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Kickin' It With Dr. Iggy
82 Plays1 month ago
On this episode of Kickin’ It in The Lounge, we welcome orthopedic surgeon, comedian, and faith-based medical influencer — Dr. Iggy!
Join our hosts, Jared Jeffrey and Dr. Aldwin Soumare, as they kick it with Dr. Iggy and delve into his journey of becoming an orthopedic surgeon, passion for faith and comedy in medicine, and sustaining a visible platform on social media despite the obstacles of residency. He not only recounts his story in a vulnerable manner, but also with much needed humor, humility, and introspection. You definitely don’t want to miss what he has to share with The Lounge!
Connect with Dr. Iggy on all social media platforms @doc.iggy
To watch the video version of the interview, click this link
Be sure to continue to stay tuned for more of our upcoming programming being released here on The Lounge!
To share your thoughts on our discussions or if you have any questions to ask our hosts, email podcast@snma.org for a chance to be featured on the show!
Disclaimer: The opinions and views expressed on our podcast do not reflect the official stance of the Student National Medical Association.
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Transcript
Casual Start with 'This or That' Questions
00:00:00
Speaker
What up? It's a appreciate you. And so we're going to start a little light today. We're going to start it off with a little this or that. You game? oh What you got? All right. Cool, cool. So let's get it going.
00:00:15
Speaker
Favorite playlist, Afrobeats or hip-hop? Afrobeats. Come on. Okay. Okay. Calm. Calm. All right. Favorite artist or favorite tier artist, Drake or Kendrick?
00:00:29
Speaker
Drake. He's going to kill me tonight. um That's what I was thinking. That's what I was thinking. Okay, okay.
00:00:42
Speaker
Favorite non-medical hobby. Favorite non-medical hobby. Basketball, playing basketball. Calm, calm.
00:00:54
Speaker
Vacation day or beach trip?
00:00:58
Speaker
Beach trip.
Podcast Introduction and Promotion
00:01:01
Speaker
What would you say is your favorite way to decompress after a long day?
00:01:09
Speaker
Film a video where I duplicate myself at the garage. Okay. Okay. I know the words you talk about. Okay. Okay. He a pro.
00:01:20
Speaker
We're going to need some tips on that, bro, by the way. later Yeah, just it that's a little something, something. Yeah. Let's get it Get the moves. You know what I mean? Hey.
00:01:32
Speaker
you talked about You talked about basketball, so you're L.A. right now. So Lakers or Clippers? Lakers for sure. Okay, okay.
00:01:42
Speaker
Favorite bone to fix? Femur, mid-shaft, oh oblique. Okay. ah So, you know, with that being said, we know you're popular on social media, so which one...
00:01:59
Speaker
You be digging TikTok or Instagram. What's your advice? Where are my emotions changed on a weekly basis? Whoever's showing love for the most part. But right now it's TikTok.
00:02:11
Speaker
TikTok lets you do that. You can just be yourself, man. TikTok, you can actually be yourself. You don't have to be so curated. The way TikTok is showing mad love to Dr. Iggy, yeah, we want some of that same love for the lounge.
00:02:23
Speaker
If you've been feeling the vibes, don't miss a beat. Subscribe to SNMA Presents The Lounge on all streaming platforms so you can stay plugged in to all the real and unfiltered convos that we're having.
00:02:35
Speaker
We're talking everything from current events to personal journeys, all through a health-centered lens with perspectives from every stage of the journey, from pre-med to resident. Trust you don't want to miss what's next.
Dr. Iggy's Journey to Medicine
00:02:46
Speaker
And with that, let's tap back into the episode. What's up, everybody? And welcome to Kicking It In The Lounge, the podcast where we keep it real, we keep it light, and we kick it with the folks behind the mission of the Student National Medical Association.
00:02:59
Speaker
I'm your host, Jared Jeffrey, and I'm joined today by my co-host, Dr. Aldrin Sumare. And we have a very special guest in the building, a man who needs no introduction, Dr. Iggy. And today we've got something special for you.
