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Program Director Spotlight: Adrienne Carey, MD

MEET ADRIENNE CAREY, MD

Each quarter, meet the program directors behind our various internal medicine education programs.

Professional Insights

Name:

Adrienne Carey, MD

Which GME Program do you oversee?

The infectious diseases fellowship program.

What motivated you to become a program director? 

I have a passion for medical education and enjoy working with trainees, which is what prompted me to pursue working in academics in the first place. Serving as the program director is analogous to the coach of a sports team. I love providing support for trainees while also pushing them to be their best within the clinical realm.

What inspired you to pursue a career in your subspecialty? 

I decided to become an infectious diseases physician under the hot sun in Ghana while completing a research project between my first and second years of medical school. Interviewing parents of children who had recently died as a means to assign a most probable cause of death through the WHO verbal autopsy tool instilled in me a desire to hone my interview skills to be able to help elicit a narrative to explain the patient's illness. I love medical microbiology, immunology and interplay between the host in the environment along with the disease causing pathogen. This passion was further ignited throughout my residency training as I gravitated towards taking care of both adults and children in the hospital with infections.

What do you find most rewarding about your work? 

I love being able to treat patients with antibiotics and watch them get better. There are very few careers in medicine where you can cure the patient in a relatively short amount of time with the right tools. Working with patients across the spectrum of society is rewarding and I love advocating for those who are marginalized in medicine.

How do you balance the demands of academia or medical practice with your interests and well-being? 

Finding balance in an academic career in medicine is a constantly evolving landscape. Taking it day by day is sometimes the best approach when things are busy, either in my work life or outside my work life. Infectious diseases naturally is an excellent career pathway to try to achieve this balance. While I get to work with some of the sickest patients in the hospital, I am not the provider at bedside performing procedures or participating in lifesaving maneuvers. However, using my brain while providing information over the phone in critical situations can help make the difference in life and death scenarios. If this happens overnight, I can do this from the comfort of my own home.

What advice would you offer to aspiring students or professionals who are considering a career path like yours? 

For those who are interested in infectious diseases and are still in training, come and rotate with us. I love my job because every day is different. You never know what types of infections or diseases you will see on a given day and this is exciting. I relish working as a medical detective to ask intricate, detailed questions of patients to try to solve the medical mystery.

Adrienne Carey

Personal Insights

What is one fun fact about yourself? 

One fun fact about me is that prior to choosing infectious diseases as a career, I was interested in forensic pathology. The show "CSI" came out when I was in high school. I completed a internship as a junior in high school in pathology at the VAMC in SLC and was hired at the Utah State Office of the Medical Examiner when I was a college student. I was trained as a diener to perform autopsies. I worked one night a week and one weekend a month at the morgue. I feel like there is a lot of overlap between infectious diseases and forensic pathology, and I still have not ruled out going back to the autopsy suite one day.

What is your favorite motto/quote?  

My favorite motto is "No Regrets." If I were to own a boat, that would be painted on the side of the boat. I have tried to live my life without any regrets, seizing the moment and trying to take advantage of every opportunity whether that be with patients, teaching or in life outside of work.

What is the best thing about working at the University of Utah? 

As a native Utahn, I grew up in the shadows of the University of Utah. My parents met as college students at the University of Utah. As a family, we grew up going to many sporting events on campus including football, gymnastics and basketball. Going to the University of Utah was always a goal of mine. Being able to work here after all of these years is a dream come true. Looking out my window every day to see the beautiful view of the Wasatch Front and the Salt Lake Valley makes me proud to come to work everyday.