Dr Kerry-Ann Cadogan – Service above self

SHE has had her heart set on medicine since age five, and today her dedication, tenacity and skill have earned her kudos with her patients. Born and raised in Portmore, St Catherine, Dr Kerry-Ann Cadogan is living her childhood dream; however, she told All Woman that getting there was no easy feat, and it required a level of hard work and dedication which she didn’t foresee as a child.

After graduating from Immaculate Conception High, Dr Cadogan enrolled in the Excelsior Community College/University of the West Indies programme where she did natural sciences for two years. In the second year of the programme she transferred to Howard University in Washington, DC, where she started biology as her major before transferring to nutritional sciences with a focus on pre-medicine.

Not forsaking her childhood goals, upon completing undergraduate studies in 2003, she worked as a lab technician for two years before completing her graduate studies in the Department of Anatomy at Howard in 2006, then her Doctor of Medicine in 2010, both with honours.

But she said getting through school financially proved difficult and apart from maintaining her Grade Point Average (GPA) to keep the scholarships she received, there were sacrifices she had to make.

“If you were not from an affluent family with a lot of financial support you had to work very hard and we [my best friend and I] struggled. But what I like about Howard is as long you work hard they support you and I got GPA-based scholarships, and once I had a 4.0 or close to that I was given either partial or full scholarships. I got my first job working in a cafeteria that provided a little pocket money and I tutored along the way. I did research in the chemistry department and instead of travelling for spring break, I got a job. I also stayed single for eight years as I saw it (a relationship) as a distraction and I needed to focus,” she said.

She added: “Living in a country where you’re spending US dollars and your parents are making Jamaican, there were things I couldn’t afford, so people were going out and I had to stay home. I knew that in order for me to make it the next year, matriculate the next year, and pay my tuition, my GPA had to be on top,” she explained.

Moreover, when she matriculated to graduate studies, her financial struggles increased, but with a determination to excel she managed to secure additional scholarships and loans to complete and go on to her Doctor of Medicine in order to fulfil her childhood dream.

Dr Cadogan then took one of three spots at the University of Missouri, Columbia in the Department of General Surgery as a resident in 2010, but after a few months she had a change of heart.

“It was a lot of work. I was operating night and day and I had the desire for a family. I wanted to have a child and the lifestyle of a surgeon didn’t really fit with me well,” she said.

“I had prepared myself for a surgical career since the day I got here. I did a lot of research, I volunteered, I spent spring breaks in the hospital instead of Negril, and strangely enough when I got there I didn’t really like it. I was just exhausted, and the thing with surgeons is you just operate and you never really see patients again.”

She said she enjoyed patient care and had the desire to see people again, so she spoke with the programme directors in internal medicine and general surgery about her new sense of direction.

And so, Dr Cadogan interviewed at other universities and in 2011 got a pre-match offer at the University of Miami as an internal medicine resident.

Now a board-certified internal medicine physician, Dr Cadogan caters to an underserved population in St Petersburg, Florida, which she admits she’s very passionate about.

“A lot of my patients are people who just acquired insurance through ObamaCare, which provides insurance to people who aren’t able to afford it. These are also people who have never seen a doctor before and other physicians don’t want to see them. I also see patients in the hospital and am part of a group that covers several hospitals in the St Petersburg metropolitan area. These are people who come from a lower economic status, are sometimes not very educated, and it can be hard to explain and to have them understand what it is you’re trying to do. But at the same time it’s rewarding, as these are people who have not seen a doctor in many years and at the end of the day you’re doing something good for someone,” she said.

Dr Cadogan, who proudly wears a Jamaican flag on her medical coat, also has seven published abstracts and has won awards such as being inducted to the Golden Key Honour Society for outstanding academic achievement, having the highest GPA in her university’s Department of Nutritional Sciences, as well as the highest scholastic achievement in the Division of Allied Health Services. She has also received the outstanding service and leadership award for her dedication and efforts to the Surgical Interest Society, the Dr W Montague Cobb Prize for excellence in anatomy, the Dr LaSalle D Leffall Jr award for outstanding clerkship performance (surgery), and the Dr Mavis S Thompson award for outstanding female student in medicine.

Also a wife and a mother of one, Dr Cadogan enjoys family time, cooking, travelling to Jamaica and Europe, playing tennis, beach volleyball and being involved with her church. She said her faith in God is very important to her as nothing is impossible with Him, and with hard work you can achieve anything you want.