Obed Adarkwah

Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care at VCU Health System

Raised in Canadian, Obed decided after high school to come to the United States for college, and enrolled as a scholar/athlete at Northern Arizona University, running track and winning awards at the triple jump. After later securing a Masters in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the same University, he went on to matriculate at MUA for medical school, choosing MUA because “they had a lot of Canadians, a good match record, and the school was affordable which was important to me. It checked all the boxes.” Says Obed, “the teachers were phenomenal, and everyone there is really willing to teach and explain. They are patient, and they really listen.”

Obed got involved in the life of the school, serving as VP of the Student Government Association and as a Teaching Assistant in Histology, Immunology and Microbiology. “I found it a really close-knit group and had a very positive experience at MUA.” Obed cites a few of his core and elective rotations that particularly stood out for him, such as his elective Psychiatry rotation at Brentwood Hospital in Louisiana where he worked under the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and thought long and hard about pursuing this field of medicine.

It was his core rotation though in Internal Medicine at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in NY that was to be the seminal rotation that would set him on the path to his Residency. “I feel I really went above and beyond there, coming in early and working late. I did some extra credit, doing an additional round with another attending there and then went to clinic.

It was in this clinic that I accurately diagnosed a man with breast cancer, and I think this got a lot of notice for me.” Continues Obed, “There were several attendings at Wyckoff who later told me to apply for Residency there: I did and I matched into a 3 year Internal Medicine Residency.” As he had at MUA, Oped became part of the community and a leader during his Residency, serving as Chief Student in both the Department of Surgery and the Department of Medicine. He went on to become Chief Resident, and has followed this with a 3 year Fellowship in Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine at Brooklyn Hospital, also in New York”. When asked about his success he offers these words of advice. “Keep your eye on the prize and forget the negativity. Be the first one there and the last one to leave. Most importantly, do what you are passionate about.”