“There are not many careers where somebody comes to you as a stranger and puts their entire life in your hands, and trusts you with that, and that’s an incredibly humbling experience.”
Hello everyone! Welcome back and happy Memorial Day weekend. Today, I am introducing Dr. Jacob Babu, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Johns Hopkins.
I originally reached out to Dr. Babu because his Instagram page was intriguing. His posts focus on not only his career as an orthopedic surgeon, but also on disparities in global healthcare. I thought this was fascinating, and am grateful he agreed to speak with me.
Dr. Babu, unlike many physicians, did not have an instantaneous ‘aha’ realization that he wanted to become a doctor. Rather, his realization was a “collection of moments” that pushed him to become a physician.
Once he graduated from high school, Dr. Babu went on to pursue his undergraduate education at the University of Illinois, where he studied engineering. When Dr. Babu first began undergrad, he was set on becoming an engineer and hadn’t thought twice about becoming a physician. However, as he progressed in his education, the idea of becoming a physician began to enter his thoughts. He tried to resist this urge to go to medical school, though he kept circling back to it. Due to his love for sports, and his exposure to the medical world from inspiring medical professionals in his own life, Dr. Babu decided to become a physician. Despite his switch, Dr. Babu kept his engineering degree, which is a route I’ve heard of many pre-med students taking. I asked Dr. Babu if he felt his degree helped or hurt him in medical school, and here’s what he had to say:
“I think what is beneficial in most regards is it gave me a different perspective prior to entering the field of medicine… Engineering can be incredibly applicable. Everything we do in orthopedics is with engineering principles in mind. You’re using plates and screws and really understanding the limitations of various materials and what kind of forces need to be withstood while someone is recovering and healing from a bony injury. The engineering perspective was very helpful for me… Engineering can be considered to be a little bit more difficult of a pre-medical degree to pursue in undergrad. When it comes to applying for medical school, sometimes screening criteria can be used, like GPA or test scores, [and] on average an engineering GPA tends to be much lower as a result of taking advanced mathematics/physics classes. And that isn’t always considered when you’re applying to school… It is potentially detrimental in that regard.”
Having an engineering degree was a double-edged sword. Though his degree provided him a wealth of knowledge and an edge in the field of orthopedics, he still struggled to collect everything and transition from an engineering student to a medical student.
Dr. Babu eventually attended Chicago Medical School post-graduation, which is a private school just north of Chicago. He went on to pursue his residency at Brown in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is a six-year program that integrates a fellowship into its residency program. Dr. Babu pursued this six-year program, and eventually became specialized in orthopedic trauma surgery. He moved on to Johns Hopkins, where he is attaining advanced training in Spinal Surgery.
The most crucial role models in Dr. Babu’s medical journey were the ones who could “most effectively teach”. Professors and attendings with a passion for education helped Dr. Babu along his path and rubbed off on him. Those who devoted the extra time to help ensure his and his peers’ understanding influenced him the most.
As for advice Dr. Babu would like to give to students, here’s what he had to say:
“It’s an incredibly long journey, and it’s definitely not for everyone. Lots of sacrifices are encountered along the way. But if you can endure those struggles, I think it’s… the most rewarding career you can pursue. There are not many careers where somebody comes to you as a stranger and puts their entire life in your hands and trusts you with that, and that’s an incredibly humbling experience. It’s really a blessing to be able to take care of somebody and try to restore their health as best as you can. Health is something we take for granted, but as soon as it is taken from us, we realize how important it was. You see people have this realization on a daily basis, and they’re looking for somebody in their most vulnerable state to help them.”
To switch things up, I decided to ask Dr. Babu about the best and worst parts of his job. This is a question I feel isn’t asked enough, and one I feel pre-med students should ask physicians more often. Typically, the job of a physician is glorified. Students go in with rose-colored lenses, without realizing how exhausting the job of a healthcare worker can be. Here’s what Dr. Babu said:
“The best parts, like I just mentioned, are seeing the recovery patients can have and knowing the impact that you can have on somebody’s condition or life trajectory. The worst parts, though, is with every part of medicine there is complications that go along with it, and you don’t really ever want to see those complications happen, but sometimes they do. Sometimes there are things you can do to control and prevent it, and sometimes there’s not. Being able to deal with those [things]… that’s not always easy for everybody.”
As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Babu is passionate about the topic of global healthcare disparities. I was very excited to speak about this with him, as global healthcare disparities have been a hot topic of conversation with the vaccination rollout. Many people I speak with are unaware of how healthcare systems operate in developing countries----I, too, have a lot to learn about this topic. “We come from a very affluent country [America], with an incredible amount of resources for most people. But that’s not the case worldwide.”
The conversation first began with Dr. Babu discussing the number of resources America has, especially compared to other countries. “We use approximately 30% of the GDP on healthcare in this country. That’s a very large amount of money, so really, mimicking and emulating that amount of investment in healthcare is impossible worldwide, and is not even closely done in a lot of developing countries... I’ve been to a few different developing countries in Africa over the last several years, all during my training… You go to these hospitals and see that they are just operating and functioning on a completely different system with resources that don’t even allow for consistent electricity in the hospital, running water, and things like that. These are just basic components of our hospital infrastructure that we take for granted… Some imagery, just to make you understand what’s going on in these hospitals, is… these countries suffer the same illnesses that we have in our country, but the same treatments are not offered to them still… A good example of that is diarrhea. This is one of the worlds leading illnesses that leads to death. If you tell that to somebody in this country [America], they wouldn’t believe it. But it is the case----and that’s just one example----but it kind of carries all throughout medicine.”
I asked Dr. Babu about changes he felt could be made after he spoke on this topic, as he is multifaceted in understanding both the medical side of things, as well as the business side of things because he has an MHA. I was curious if he had ideas as to how this multi-faceted issue could be solved, or at least bettered. “It revolves around building infrastructure for them [developing countries] and helping them build their own infrastructure so they can have self-sustaining changes. They rely on volunteers from high-income countries like ourselves to really help with that process, because we’ve been through it and we’ve established those systems, and we know what it takes… So it’s a coordinated effort between your locals and your volunteers to really help bridge those gaps.”
To wrap up our conversation, I decided to ask Dr. Babu about the distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations. Many developing countries will not see vaccinations for a while, due to the lack of funding. This is another multi-sided issue; one that tugs between the business side of the healthcare industry, and the ethical side of it. “It’s global supply and demand. Unfortunately, the reality of that conversation is money always dominates that conversation. Some of these developing countries are late to the game in getting access to these vaccines because of a lack of resources to really procure them. It’s something that I would like to see improve, certainly.”
I really appreciate Dr. Babu’s openness and enthusiasm in talking about these topics. Often, conversations about healthcare (global or non-global) make people uncomfortable, as they are deeply personal. I hope to have more open conversations like this with physicians, as these are things that need to be discussed in order for our nation to evolve and become more educated as a collective.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week.
Best,
EF