Folasade Kehinde

You currently serve as an Attending Physician in the Division of Neonatology at St. Christopher Hospital for Children and as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Drexel University College of Medicine. Could you tell us about your path to this role? And what is a day like in your shoes?

I joined the faculty at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children as an attending Neonatologist and Drexel University College of Medicine after finishing my fellowship training in Neonatology at the University of Connecticut. Prior to that I did my Pediatrics residency training at SUNY Downstate Medical Center at Brooklyn/ Beth Israel Medical Center, New York and then served as a fourth-year Chief Resident in Pediatrics prior to Fellowship training. When I’m on clinical service, my day starts early—getting sign outs from the overnight attending by 8am, then lectures for medical students/ pediatric residents until 9am. Clinical rounds start at 9am until about noon. The afternoon is then devoted to family meetings, procedures, notes, multidisciplinary meetings etc., then sign outs to the night attending by 5pm. Overnight calls on service are usually on the weekends (Friday to Sunday) to prevent the attending working more than 25 hours at a stretch since we do in-house calls.

Congratulations on your Fellowship induction on November 19, 2021! What first interested you about becoming a Fellow at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia?

Dr. Jan Goplerud, one of my senior colleagues at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children first introduced me to the College when we did a historical poster about the Hepatitis B vaccine together for the Pediatric Academic Societies. I then learnt about the programs of the College that work with high school students from my good friend Maria Benedetto PT, DPT, FCPP, an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Drexel University. I was intrigued by the work being done with the Junior Fellows and the Girls One Diaspora Program and wished to get involved.

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with our Center for Education students earlier this year! Would you share what the interview experience was like and how you got involved?

My good friend Maria Benedetto PT, DPT, FCPP, introduced me to Kevin Impellizeri, PhD, at the Center for Education. He introduced me to the , and I was thrilled to encourage the next generation of high school boys and girls in the path towards a career in STEM. It was humbling as well as rewarding to speak to them about a path to a career in medicine as well as the experiences that shaped me into the physician that I am today.

In your interview with our students, you spoke about how you completed your training twice, once in Nigeria, and again in America. I was wondering if you could speak a bit about what that was like for you and the similarities and differences between the two.

I grew up in Nigeria and went to medical school there. After completing my medical training including an internship, Pediatric junior and senior residency, my husband and I emigrated to the US and I went through Residency training and Fellowship training again.

The training is similar in that it is very tasking work with a lot of hours spent in the hospital training. When I trained, there were no duty hour restrictions, so we easily pulled 100 to 120-hour weeks. Now duty hours for residents are capped at 80 hours/week which is still very grueling.

The training is very different in Nigeria because we use the British system, so you can only advance from one stage of training to another by passing written and oral examinations. So, you start as a house officer after medical school (a rotating internship through the 4 major clinical departments—Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Surgery and Obstetrics/Gynecology) for one year after which you can get licensed and practice as a general practitioner. If you wish to become a specialist, you take exams from the National College of Physicians or Surgeons and upon passing, you can apply for training in the specialty of your choice, starting as a Senior House Officer (SHO). You then move to Registrar, then Senior Registrar after passing Part 1 & Part 2 examinations of the College of Physicians/Surgeons depending on the subspecialty. This process takes about 3 years for Junior residency (SHO, Registrar) and another 3 years at the Senior Registrar level before being eligible to sit for the final exams and become certified as a Consultant (Attending) in that Specialty. In the United States, it’s 3 years of Residency training after medical school after which you can practice in that Specialty or continue to Fellowship training (1-3 years) for subspecialty training. You only sit for certifying exams after Residency training and Fellowship training.

Tell us about one of your favorite items in the Library or Museum, or your favorite aspect of the College.  

I just love the Mütter Museum and the different .

Looking back on your life or the history of medicine, who was a physician that influenced and inspired you?

Dr. Maria Delivoria-Papadoupoulus (1930-2020), often referred to as the Mother of Neonatology and who I had the privilege of working with—both influenced and inspired me. She was very well known internationally for excellence in clinical practice (she is credited as among the first clinicians to use positive pressure ventilation via an infant ventilator on babies dying of respiratory distress syndrome) and impacted to all her trainees and mentees scientific curiosity, humility and a love of babies.