"MEDICINE CURES, HUMANITY HEALS": MEET ADINA GREENE | JUNE 8TH, 2023
1)First, for those who may not know you. Please share a little background about yourself and your journey as a medical student.
Adina’s journey as a medical student is filled with an array of diverse experiences. Adina grew up in the Bay Area, specifically in San Jose and went to UC Berkeley for her undergraduate years, where she majored in Integrative Biology, a major that goes beyond just molecular science and includes the study of evolution and physiological processes in animals and humans. Adina also sought out taking various electives during her undergraduate years to fuel her passion for health humanities such as Bioethics, Greek literature & mythology, and Roman civilizations. Adina has always been passionate about genuinely connecting with others and would describe herself as a people-person.
Aside from her studies, Adina was very involved in the Pre-Health community at UC Berkeley including serving on the executive board of the American Medical Women’s Association, serving as president of the Integrative Biology student department, and serving as the pre-health student council director. Additionally, Adina loved volunteering including serving as the philanthropy director for her sorority and teaching cooking classes at local elementary schools.
Aside from her studies, Adina’s passion for medicine has been largely impacted by her great family support system. Adina describes strong women role models in her life who encouraged her to always be ambitious and intellectually curious. From being involved in various community service projects, researching dementia and Alzheimer’s during college, and working as the lead medical assistant at a dermatology clinic, Adina enjoys learning about the multi-faceted perspectives of medicine.
2)I heard from Dr. H-H that you are involved in various research projects. If you could share a little about each of the research projects, that would be great?
Striving to understand the various perspectives of medicine, Adina is heavily involved in a plethora of research experiences.
First, Adina is an upcoming research trainee in dermatology at the Mayo Clinic-Arizona, where she focuses on various projects within the field of dermatology focused on disease-specific questions and projects that help address equity access in training and access to healthcare. Additionally, Adina is initiating a project at UACOMP with Dr. Karen Hastings to assess the educational resources and student confidence of dermatological diagnoses presenting on skin of color at UACOMP.
Adina is also completing several projects under her Health Humanities certificate. Adina is involved with helping grow the new Compassion Center at Banner University Medical Center, a physical space at the hospital with the goal of eliciting compassion and preventing burnout in medical professionals. Moreover, combining both her passions of playing competitive mahjongg and healthy aging, Adina initiated a project with Dr. Rasheed, a geriatrician at Banner University Medical Center (BUMC), to investigate further the impact of mahjongg on cognition in older adults. Lastly, Adina is working with Dr. Beyda on a research project regarding Holocaust education for medical students at UACOMP.
3) I heard from Dr. H-H about your interests in bioethics and that you are involved with Dr. Beyda on a specific podcast episode that you are currently working on. For those that might not know about the specific podcast episode, can you share a little about the episode and how people can listen to it?
The podcast episode that Adina is currently working on will be featured on the Bioethics At The CrossRoads podcast, founded by Dr. David Beyda at UACOMP, later this summer. Adina and her peer, Blake Feldmar, will be interviewing a holocaust educator focusing on understanding why Holocaust education is beneficial to medical professionals specifically regarding informed consent.
4) I also heard from Dr. H-H that you are completing a Health Humanities Certificate of Distinction. For those that may be interested in pursuing this certificate during medical school, what motivated you to pursue this specific track alongside an MD degree?
WHY?
First, for those that may not know what the Health Humanities Certificate of Distinction is, it is a certificate that educates and empowers those to implement humanistic values to patient care through bioethics and medical humanism, narrative medicine, and the arts. For more information, visit the website for more. https://phoenixmed.arizona.edu/health-humanities
Adina was passionate about pursuing the Health Humanities Certificate because of her love for the humanities and how storytelling can bring medicine to life. Specifically, Adina feels strongly that medicine should be understood not only through disease processes, but through a patient’s unique story. Adina’s love for Greek classics, poetry, writing, and connecting with people have inspired her work with the certificate. Through this certificate, Adina has attended various bioethics conferences, poetry workshops, taken focused time for reflection journals, and even published a poem in a medical journal that was read at a national literary conference!
5) What advice would you give to students interested in following in your footsteps for being in medical school?
For those interested in medical school, Adina encourages others to follow their passions and take initiative on community projects through leadership and volunteering. Adina currently mentors high school students through Saturday Scrubs and Instamed, two community health programs at UACOMP and undergraduate students through the Arizona State University Pre-Health mentor program. Additionally, Adina works part time as a medical school advisor and essay editor for MotivateMD.
Adina specifically mentioned that, “if someone is interested in the humanities and medicine, then submit to Humanities Journals (go check out at the UACOMP’s narrative medicine website), listen to bioethics podcasts (1000’s available), subscribe to John Hopkins School of Medicine Bioethics bulletin, follow the Narrative Medicine Program here at UACOMP, and continue to be curious and constantly ask questions
6) Lastly, in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, what are some things that you practice for self-care?
In her free time, Adina loves to stay active at the gym and hike at least once a week exploring new trails in AZ! Adina also enjoys cooking and hosting her friends for themed dinners, paddleboarding at various lakes in Arizona (Saguaro Canyon, Lake Pleasant), and hanging out with her loved ones.
Adina loves to practice self-care through weekly journaling and face masks. She also says that she is a “huge foodie” and one of her favorite restaurants is North Italia.
By: Adina Greene and Himanshi Kapoor