But I think the distinctive difference between practicing in Nigeria as opposed to practicing in the UK for me was the access the access to technology and even things like medication. It doesn't matter whether you're in Ghana or Egypt or Guatemala or just name the developing country Vietnam. The major restriction is just its cost. The more money you've got, the better access to healthcare you have.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Going to the UK, it was very refreshing to be able to practice medicine where you can prescribe a medication and the issue is does he care to get it or not? Not a matter of can he afford it. Everybody gets it. You need this treatment, all right, fair enough, and I'll take this days off, work or whatnot. But it's not an issue of can he afford it or not. It doesn't matter what the treatment is, and to me that was just the blessing of living in a Western country where you can practice easy medicine. Focus on the diagnosis and on your treatment, and that's all you need to bother about.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Of course, the other social determinants of health you need to be concerned about as well. Bother about, of course, the other social determinants of health you need to be concerned about as well, that's for sure. But you don't have the restriction of if I prescribe this medication for this family, are they going to look at me like I'm crazy thinking doctor? You know we can't afford that and there's nothing we can do about it. That's the horror of practicing medicine in an undeveloped nation. Coming to the US, I mean we'd all heard about what America is like. The stereotype is that healthcare is so expensive here, nobody can get it. That's obviously an exaggeration, right? Because I mean I'd come to America several times over the years before we finally moved in 2014. So I was familiar with the system to a good extent. But it did strike me that there are some similarities and this is shocking between my practice of medicine in Nigeria and my practice of medicine in the US.

Ashley:

Wow.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Yes, shortly after I got here I was working in New Hampshire in an ER department. I'd probably been working for about a month or a month and a half. I remember this story vividly A young woman came into the ER and she had some sort of ear pain. I believe it was, or sinus infection. Working for about a month or a month and a half I remember this story vividly A young woman came into the ER and she had some sort of ear pain. I believe it was, or sinus infection. Either way, I prescribed Augmentin Cuomoxiclav as an antibiotic 10-day prescription. Here you go, after I'd finished dealing with the case, gave her a paperwork and she left.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Then, about half an hour later, I got a call from the receptionist who said Dr Adaka, there's a call for you from the pharmacy. I said which pharmacy? The hospital pharmacy? He said no, the pharmacy just down the street. I thought that was odd. I've never got a call from a pharmacy before practicing in England. So I picked up the phone. The chap says you, dr Adaka. I said yes, I am. Well.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

There's this young lady who's in here. You prescribed augmenting for her and she can't afford it. And that was a rude shock to me. This is america right? I mean, I prescribed the augment and it's what she. What else can you give her? What else can I give her? That's the appropriate antibiotic for the infection I believe that she has said. Well, she said you can't afford. It's 80 something dollars.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Why was it so expensive in the first place? Said he could do some sort of discount to 60 or so, but she doesn't have that kind of a job. She, she's younger, she can't afford it. I said, all right, how about Keflex? And he said, okay, we can try that Instead. It was much cheaper and I thought this is a compromise because I didn't feel that it was an approved antibiotic with enough spectrum activity or this coverage that would not be resisted by the organisms that she probably had. But what could I do? So I just got the Keflex and then I hung up and I turned to the nurse who was standing by me and I said I've not practiced medicine like that since I left Nigeria. She looked at me a bit astounded, but yes, that was my sort of wake up call of there is a similarity with all the technology and all that we have and, believe you me, the most cutting edge technology in healthcare and science comes from this country. I can say that proudly because I'm an American now.

Ashley:

So yes, it is true, but it's unfortunate that it's just not as available to everyone, as other Western countries have managed to make the same technology available to their own people. That's such a good point and you know, honestly, I don't know what's better. I mean, they're just. You almost can't compare them apples and oranges. Do we want cutting edge technology but leaving people in the dust when we do it? Or do we want maybe not the most cutting edge stuff and protect all people you know and give people the antibiotics that they need? That's a hard one.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

If we take the first option, manage with reasonable technology and everybody gets it. That sounds like the horrible term. I've heard a lot dating back to the 1980s, but in fact I think it goes back further than that, and that's socialized medicine. I don't approve of the term, nor do I approve of the practice. It does exist, obviously, in some communist countries, but that's not what you have in other Western nations, although that's the label they've often got from this side of the pond. The reality is that not all, but most of the cutting-edge technology and medications come from the United States. That's true, but not all of it. Every now and then you run across stuff that was invented in Japan or Germany, or the test you baby in vitro fertilization was the first successful in the UK.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Western nations have, let me say, wealthy, advanced nations have one thing in common, and that's that they tend to lead the world when it comes to breakthroughs in technology. The United States leads the leaders. You know what I mean. Whatever we get here, whether it's an MRI nucleus scan or some latest robotic surgery, whatever we get here eventually gets over there, whether that be Japan or Australia or Sweden or Finland, everybody gets it, and very quickly.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