00:03:14
Speaker
And trust me, you don't want to miss this conversation. Whether you're here to learn, laugh, or just vibe, you're in the right place. So grab a seat, relax, and let's get in.
00:03:49
Speaker
Dr. Iggy, welcome to the lounge. Thank you. So let's get right into it. Tell us a little bit about yourself in the beginnings of your medical journey.
00:04:00
Speaker
What was undergrad like? Where'd you go from medical school? And what that what that point in your life was like? Yeah, sure. Just at baseline, I'm from Dallas, Texas. i'm number five of six kids.
00:04:11
Speaker
I'm the first boy. I got four older sisters. I'm the third doctor. and I'm preceded by two very pristine students. So I would say, you know, you would think that there was a pressure for me to pursue medicine.
00:04:27
Speaker
but I'm Nigerian. So I had two other options to be a lawyer or engineer. And believe it or not my whole life, I wanted to be an engineer. So I went to college with the pursuit of being an engineer.
00:04:40
Speaker
But I wasn't the best student in high school. So I got waitlisted to my college, which is which was Texas A&M University and College Station. um I got there off the waitlist, only about 20% made it off the waitlist.
00:04:55
Speaker
As soon as I got there, all the majors were full. And so I really had to hustle to get into the major I wanted, which was biomedical engineering.
Medical School and Passion for Orthopedics
00:05:05
Speaker
And so I hustled my freshman year. I get there. I mean, it's a PWI. And at the time, I think that there's maybe 3% black people there.
00:05:17
Speaker
so I remember like I kind of tracked it every day. I would see maybe one new person, one new black person a day. In my weed out classes, my chemistry, my bio, 300 people.
00:05:29
Speaker
I was often the only black male. There were black females though. Not me, but I was the only black male. And it was so bad I wanted to transfer my first semester, to be honest.
00:05:40
Speaker
And after my first semester, I found a group of people that, you know, you know, some look like me, but at least I could rock with. And so I just the same time I locked in and was trying to get into my major biomedical engineering.
00:05:54
Speaker
But went to my counselor who basically told me before even opening my transcript, she told me Oh, every night, every major I mentioned, she was like, Oh, it's really hard to get into that one. It's really hard to get into that one.
00:06:08
Speaker
And i was so discouraged by the end of the meeting. She opens up my portfolio and I had all A's except for one B. And she was like, Oh, actually, maybe you do have more options, but I'm not going lie. i was so discouraged by that time I left and I called my two sisters, one who was already in medical school, one who was pursuing medical school and they both told me, hey, bro, you should just reconsider your major.
00:06:36
Speaker
You know, both of them were kinesiology or sports science majors. And they were like, you need to separate your hobbies from your passions. And i in that moment, I kind of realized maybe my infatuation with like technology and engineering was a hobby, not a passion.
00:06:53
Speaker
And I basically, after that really did some soul searching. I prayed about it. And God gave me ah an epiphany that the human body is just like a machine, except just unlike a machine, the human body has a soul.
00:07:09
Speaker
So there's many analogous things that the human body has, you know, batteries, blood vessels, energy, electrical wiring, neurons, mechanical aspects, joints and bones.
00:07:21
Speaker
But the human body has an internal aspect. So I did a summer program. Y'all probably remember summer medical and dental enrichment program back in the day. That was a no pay you to go somewhere. Bro is amazing.
00:07:33
Speaker
I went there and my my love for medicine was confirmed. i was at Case Western. And yeah, all that epiphany was confirmed. And so I went hard for medical school and ended up you know doing a lot in college was an ra played basketball with the women's basketball team i played played against him let's be they know you want ah and know you wantana over here right side note we were right two two they cut it out no get i'm ki but and no but um they won and yeah i just found passions a lot of things and then i applied to medical school i ended up going to ut medical branch where my big sister was
00:08:15
Speaker
And um multiple reasons I went there was because I did a summer program there. ah felt there was a comfortable, enriching, like supportive environment.
