Melanie Cole: MIT Health's primary care providers include physicians and nurse practitioners. They're pediatricians for children's, specialists in internal medicine, family practice for adults, specialists in adolescent medicine and family practice for young adults. But how do you know which of our many providers is really best for you?

Welcome to Conversations with MIT Health. I'm Melanie Cole. And we have a provider profile for you today as we meet Dr. Chukwueloka Obionwu, Jr. He's a physician and sports medicine specialist and a primary care provider at MIT Health. Dr. Obionwu, it's a pleasure to have you join us today. I'd love for you to start by telling us about your career path before becoming a primary care provider and sports medicine physician at MIT Health, and what drew you to work there.

Dr. Chukwueloka Obionwu: Pleasure to be here. Big question. So my career pathway, kind of a circuitous one. I went to undergraduate at Binghamton University in New York, upstate New York. And I actually majored in English Literature and Rhetoric and had a minor in Chemistry. And at the time, I was a little bit interested in medicine. My mother is a midwife, so I got a sense of what a medical career might look like. I also ran track and field at Binghamton University. It was a Division 1 program and I ran the 400-meter dash. And that kind of got me interested in the sports aspect of medicine too.

And after some years in college, I decided that's what I wanted to do. With an English major, I did end up needing to do some extra science courses. So did a post-baccalaureate program up at University at Buffalo, did that for a year. And then after, decided to apply to a medical school and got into Tufts Medical and ended up in Boston. Finished up at Tufts Medical and decided I wanted to do family medicine because that would give me the most opportunity to get where I wanted to be with my career.

And fortunately, I got into Tufts Family Medicine Program, did that for a few years and applied to a sports medicine fellowship, ended up at Boston University Sports Medicine fellowship. Did that for a year and built the connection actually during that year with Dr. Shawn Ferullo over at MIT and we became pretty close and I ended up here at MIT Health. And I am fortunate to be able to do both things, primary care and sports medicine.

Melanie Cole: Wow. That's quite a career path for one so young as you. And I'm not really sure how old you are, but you look young. So tell us a little bit about what patients can look to you for as far as care and treatments, discuss a little bit about what you do as a primary care provider and a sports medicine specialist.

Dr. Chukwueloka Obionwu: Yup. And I do look young. I'm actually in my almost mid-30s. Yeah. Patients can expect hopefully an all around experience. You know, I'm still figuring out the logistics over at MIT, but on the primary care side, I seem to be thus far attracting a younger patient population that seemed to have a lot of musculoskeletal concerns. So I think if that is what a patient is looking for to have a primary care provider who can take care of them generally, but also maybe relate to them on a musculoskeletal level, that's something that I can be for patients. When I put my specialist hat on and I'm working in orthopedics, I think the same thing goes at any of the active population. Your weekend warriors, maybe you're more competitive athletes or even your day-to-day person who just exercises to stay in good health and has some musculoskeletal concerns can see me over in orthopedics. We do have plans at MIT Health to incorporate me into the existing team with Dr. Angie Elliott, Dr. Melissa Mackel, Dr. Zimmermann, Dr. Burke, Dr. Schena and collaborate with the Division 3 sports programs that MIT has a bunch of to also provide them care as well.

Melanie Cole: So, how do you envision your background and expertise, which is really interesting? How do you envision this can be used to benefit the unique community that is MIT?

Dr. Chukwueloka Obionwu: Yeah, I think that to your point earlier, me being maybe on the younger side, I think that some patients might relate better to that, to, you know, see someone that looks like they do as far as age goes. I think that at least what I've come to notice is that there's also a subset of the population that has been gravitating towards me. A lot of young black men. Being a young black man myself, I've come to find that maybe some patients can relate to me in that regard.

Yeah, I think that having also been through higher education myself, having been through athletics, having trained in a community center, I think all of that can or will contribute to how I practice and how it can help people at MIT since they probably have had similar experiences.

Melanie Cole: I agree with you and it's such extensive experience. And I agree that you probably being younger can really relate and they can relate back to you. So I'd like you to tell us, Dr. O, your philosophy of care. What do you want patients to know about how you approach disease and wellness and care for the whole person?

Dr. Chukwueloka Obionwu: Yeah. I'd love for patients to know that I listen, first and foremost. Very difficult to give advice if you don't fully understand what's going on with the person. So I like a lot of shared decision-making. I'll give my recommendations, but ultimately people are adults and they can do what they want to do. And I always try to lean more towards what the patient feels comfortable doing, you know, obviously giving my thoughts about that.

Melanie Cole: Well, now, my favorite question, what do you do for fun, Dr. O?, Tell us a little bit about your family and life outside of work. What are some things that patients may not know about you that would be kind of cool for them to find out?

Dr. Chukwueloka Obionwu: Yeah. Well, I'm a huge dork. So I have two little girls, almost six-month-old little girl and now a three-year-old girl. And I have my awesome partner, Vanessa. She's a massage therapist out in Concord, Massachusetts. And for fun, I like to workout, exercise. I still do some running. I'm really into cars, so I work on my car quite often. I love hanging out with my two little daughters and you can catch us running on the track together or playing in the backyard on the jungle gym that we have, and yeah.

Melanie Cole: How fun are you? I bet the patients and community at MIT are just absolutely having a ball with you as their physician. So before we wrap up here, What do you like about working at MIT Health, Dr. O? Wrap it up for us with really the main message about what you want patients to know about you and any questions that they may have.

Dr. Chukwueloka Obionwu: I see working at MIT Health as a privilege. Everybody that is affiliated with MIT Health, whether you're an undergrad, post-grad, faculty, staff, everyone just has super, super unique experiences and are very personable from what I've come to find. And that's my main message. I think I'm pretty personable. I like to understand people. I like to have, you know, pretty affable encounters. And that's what you can expect from me, an easy going time. And hopefully, I can take your concern seriously, but bring some positive aspects to it all.

Melanie Cole: Rock on. I can certainly see that. And thank you so much, Dr. O, for joining us and telling us about yourself today.

That concludes this episode of Conversations with MIT Health. Please visit Health.mit.edu for more information and to get connected to one of our providers. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other MIT Health podcasts. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for joining us today.