The difference is when these other countries get hold of this technology or these latest new drugs, they get it and everybody in their country has access to it, whereas it was invented here and here, where it came from, not everybody has got access to it. It's frustrating, but it's the world we live in, so so that hopefully answers the question. We don't need to have a world in this country certainly not in this country or any other wealthy country where healthcare is rationed and it doesn't exist in wealthy nations they all have the best technology available because, just like everybody's got an iPhone, everybody's got a computer on their desktop and everybody takes a lot of the technology for granted in wealthy Western nations. The same thing with our healthcare, but it's just that it's free and available over there and maybe a lot more expensive over here.

Ashley:

Unbelievable. It's unbelievable and you know, dr Adaka, it brings up a really good question, because I'm sure there is a person listening that says he's so impressive. He's practiced medicine on three continents, he understands medicine in a number of different countries, but why does that matter to me? As a pre-health student in the United States, maybe I'm not going to go practice in the UK or in Nigeria, and as a PA which is what I am there might not even be a profession, a PA profession, in some of these countries. So I guess the question for some of these pre-health students would be I'm in America, why does it impact me what other countries are doing? And I think it's a good question, but I know you have a great answer to this.

Ashley:

I admire your faith in me, isn't he great? Well, dr Adak and I did not have the opportunity to discuss a quality question, but at this point it brings up an absolutely fabulous interview question that I could see you hearing at some point on your interview journey. See you hearing at some point on your interview journey. The question would be why does it impact me what other countries are doing with their healthcare systems? So, as you'll find, dr Adaka emphasizes the importance of perspective, understanding global systems and how it gives us depth, almost like binocular vision in the brain. Without it, our view of healthcare falls flat.

Ashley:

So why should a pre-health student care about how medicine works in the UK or Nigeria? You may never practice there, but the answer is perspective. Knowing how others solve the same problem can shape how you lead, what you question and how boldly you advocate for change. Listen in to how Dr Adaka beautifully explains this concept. Keep in mind that there's more interview prep, such as mock interviews and personal statement review over on shadowmenextcom. There you'll find amazing resources to help you as you prepare to answer your own quality questions.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Well, I would say the importance of it, as is the case in many other things in life, is perspective. You get a better perspective on your own reality if you can see the reality in many other different places. In many other different places. The eye, for example. All animals that have got two eyes on the front of their heads. Whether you be an owl or a human being, or a monkey, or even a dog, they've all got two eyes on the front of their head, even though they're slightly off to one side, unlike most birds that have an eye on either side. Now, what the birds have is a very wide vision that goes almost 300, some degrees, but they have very narrow binocular vision where both eyes can see the same part of the visual field. Animals that have got binocular vision, both your eyes are pointing roughly in the same direction or seeing two images of the two visions of the same image slightly different, and what that enables us to do is to determine depth of field. That gives us 3d vision and we take it for granted. But if you lose one eye, you close one eye. You suddenly realize you can no longer assess depth. Get better depth in your understanding of many things in life and in particular in your understanding of many things in life and in particular in your understanding of medicine and healthcare, is improved if you go to other places and see how they do it.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

I believe one of the reasons why we struggle here in our country and I mean when I say our country, I mean the United States about improving our healthcare system is because we're so very insular so we don't see how it's done elsewhere and so we run with the impression that we're doing our best here. We're the wealthiest country in the world. We have most of them. Cutting-edge technology is invented here. For sure we have the best healthcare, even though we struggle. Well, it can't be better anywhere else, can it? And if you don't go anywhere else, then you'll never know.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Even if you're a doctor and you don't see any reason why you're going to leave your family and go to some other country and practice medicine in Sweden, be aware of what healthcare is like in these other nations. I did a course in comparative healthcare when I was in Cornell doing my master's in healthcare administration. It was very eye-opening. I was aware of a lot of it before, but it really honed my skills in the area of comparative medicine and showed me a whole lot, so I would advise anybody else. You don't have to go to another country, but find out how other health care systems work so you can compare it with your own. When you are in a position to make changes and you'd be surprised at how many people listen to your podcast will be at some point in a position to make some changes, to do and not just believe anything you hear off the internet about what life is like in these other nations, especially as pertains to healthcare.