Challenges and Assimilation in Orthopedics
00:08:26
Speaker
And so I went there. It was also one of the most diverse med schools in Texas at the time. so I went there with my sister and that's where I found my passion for orthopedic surgery. Because I feel like even though I still had that nick and nag for engineering, i feel like ortho was the closest thing to it.
00:08:42
Speaker
And I started to grind for ortho. all along the was told ortho is the hardest thing. Oh my gosh, it's the hardest thing to match into. You got to basically be but be perfect. And so I pursued perfection.
00:08:53
Speaker
I pursued perfection. i was not perfect. And so I just continued pursue perfection, pray and ask God for guidance. And he never took the desire to do orthopedics away.
00:09:05
Speaker
So went hard at it. I showed, i did a lot of things early, earlier than recommended. And by God's grace, I matched ortho at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas. And so, he yeah.
00:09:18
Speaker
I don't know. do you want Do you want me to keep going? oh Yeah. I had a couple follow-up questions, but yeah I was – Me too. You followed up for me?
00:09:29
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Alden, I'll let you go next. Yeah, I mean, you mentioned perfection and then matching into ortho, you know, I believe 1.5% of orthopedic surgeons are African-American slash black in America.
00:09:46
Speaker
And in the midst of pursuing perfection, I do see it in a lot of my homies that's in the field of orthopedics. you're You're viewed as imperfect or not as good or talented enough in many of the spaces in orthopedic surgery, at least from what I see from the outside looking in.
00:10:02
Speaker
There's a perception of black people in the field. ah one of my homies, she's a Muslim woman with a hijab in the OR suite, shout out to her, Mubina. And I want to ask you, ah what has been some of the challenges you faced as a black man within a field that historically has lacked representation ah and such?
00:10:23
Speaker
And what are the things that you want to implement in field to change that? Man, as you know, orthopedics of all specialties is the least represented by minorities.
00:10:34
Speaker
And I think as I've gone through the journey, started to understand how that affects the experience. I don't think it's as simple as, you know, people don't want you there.
00:10:47
Speaker
It's a it's a little bit deeper than that. I think it's relatively so systematic um because orthopedics is so homogenous, meaning everyone looks the same.
00:11:00
Speaker
A lot of people, well, not everyone, but generally a lot of people look very similar. um Their backgrounds are very similar. it's not only about look, sometimes the background upbringing is very similar.
00:11:12
Speaker
For example, the program I've matched at, I'd say about 60 to 70% of them all came from the same region of high schools in Dallas, Texas.
00:11:23
Speaker
Not only do they look alike, You know, they had very similar background in terms of pedigree of high schools, which those high schools have regional differences that sometimes can trickle into socioeconomic backgrounds. i went to one of those high schools. However, my socioeconomic background didn't really match.
00:11:46
Speaker
And so pouring into a system that representation is poor, but the pedigree is strong in terms of how homogenous it is,
Cultural Adaptation and Social Media's Role
00:11:54
Speaker
how similar everyone is. there's a culture, there's a understanding among those who are similar, which boils down to even linguistics and how ah even nonverbal cues are understood. So I think for people like me in a field where we're not represented well, assimilation is so critical to being understood properly.
00:12:20
Speaker
And I think that's, that's one of the hardest things that I dealt with that I realized more in residency than in medical school, because you're so close, you know, and you're with these people all day.
00:12:33
Speaker
and so I found myself misunderstood a lot of times. And rather than being given the benefit of the doubt, I wasn't. And so I had a lot of challenges that helped me grow in a lot of ways, but definitely will potentially scar you in in some ways you don't expect.
00:12:52
Speaker
Wow. Wow. Um, that was, that was powerful. Could you go a little bit deeper on, um, what you mean by assimilation? Yeah, that means, uh, you know, culturally. Okay. I'm okay. My parents are Nigerian, right at home.
