It's time for conversations with MIT Health, care for the community. Here's your host, Melanie Cole.

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

Welcome to Conversations with MIT Health. I'm Melanie Cole. And today, in this provider profile, we meet Dr. Kamau Karanja. He's a family physician and primary care provider at MIT Health. Dr. Karanja, thank you so much for joining us today. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your career path before coming to MIT Health.

Dr Kamau Karanja: Sure. So I have been with MIT Health about four months now. And I'm coming from a 20-plus-year career in primarily community health centers in Boston. I worked at a number of community health centers in the Boston area since coming here in 1999. The first health center I was at was in Cambridge. And then, from there, I went on to some others in Boston as well. For the majority of this time, I was seeing patients 50% of the time and then working as a medical director of the other 50% of the time. So that's been my path until coming here.

Melanie Cole (Host): Well then, what drew you to working at MIT Health and how do you think your background and experience can be used to benefit this very unique community?

Dr Kamau Karanja: So I had the interesting experience of realizing at one point that many of my favorite people from prior physicians had all sort of converged at MIT Health. So it turned out that there were physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and even administrators that I had worked with in the past, who were all working at MIT Health. So when I realized this, I reached out to some folks, asked them some questions about their experience and how they felt being there and heard some great things. So I was excited and it's been really nice, just sort of already having friendships with a number of people in all different parts of the organization.

Melanie Cole (Host): I'm sure it was. So tell us a little bit about what you feel will be your expertise or areas of specialty.

Dr Kamau Karanja: So I'm a primary care provider. And I pride myself in being broad, as far as the patients that I see and the conditions that I treat. I wouldn't say that I have any particular medical specialty, but I like to think that I sort of specialize in getting to know people and having an interest in sort of the human condition. I find that just learning about people's backgrounds and their experiences that led to them, being where they are, is very fascinating and really helpful in sort of understanding how to approach their care and how to help them along their way.

MIT is a fascinating community, just amazing work being done by students and faculty and staff here. And I love hearing a little bit about the work that they're doing, the work that I can understand. I will often smile if they say it has something relating to biology or healthcare in some way, because then I can actually ask them some intelligent questions about what they're doing. But I had a patient yesterday who's going to go to the south pole for a year to study astrophysics, believe it or not, and just fascinating stuff that they're working on. So it's been great. It's been a great fit. I also have a funny little fact, which is that my grandfather actually got a PhD at MIT in the '30s, which is sort of fun.

Melanie Cole (Host): That is fun. And I will tell you this, that my father got his degree in 1940 at MIT in engineering. So very similar, it's kind of cool. And it is such a unique, diverse, inclusive community. I'd like you to tell them about your philosophy of patient care, your approach to treating patients. And you've already said a little bit about it, but I'd like you to expand on treating the whole person.

Dr Kamau Karanja: So I like to think that the things that I try to focus on and the things that I take some pride in is to be a very careful listener with patients, especially early on in the visit and to make sure that they feel listened to and that I've sort of understood not only what they're saying, but trying to read between the lines a little bit.

And then I like to try to find some common ground with the patient, whether it's hobbies or places that people are from or what they're working on now in their jobs. And then, I think it's really important to find out what the patient's expectations are of the appointment, what are their concerns, fears, hopes, what are they expecting will happen, to understand that so that I can sort of create an appointment that meets their needs and doesn't surprise them, but then also doesn't disappoint them as far getting what they feel like they need to get or to do.

I also try very hard to, rather than being directive in the recommendations that I have, whether it's testing or treatment options, those kinds of things, I try to offer options for folks. And I like to say, "This path we could take, which may offer these advantages. And then, there's this other path that we can take. And we can decide now or we can decide later." But I try to involve the patient in the discussion in decision-making as much as possible. And that works with, you know, the vast majority of folks. And then, there are some patients who say this, "I can't decide. I just need you to make a decision." in which case, I say, "I'm happy to do that as well." But I would say careful listening and then trying to meet the expectations of the patient are really the things that I try to focus on the most.

Melanie Cole (Host): That's lovely. So as we get ready to wrap up, this is one of my favorite questions. Tell us a little bit more about yourself. What do you do for fun outside of work that your patients might not know about you?

Dr Kamau Karanja: I have two daughters. I have a daughter in college and a daughter in high school. And I'm very proud of them and love to spend time with them as much as I can. My wife is also a primary care doc, so we have that in common. She's an internal medicine doc. And for hobbies, I've got a few. So I guess, one of my big hobbies is bird watching. I've been a lifelong bird watcher. I like to go to local Audubon spots. Mount Auburn Cemetery, believe it or not, is a Mecca for bird watching. So I'm there often, especially in the springtime. My other hobby is fishing. I grew up fishing in long Island, New York. So my brother and I will get together most Sunday mornings to go fishing in Boston Harbor, which is a lot of fun. And then, I'm also an avid cyclist. I have a group that I've been riding with for over 10 years. We meet three mornings a week, really early in the morning and we get great exercise and also get to share perspectives on the world and life. And many of them are a bit older than me, which is nice. I get to sort of have a preview into things to come later on in life. So I would say those are my three main hobbies. And then, like I said, activities with the family as well.

Melanie Cole (Host): And as we wrap up, Dr. Karanja, and it's been such a pleasure to learn about you. What do you love about working at MIT Health in the MIT community?

Dr Kamau Karanja: So first I have to say that the resources that are available here are fantastic. The length of the visits that we get here are longer than in other practices, which is just priceless as far as being able to spend the time that the patients need and to be able to really get to the bottom of issues with patients. It's also helpful to not have patients wait, and to just have their experience be a better experience overall. So, the longer visits, also the resources, as far as the access to imaging here, we have x-ray, the lab services are great. We have some specialties as well here, which is nice. Some of the things that are harder to get folks in for just because of lack of access, things like dermatology and allergy and things. It's great. But I would say really the main thing is just the collegial atmosphere, really nice folks, many folks with a lot of experience who are really focused on making the work environment a happy, healthy one, and the experience for patients to be a positive and also happy one.

So, I would say that's the main draw. And then, of course, just also patients themselves have been just fantastic, really interesting, thoughtful, bright, really kind folks, who I've been a pleasure getting to know and to treat.

Melanie Cole (Host): Thank you so much, Dr. Karanja, for joining us and telling us so much about yourself today.

Listeners can visit Health.mit.edu for more information and to get connected to one of our providers. That concludes this episode of Conversations with MIT Health. 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.