'Meet world's only combined heart and kidney specialist doctor, and he is Nigerian'

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During a visit to Nigeria late in September/early October, Jide Akintunde, Managing Editor, Financial Nigeria Magazine, and Director, Nigeria Development and Finance Forum, sat down with Olurotimi Badero, a Nigerian U.S.-based interventional cardiologist, nephrologist and peripheral vascular specialist to discuss his amazing, superlative training in medicine, becoming the only doctor in the United States or anywhere in the world to have full specialist training and certification in nephrology and cardiology. Dr. Badero is Executive Director, Cardiac Renal & Vascular Associates.

Jide Akintunde: There is a string of professional titles to your name. What is your training?

Olurotimi Badero: By training, I specialised in internal medicine, cardiovascular medicine, invasive & interventional cardiology, nephrology and hypertension, interventional nephrology & endovascular medicine, nuclear cardiology as well as peripheral vascular interventions. Putting all that together, I would like to think of myself as an interventional cardio nephrologist as well as a peripheral vascular interventionalist.

JA: How did you come about this extensive training?

OB: I came about this training as a result of the things I had to go through in the United States and also because of my personal quest for knowledge. I started from one specialty to another, and kept looking for answers. I have a passion for patient care; and a passion for creativity. When you put that together, a rare opportunity is born. The ability to make a difference between sickness and health is one of the greatest forms of wealth and
that doesn't stop as long as you continue to strive to get better.
  
For me, it was just a continuous process of trying to get better, staying the course and finding the things that really define who I am and what I really want to do to make a difference in people's lives.     

I've always been a competitive person right from childhood. I attended St. Mary's Private School where I skipped 4th grade due to my academic performance; and then Federal Government College, Odogbolu, Ogun State, for my high school education. In my fifth year, I, alongside some students, won a nation-wide science quiz competition in the country and that heralded a quest for professional dominance. That marked the beginning of a journey for me. One that will eventually lead me down the path of medicine. I gained admission into University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) to study medicine. I really didn't want to study medicine, but my dad, who was a great man, wanted me to be a physician.

When I graduated from medical school, I moved to the United States where I began my specialist training, first in Internal Medicine at State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, in Brooklyn which was a three-year programme. Following the completion of my programme, I proceeded to Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, for a two-year Fellowship in nephrology and hypertension. Following completion of my Nephrology training, I returned to State University of New York Downstate Medical Center for another three years of Fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine. Upon completion of my general cardiology training, I gained admission into the prestigious Yale University School of Medicine for two fellowship training in invasive & interventional cardiology as well as peripheral vascular intervention, a fellowship training I completed with distinction.

I then returned once again to State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn for yet another year of fellowship training in interventional nephrology, dialysis access care and endovascular medicine. Altogether, I spent ten years of continuous post-graduate medical training which I later found out was unprecedented. I currently specialise in seven different areas of medicine. I am a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of American College of Cardiology, a Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology, and a Fellow of the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions.

JA: Perhaps you would like to elaborate more on your personal motivation for the pursuit of this incredible professional excellence, particularly because Nigeria is noted internationally for the conflicting profile of churning out con artists, some of the world's best professionals, and inept political leaders?

OB: I learnt very early in life that a goal without a plan is only a wish and that there is no testimony without a test. The only time that success comes before work is in the dictionary. I also learnt from my dad the value of hard work as well as perseverance and not letting the moments define you but defining the moment by embracing the challenge. I remember when I was in primary school, I would be top of the class on many occasions, but my dad was never really satisfied. He always told me to do better. I couldn't understand why he wanted me to do better when I was scoring around 96 percent on average.

One day, I summoned up the courage and asked him why he wasn't completely pleased. He said, “Even though you were top of the class scoring 96 percent, the fact that you didn't score 100 percent means that based on the standard of your school, 96 percent was good enough. I want you to get to the point where you tell yourself '96 percent is not good enough for me' and start to set your own standards.”

I learnt from that early age to set my own standard. That is where my motivation actually came from. I am aware that some people get involved in activities that don't uplift the image of Nigeria which in actual fact happens in many countries in the world as well. However, there are equally a good number of people who have done Nigeria proud.

For example, the first-ever black neurosurgeon in the United States was a Nigerian. The man who discovered the post-concussion syndrome amongst NFL (U.S. National Football League) players is also a Nigerian.  

Nigeria has produced very brilliant minds, not only in the field of medicine, but also in science and technology, music, arts and in other fields. That is always refreshing to see and hear about. I believe there are a lot of other young people in Nigeria today who are doing marvelous things that the country needs to recognize. And there are Nigerians that will still do greater things than we have done. We shouldn't only hear about the negative things Nigerians do but recognize the good things they do as well because that's a platform for motivating the younger generation.

JA: I learnt you have the distinction of being the only doctor in the United States to hold specialist qualifications in cardiology and nephrology. Why did you find it necessary to acquire these qualifications, and what difference is this going to make in managing heart and kidney diseases?

OB: That is an excellent question. The heart and the kidneys are very closely interrelated. We learnt that in medical school. The heart is a very fascinating organ as well as the kidneys. The heart pumps blood all over the body to supply basic metabolic needs. Twenty percent of that blood volume goes through the kidneys. That tells you why the kidneys are very important. The heart and the kidneys are so closely linked, that whatever happens to the heart, affects the kidneys and vice versa. That is a major concept emerging in medicine now called cardiorenal syndrome and renocardiac syndrome because we are now recognising the interrelationship between these two organs.

While I was in training at Emory University School of Medicine as a kidney specialist (and by the way, Emory has one of the most intense Nephrology training programmes in the United States), I quickly found out that the commonest cause of death for the patients that died was heart disease and not kidney diseases. And we were doing a great job taking care of these patients but ultimately they died from a disease I didn't have much control of as I would have loved to. That was a challenge I had to embrace being someone, whose decision to be a physician was to make a difference. I realized it was very difficult for me to make that difference, albeit we were taking care of patients and they were living longer.

So that set the stage for me to decide if I wanted to explore ways of becoming more effective. I started toying with the idea of going back to specialise in cardiology because I really wanted to get to the bottom of the problem. This meant another three years of specialist training in cardiology. I was initially discouraged by some of my friends at the time who felt I was spending too much time studying. But for me, the value of knowledge is worth the time one spends in acquiring it. And there is never a time that is too late to acquire knowledge.

My training in cardiology as well as nephrology gave me a 360 degree view of a patient with a near total approach to their disease state. I think it puts me in a better position to actually treat these patients. I realized quite recently I was the only one with such formal training, holding certifications in both fields. I currently hold certifications in six different specialties in medicine.

Source: - 'Financial Nigeria'