April 20, 2022
April is National Internship Awareness Month and to celebrate, HCIF interviewed some of our past interns to find out what they have been up to since completing their internships with us and how their time at HCIF helped them grow in their professional careers.
We were delighted to catch up with Adams Ako, MD MPH, who interned with HCIF from fall 2019 to spring 2020. During his time at HCIF, Adams helped support the Pennsylvania Urologic Regional Collaborative (PURC) program, which is a quality improvement initiative aimed at advancing the quality of diagnosis and care for men with prostate cancer. Currently, Adams works as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Neonatology Department at Cohen Children’s Medical Center and the Feinstein Institutes of Medical Research for Northwell Health.
What are you doing now, and what excites you most about your current work?
I work with experienced clinical and laboratory researchers at Northwell, who are advancing medical knowledge and leading innovation every day. It is exciting to be on this path, experiencing first-hand how new scientific knowledge is generated and how that is translated into improved clinical outcomes for patients.
What did you find most valuable about working with HCIF? What’s something you learned from your internship with us?
It was by far the mentorship. The opportunity to undertake research projects with the Clinical Improvement team and physician-researchers at the Pennsylvania Urologic Regional Collaborative (PURC) was an invaluable learning experience. There was also the opportunity to present our research at scientific meetings. The exposure was incredible and I saw how effort committed to clinical research can yield meaningful, useful results.
What’s a quote that inspires you in your work?
“Make incremental progress, change comes not by the yard, but by the inch.”
If we were to check back in with you in 5 years, where would you like to be?
I’d be starting pediatrics residency this summer. So, in 5 years, I hope to be in fellowship or working as an attending, more likely the former.
Do you have any favorite hobbies? Is there a place you would like to travel to?
I love to watch soccer. I also like to read a good, fun book every now and then— I’m currently reading “Midlife” by Kieran Setiya. For a travel destination, I would like to visit Italy. I’d like to see Florence and Venice.