00:13:11
Speaker
They have an accent. Uh, they sometimes will speak in our native language and we'll eat Nigerian food. Okay. Yeah. But when you go to school in America, everyone speaks English.
00:13:24
Speaker
They eat, you know, American food for the most part or whatever served. And so for the kid who brings some jell-o rice to lunch that may have hadn't been ah warmed up on time and it smells a little different.
00:13:39
Speaker
Okay. People may not understand that. They may not understand this. All my mind knows how to cook. Yeah. So that that difference that repugnant maybe smell to others will create some level of tension or or distance.
00:13:57
Speaker
And so that person has to work a little harder to bring people in to either understand them or to assimilate, meaning instead of bringing the jello of rice, I'm bringing a ham sandwich.
00:14:09
Speaker
You know, I'm bringing a Capri Sun just so that I don't look too different. So what did that look like for me? ah bought cowboy boots. know um I'm in Texas. I know the cultures.
00:14:22
Speaker
I love it. I never worked out with was growing up, but I said, Hey, yeah this is what people do. In fact, they give crab boy boots at graduation. So I'm gonna put some on. that Wow. So he was in the OR with the cowboy boots boots. yo you already broken with the hey Hey, hold on now. It's not only aesthetic. Cowboy boots are ergonomic.
00:14:43
Speaker
Okay. You know that? Yeah, man. know the heel in your dance goes? They give you a little extra arch. Okay. oh Cowboy boots, same thing.
00:14:56
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Bro, you're already tall, bro. You don't need y'all. Both of y'all don't need cowboy boots, man. Like, come on. Leave it to the sort of people. The six feet on the people. It ain't about the height, bro. I need the heel lift. The heel lift from my back.
00:15:11
Speaker
Nah, I would respect that. So not now that not not that you you speak about assimilation and now that you're moving from L.A. and going to Atlanta for, you know, your next position, what do you anticipate assimilation is going be like? Because, you know, Atlanta, you know what I'm saying? Black, you know, yeah black everything, you know, black power, black wealth, black relationships, yeah all of that, you know? What does that look like for you?
00:15:36
Speaker
I mean, for me, I'm hoping that I can deescalate my level of assimilation and be myself more freely and more comfortable. Obviously, the work environment is still, you know, we're not fully represented in that realm. But, you know, moving from Dallas to l LA, I noticed that, you know, even though the region, the region changes in the in the grand scheme, but in your in the microcosm of your work environment,
00:16:07
Speaker
you still a lot of times the demographics are still about the same. And so I think my experience here was analogous to Dallas in many ways, better in some ways.
00:16:18
Speaker
So I'm not going to take my guard down, but I'm hoping that, you know, generally, I'd be able to find my my circles, my people, people that I can kind of go back to for re-energization.
00:16:33
Speaker
said Yeah.
Faith and Social Media Influence
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Recharge. Yeah. I definitely know what you mean. I definitely know what you mean. the The people that you get to take your mask off for. Exactly.
00:16:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Got you. So, um so you mentioned earlier in the icebreaker that one of your favorite things to do after a workday is make content.
00:16:55
Speaker
Can you tell us a little bit about your decision to to become a medical influencer? Well, your decision to take to social media. I don't know if anyone decides to become a medical influencer, you know, um but your decision to take to social media and what it plays for, what it plays into in your life today.
00:17:11
Speaker
What people don't know is I hated social media growing up. It remind sense reminded me of how awkward I was in high school. I was a loser, no one liked, was skinny, had a big head, I ashy, and I got made fun of.
00:17:26
Speaker
a lot. And even got bullied at times in high school. And so even going to undergrad, you know, I kind of got the same thing, you know, or just a continuation. And it wasn't until my second year of residency, where, you know, I had Instagram just because I wanted to keep in touch with everyone I, you know, kind of knew in undergrad.
00:17:50
Speaker
And residency, obviously COVID the pandemic happened in my second year of residency, And concurrent with that was, you know, the the BLM um movement.