Ashley:

As expected, an absolutely fabulous, fabulous answer, and not one that just applies to medicine. You know, this is such an important point and it's something that I think we are losing so much of is the ability to converse. And conversing does not necessarily mean you and I are agreeing on the things we're talking about. We can have very different opinions, and those different opinions and the different ways that we approach things. If we listen and if we understand, then we can both get better or at least have a deeper understanding of those differences. And that's not just in medicine, although I think, gosh, I think we could make such a major improvements.

Ashley:

And I was just speaking with it's so interesting I was just speaking with a anesthesiologist assistant so PAs, but for anesthesia. She was telling me about the way they are educated and it is so different than the way we're educated and yet we have a similar role in the healthcare team, just different fields. I was listening to it, just thinking at first it seems so foreign and then, of course, as she was talking about it, I thought you know, we could really improve. If we just took a little bit of this with our PA education, it could be so much better, which, of course, you know this might be a good segue to talking a little bit about AI and healthcare, because I think you have seen so much change over the course of your time in medicine and your geographic location in medicine. You've seen major improvements. I think AI it's here to stay.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

It's here to stay.

Ashley:

But is AI in healthcare, do you think? In your opinion, is it more likely to empower clinicians or replace them?

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

I don't have a crystal ball and I can't see that far out. When I say that far out, I mean a couple of generations from now, I can't tell. But I can say at least in the short run, the next five, 10, 15, maybe 20 years or more, ai is going to vastly improve, or certainly in the next 10 years, vastly improve the way in which we perform our duties in healthcare. It's going to augment. It cannot replace certainly in most fields cannot replace but it will certainly augment. I do see a day in I don't know, maybe the not too distant future, where you would be able to replace a surgeon with a robot. After all, we use robots in surgery now, but it's controlled by the hands of the surgeon. If we have a level of I hate to use the word intelligence, because robots don't really have intelligence but a level of AI that can do what a surgeon can do and think the way a surgeon can think, my goodness, I think it will be possible in 20 or 30 years' time where a robot will do an appendectomy on its own without needing a human being. I think it's certainly possible. Well, we haven't got over autonomous driving yet, so we're still on our way. Certain cuts the wrong blood vessel and you know there'll always have to be some sort of backup if the robot does the wrong thing. For a human being to take over and say, ah no, like this instead. But certainly I think in the short term, there are many ways in which AI can augment our practice.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

A few years ago, when I first heard I think I was still in New Hampshire then this would have been in 2014, 2015, thereabouts heard about how computers were able to read these scans and x-rays and give, in some instances, a more accurate diagnosis than a human radiologist. I thought, gosh, and that was what 10 years ago. We've come a long way since then. Right now, don't quote me, but I believe that that AI reading of most radiographs and CT scans is more accurate than the human being. It doesn't make human error, mistakes. You know bias or seeing things that are not supposed to be there, but you think they're there.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

I can see, unfortunately, radiologists being the first to be replaced by software, even pathologists reading slides, making decisions about, and I think even certainly in the short term, you will still need to have a human being that vets these cases and says yay or nay at some point. But those are the ways in which I believe AI can actually help us to become better and do things faster, where one doctor can be 10 doctors because he's got software systems doing what he can't do or can do. But they can do it a lot faster Because AI is good for mundane tasks that normally bore human beings, who can get mentally fatigued and begin to create and make errors. The machine doesn't get tired and just goes on and on. So I believe, yes, it'll augment our practice, but it won't replace us, at least not yet.

Ashley:

Not yet. That's exactly right, Thank you. First of all, thank you for such a hopeful, a hopeful take on AI. It is nice you know.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

I For our lifetime, right?

Ashley:

I don't know about my kids' lifetime it's different but At least for us right now, before I wrap up, you know we've talked about our robots, which is always fun. You are a man of faith and I think that it's so interesting to jump from robots and artificial intelligence in medicine and then kind of shift it and turn it on his head and talk a little bit about faith in medicine. And I guess the easiest question here is how can someone who's so committed to the scientific method also maintain a deep religious faith? And how does that for you? How does that translate on the day-to-day?

