FoundationAnnualReport2022

was excited to join a hospital where the hospitalists admit and take the lead in most of the patient care. Firelands is the best collaborative environment I’ve ever worked in. Everyone, including nurses, physicians, and other healthcare providers, works together to offer the best patient care. Finding a place that fosters such a good working environment is challenging. The administration respects our input, and the hospital has so many great employees. COVID was a rough time for everyone working in the hospital. I’d never seen such a large influx of extremely sick patients simultaneously. There was no manual on how to treat COVID. Medications and treatment would change quickly, and we had to adapt to the changes constantly. I was grateful everyone pulled together to care for the patients during that time. My wife, Jessie, a neuropsychologist in Cleveland, and I love traveling in the United States and abroad. I have relatives in Ghana and Europe, and we have friends throughout the United States. We consider ourselves “foodies” and enjoy eating our way through the cities we visit. Our nine-month-old son, Grant, is the focus of much of our time now. As a hospitalist, I work seven days, and then I’m off seven days, which allows me to spend a lot of time caring for my son. I’m also a pop culture nerd, love all sports, and enjoy reading about the trends and people influencing society. As a physician, I try to stamp out suffering as much as possible. I try to comfort and talk to patients as I would want to be talked to. A colleague once told me that patients will only remember how you made them feel and how much kindness and care you showed them. That’s the golden rule I try to live by. I was born in Pittsburgh but moved to Akron when I was in first grade. Even though I consider myself a northeastern Ohio guy, I returned to Pittsburgh for my undergraduate degree at the University of Pittsburgh. I continued my medical education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The school is well-known for pioneering advances in medicine, including the development of the polio vaccine by Jonas Salk and transplant medicine. I completed my internal medicine residency at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta and trained at Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta’s ‘safety net’ hospital. There is such a diverse group of patients from countries all over the world with all types of diseases. It was a stressful, but fascinating place to train. My interest in internal medicine stems from the comprehensive way internists look at patients. To make a diagnosis, you need to look at the whole person. Internal medicine is one of the few specialties where you consider the patient as an entire unit. It’s like being an investigator or detective. The human body is so complex and dynamic that you are always learning. Even after practicing for 40 years, I know I’ll be discovering something new. After my education and training, I chose to return home to northeast Ohio. My parents, who had immigrated to the United States from the West African country of Ghana, were still in Akron. My mom has her PhD in Evaluation and Measurement. She is a public school administrator, and my dad, a retired professor from the University of Akron, has his PhD in Public Policy and Administration. HNI, a company based in Solon, was recruiting hospitalists, and I jumped at the opportunity to join a group close to my hometown. Firelands has a contract with the company, and I Frederick Doamekpor, MD Internal Medicine/Hospitalist Hospital medicine is a type of practice within internal medicine in which the clinical focus is caring for hospitalized patients. Internists practicing hospital medicine are frequently called “hospitalists.” 30