00:18:01
Speaker
And the story that really got me was when Ahmaud Arbery got shot. Yeah, while on the run. Yeah, I felt like, you know, his story was very palpable to mine.
00:18:15
Speaker
Because although 90% of the time I'm in scrubs, you know, every time after work, I'm typically at the gym playing ball. And you know, there's basketball culture, and I assimilate to basketball culture very well.
00:18:31
Speaker
And I always wonder if someone saw me playing ball, would they see me the same way they saw him? And would I be alive today, if I just decided to take a stroll after hooping?
00:18:46
Speaker
And the second part of that, that thought process was, what if they knew I was a surgeon? And I felt like people would treat me different, which I think is a problem.
00:18:58
Speaker
And that was so frustrating to me that people did not respect this, the sacred nature of life and profile the man like him, just like me.
00:19:10
Speaker
However, I know for sure they would have treated him differently if they knew he was a surgeon. That's a problem. And so I thought about this and while I was actually doing some TikTok trends, I took some photos.
00:19:22
Speaker
of me wearing a hoodie and my sweats when before I transitioned into scrubs, I put the photos next to each other and I made a post and I said, hey, didn't a hoodie at the top here with the knife at the bottom after getting some help from my friends to kind of piece it together. And it went viral and it went viral to the point of, you know, celebrities resharing it.
00:19:47
Speaker
And even people magazine reached out to me to give an interview. Five. Wow. And so I didn't mind you, i didn't really care for social media. I wasn't trying to be popular or something. It was just more, I really just had this, uh, I had this conviction and I felt like my work environment wasn't necessarily inviting that type of stuff.
00:20:07
Speaker
So I felt like I had some safety on social media to just express it there. And I did. And through doing that, I found a whole community of people who, uh, supported me.
00:20:18
Speaker
They were like, Hey bro, keep going. You know, they speak life over my career. And so I just continued to feed into that. And I, and, and in turn, I would meet people who were encouraged by my content.
00:20:30
Speaker
And so it was just a cycle, a synergistic cycle. And I just stayed.
00:20:35
Speaker
That's why. And I'm really, you know, I'm inspired and encouraged by your consistency and commitment to social media, particularly also within the realm of comedy and faith.
00:20:48
Speaker
There's many med students, residents, and just people even outside of medicine that look at your videos and you know just go to your page like myself and like hey man he living his life he could you could still be a doctor but then still be living do your thing jamming you know i'm saying doing it too you don't got to be stoic and like stiff um for you what what does it mean to put out a message that doesn't necessarily convey what medicine is to the world how important is that for you um
00:21:21
Speaker
I think it's very important because for people like us, it's multiple levels. You know, I've met people who wouldn't pursue a career in north and in orthopedics if they didn't encounter my page.
00:21:34
Speaker
um I was on a random trip in Puerto Rico and I was out at night and went to so one ah one of my friend's sections and there was a young black man there who came up to me, said, I know you're from social media.
00:21:46
Speaker
he ultimately told me, I would have never applied to orthopedic surgery if I never saw your page. When I saw your page, I realized I could do it. And then, know what told me? He said, I didn't even get it, but I would have never tried if I didn't see your page.
00:22:01
Speaker
And so that hit me kind of hard. On the flip side, obviously, there's a lot of people like us who, and mostly in our previous generation, who still have some skepticism towards medicine and we know don't really trust the system.
00:22:15
Speaker
And heavily that's because of representation and I feel like just being a bubbly face online, it can kind of take that veil away so that people don't feel so ah resistant to the medical system.
00:22:32
Speaker
agree Agreed, agreed. So, um,
00:22:37
Speaker
I like the way you put that bubbly face makes people feel less resistant. Um, I feel like that similarly goes with how you incorporate your, your faith into a lot of, ah your social media works.
00:22:49
Speaker
You even mentioned earlier in the interview that, um, God gave you an epiphany when you know that you said, uh, ah your you need to separate your hobbies from your passions.