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Well, you've asked an interesting question. I'll tackle the first part of the question how am I able to marry my faith with my commitment to the scientific method and then I'll talk about how it impacts my day-to-day. People who are not of a religious faith understand that although one may have a religious faith, that doesn't mean that they walk blind into things. Faith is not simply a lack of evidence and you just trust that something is the way it is because you believe it's that way. There has to be evidence behind it. This means that we all have faith. Even an atheist has faith, because you believe in certain things where the evidence is not 100%. There may be those who would argue that the scientific method requires that we take 100% of evidence and that's all. The reality is it's never 100%. I can't say that if I stood up from this chair and I sat down again, that the chair would still be there. There could be some quantum hole in physics somewhere that enables the chair to disappear, but it never happens because it's only a one in a 10 trillion chance possibility that that could happen and a space time warp wormhole would open up. But if it did happen, I would be shocked because I believe and I trusted that the chair would be there. How did I believe the chair would be there? Because at my age I have lived my life knowing that when you get up from a chair, if nobody touches it when you sit down, it'll still be there. Now that might be different if I was a year old or a toddler, but at this age I've taken these things for granted. So that's the faith that I have. This is how things happen. I know that when I wake up in the morning, the sun is going to rise and then the evening is going to set. If some astrophysicist told me that that's not going to happen tomorrow, I would need more evidence.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

The point is that you can't know everything 100%. There's always a gap of information, because no knowledge is perfect. That gap is your trust in that which the evidence has led you to the edge. And the last bit is bridged by faith. Now, if that faith is a religious faith, it's exactly the same thing. I don't simply believe in God because, oh, the Bible tells me. I've got enough evidence that I've seen that makes me believe there is a God out there, if you know what I mean. And for all those who do have a religious conviction, I believe they see the same thing. And if you don't have a religious conviction, I believe they see the same thing. And if you don't have a religious conviction, then you are still operating in faith, because the evidence cannot disprove the existence of God or the supernatural.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

I'm not an astrophysicist and I will not step into territory and argue on that point, but I believe there's enough information, which I first began to hear about back in the early 80s. They were talking about the Big Bang and how they'd gotten to within fractions of a second of the occurrence of the Big Bang, describing what would have happened. Now I know a lot more about it than I did back then. And, yes, physicists have gotten in their investigations to that close to when the Big Bang happened. But you can't go to the moment of the Big Bang with any sort of investigation, because that's the limit of physics Space and time.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

The episode we now refer to, the huge expansion of the singularity that occurred 13 billion years ago, that we refer to as the Big Bang. But what happened before then? Silly question. There can't be a before because there was no time, all right. So why did the singularity explode in the big bang? We don't know, can we ever find out? The simple answer is no, because that's beyond physics. So is there an existence beyond the singularity? There is, and human beings, for 100,000 years, have always felt that there's something else out there, and we keep thinking that science will. Well, back in the Enlightenment days, they felt that science will eliminate that altogether, and science was everything, and everything before the Enlightenment was just simply superstition. The reality is that science has led us to the edge of the cliff and has shown us yes, there is that which exists beyond the singularity and it cannot be investigated by physics.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

That is where my mind is when it comes to things of faith or the supernatural.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

There's a lot more to it than that, of course, but that is to me foundational.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

A couple of people I admire, like Dr Francis Collins, who led the team that finally decoded the human genome, for which they won the Nobel Prize.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

He is a man of faith and when he led the NIH but he led the NIH for years one of the questions that many asked him at the time was how can you, a man of faith, lead a scientific institution of this sort of repute? And he was able to defend himself adequately and he was given the position and, as I said, he led the NIH. I think he just retired from the NIH a couple of years ago, but yet he's a man of faith, and those are the sort of people that I admire, that have a faith and understand that it does not prevent them from investigating science. In fact, my belief in God enables me to pursue science even further, because I believe there's so much that that supreme being has put in place and given us, mere mortals, a glimpse of, and the excitement is discovering more and more of what that supernatural being, whom we call God, has put in place in the existence that we are living in.

Ashley:

And that is it sounds like that's what translates into your life. In medicine it does.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

I try to live my life according to the dictates not by my own strength, but an inner strength that comes from knowing God.

Ashley:

I often fall short of that and some of my patients will tell you that, especially in the ER. But, yes, I do my best. I think it's fabulous. Dr Adaka, you are incredible. I am so grateful to have been able to talk to you today. Your love for this career is tangible and you've seen it. You've seen it and the people in it at its best and also on days at its worst. So thank you for persevering, thank you for sharing that with us and thank you so much for joining us today on Shadow Me Next. I'm so grateful.

Dr. Gregory Adaka:

Thank you very much. Ashley Appreciate that.

Ashley:

Thank you so very much for listening to this episode of Shadow Me Next. If you liked this episode or if you think it could be useful for a friend, please subscribe and invite them to join us next Monday, as always. If you have any questions, let me know on Facebook or Instagram Access. You want stories you need? You're always invited to shadow me next.

Head Shot

Ashley Love

Host