Resident Physician Deborah Oyeyemi, MD, was a recipient for The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Medical Association (NMA) Travel Award.
The 2022 Academic Career Development Workshop was held in late July 2022 in Atlanta, Ga.
“It was an honor and pleasure to attend this year’s conference as a NIH/NMA fellow. Two days were structured around programming for fellows, but we also had the opportunity to attend general conference sessions and research symposia,” said Oyeyemi.
Oyeyemi is a PGY-3 in the Primary Care Internal Medicine Residency Program, and was the only resident amongst Yale’s internal medicine residency programs selected to attend. According to NIH/NMA, the recipients of the award are “senior residents, fellows, and junior faculty who are interested in pursuing careers in biomedical research and/or academic medicine.”
“The conference was eye-opening from a career development perspective. I met with esteemed physician-scientists and leadership and gained insight into applying for research funding opportunities and pursuing a career in academic medicine, from securing my first academic position to navigating the tenure track process. We also had interactive coaching sessions on communication, feedback, and approaching difficult conversations. I left with several tools that I plan to incorporate in my research and future academic career,” said Oyeyemi.
Oyeyemi is passionate about the older adult population, and more recently became interested in expanding inclusion of racial and ethnic groups that are traditionally underrepresented in geriatric studies.
“I grew up in a household surrounded by elders and from a young age learned the importance of connecting with and gaining insight from older adults. Early in my medical training it was jarring to encounter so many older patients who did not have the benefit of close family or friends like my older relatives. I see geriatricians as providing an extra layer of support to those in need and truly value the field.”
Her passion for aging research began during medical school training at Duke University School of Medicine where she became interested in the aging brain and complex older adult care. Oyeyemi had mentorship through the Duke Aging Center where she learned from leaders across several departments.
As a Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute Scholar, Oyeyemi received a Pfizer Foundation grant that sponsored both research and masters' level coursework with the Duke Clinical Research Training Program. This led to multiple studies on perioperative cognition.
Since arriving at Yale’s Department of Internal Medicine for residency training, Oyeyemi’s focus has shifted away from perioperative cognition to explore how contextual factors, like race, intersect with older adult dementia outcomes. Most recently, she completed a study with colleagues at the University of Michigan’s Center for Contextual Factors in Alzheimer’s Disease as part of its Data Immersion Program, comparing changes in the size and characteristics of assistance networks during the pandemic for Black and white older adults and those with and without dementia using survey data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study.
“This study marked a real shift in my research, given my desire to be more inclusive of Black older Americans and other racial and ethnic groups historically underrepresented in geriatric studies,” said Oyeyemi.
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) presented Oyeyemi with a Presidential Poster Award for her research, and she presented her findings at the AGS 2022 Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando, Fl this past spring.
She sees the changing demographics in the United States as a reason to advocate for greater inclusivity in dementia research.
“The older adult population is not only aging, but becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. In the United States, Black Americans are two times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and related dementias,” she explained. “Hispanic Americans also appear to be at increased risk, so the fact that this diversity is not reflected in dementia research literature, despite such alarming statistics, is concerning. In advocating for underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in dementia research, my goal is to ultimately improve how we care for all older adults with dementia.”
Following residency, Oyeyemi plans to pursue a fellowship in geriatrics and continue advocating for greater inclusivity in dementia research.
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