00:23:00
Speaker
you know So it's it's very apparent that faith is important in your life. How do you navigate ah including faith in your social media? Because that's a very nuanced thing to post, you know yeah especially with a large follower. So how do you navigate that?
00:23:15
Speaker
Man, um so I go back to the basics of the journey. you know i didn't I'm not on social media because I wanted to be famous and go viral and all this good stuff. I was on it because I had a conviction.
00:23:27
Speaker
And along my journey in residency, training, medical school, um but really namely residency, even as I started to do social media, I started to get a lot of resistance.
00:23:42
Speaker
And I didn't understand it at the time. didn't understand why people were tracking me online, why my attendings were looking me up, why people were giving me just ah resistance out of nowhere, being harder on me on rotations. I didn't really understand it.
00:23:57
Speaker
But it's because people are on the other side of what we think is a humane, ah which what we think is a conversation of humanity. And so I started to face a lot of resistance and and residency. I started to get a lot of heat to the point of I'm meeting, I'm meeting people using language that suggests they didn't want me in residence anymore.
00:24:21
Speaker
And when I asked them straight up, what's the issue? Is it my performance? Is it my academics? Is it that you don't think I care? They said, well, some people don't really like your social media presence from the resident level and the attending level.
00:24:36
Speaker
Mind you, I'm a resident. I'm in my third year and they're telling me that they care about the opinions of a resident in order in order to determine whether I deserve to be in residency, which I think is crazy.
00:24:49
Speaker
ah That sounds very backwards. Very backwards. Very backwards. And so The heat was so bad that they started to implement and discipline, which I think was much out of proportion to whatever mistakes I made.
00:25:04
Speaker
And it threatened my career so bad that I had to go back in my quiet place and ask. I had to assess what got me here. And I knew social media was a component. And I had to pray and ask God, like, Lord, like, should delete this?
00:25:19
Speaker
And I was about to delete it, to be honest. Well, I'm deactivating it for some time. I went private for some time. ah changed I scrubbed all my content away. I changed my profile picture so people couldn't find me while I was trying to figure this out. I lost 10,000 followers at the time. I was probably at, I think almost 20,000. I was at 50,000. I went down to 30,000.
00:25:40
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. And i i I took six months ah about away from social media. and soul searching, talking to mentors in the midst of extreme discipline at my program.
00:25:55
Speaker
And, um, and in that time I found that God was sustaining me during that time. I felt extremely depressed, extremely discouraged, like extremely confused.
00:26:08
Speaker
And God was the one through many people who provided me clarity. And so as I got that clarity, he meant He helped me reform my message. My passion didn't change. My reason and why ah being there didn't change.
00:26:21
Speaker
He just helped me reform it in a way that's more palatable and in a way defensive so that people couldn't incriminate me on stupid things. And as I progressed, God kept giving me success.
00:26:34
Speaker
And so as I keep getting success, I have no choice but to integrate them. Hey, you still rocking with us? If you're involved with the convo, make sure you stay locked in. Hit that subscribe button and follow SNMA Presents The Lounge on all your favorite streaming platforms.
00:26:48
Speaker
Want to learn how to get more involved? Slide over to snma.org slash the lounge or hit us up at podcast at snma.org. We'd love to have you be a part of our team.
00:27:00
Speaker
Let's get back to the interview. I have no choice, you know, and and I recognize that my presence is only there because of what he gives me. and And that's why I can't i can't separate it. You know, I've tried, got you know you know, the same conversation comes up, oh, you know social you know, religion and faith is, you know, controversial.
00:27:20
Speaker
No, it's a part of who I am. I can't holistically be a good doctor without my faith and experience with God and science. so That's why it's there.
00:27:32
Speaker
I think you mentioned like something that is so key and critical. Many residents facing retaliation behind the scenes, like living the worst time of their life for one reason or another.
00:27:46
Speaker
I've been a ah victim of that. um And I wanted to ask you, like and number one, thank you for your transparency in regarding that, because I think oftentimes in medicine, We don't talk about these things. We don't have discussions because many people feel isolated in these situations and don't know where to go. And I think that your prime example of someone that's obviously the epitome of transforming the energy that you experience and utilizing that as something positive, optimistic, right? um But regardless, what I wanted to ask you is that in the midst of you going through those challenges, you know, um
00:28:21
Speaker
What was one thing that you learned about yourself? I wanted to ask you in regards to just navigating that because there's so many directions you can go with that, right? Like sometimes they'll go into a situation of retaliation. going to retaliate back. Or like I have somebody who sued their program. Like you have so many...
00:28:40
Speaker
situations that could happen. for And it's so scary. You work so hard to get into this position. And as hard as you work to get in this position, it's so easy to lose it in a minute, literally off of Instagram post.
00:28:51
Speaker
So how did you navigate that? Man, the first route is humility. In the midst of an attack, it's easier to re retaliate.
00:29:02
Speaker
It's harder to humble yourself and promote a level of introspection. Luckily, at that time, I realized the system is broken to a degree. And I thought I was also broken.
00:29:16
Speaker
realized I kind of was, I realized that there were things that I was not doing that was perfect. So I had to be hypercritical of myself in that moment without destroying myself. And that was a very hard balance, because we're high performing people, we're very critical of ourselves by nature. That's what got us here.
00:29:33
Speaker
And so I had to have a level of humility. and criticism of myself without destroying myself. And through that I learned the truth that the system is broken and that we are misunderstood and that a lot of things may be tagged on us in terms of whether we care, don't care, whether we are intelligent enough to be there, X, Y, Z.
00:29:58
Speaker
And I realized this verse, this verse is really what kind of took it away from me. It's second Timothy two 15. It says study to show thyself approved a workman need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
00:30:14
Speaker
What that means to me is you study for yourself. You're not studying to impress your intended because your attending may be evil at heart. They can be, And even when you're right, even when you're on the right direction, they may discourage you from progressing in the right direction using their authority.
00:30:33
Speaker
And so you have to study for yourself to show yourself. You have to study. You have to study the further surgery yourself. You know, you need to look at the anatomy yourself so that you know for yourself. It's a broken system.
00:30:45
Speaker
It should not be that way. But to a degree, you got to do that. That's the way you protect yourself.
Medical Training System Flaws and Biases
00:30:50
Speaker
And then the next ah line says a workman need not be ashamed, rightly divine, the word of truth, which means you have no shame when you've properly studied and prepared you now and opposite of shame. You have confidence.
00:31:04
Speaker
You don't need to be ashamed. Now you have confidence. And then the last thing says rightly dividing the word of truth. And so some would take that as the word of truth is the Bible, you know, the word of God, you know, I don't see it that way.
00:31:17
Speaker
a part of the epiphany was God help me understand how science is just an explanation of how great it is. And any science you study in worship to God is true.
00:31:31
Speaker
And so if you rightly divide a word of truth, which can be your netters book, or your orthopedic anatomy book, then you not you need not be ashamed. And so that's why like, even the Bible says that we can look at a tree and know that there's a God.
00:31:47
Speaker
I can look at the human body and know that a God crafted this thing perfectly. The Bible don't talk nothing about no mitochondria, but I can study it and I study and worship to God. And as I, as I continue to study and like re you know, go over it aggressively and asking God for help and understanding, bro, when after the discipline that they tried to break me with, my confidence was through the roof.
00:32:13
Speaker
It was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. yeah look i i mind you i never looked at an evaluation i'm not saying this is general advice but uh-huh be careful people in my situation because i recognized people were not uh were relatively evil towards me i no longer looked at their feedback because their feedback was not constructive it was destructive and i just waited you know i just waited i figured i was like if something wrong happened they gonna fire me up even if something don't go wrong they gonna fire me up so
00:32:45
Speaker
That's how moved. And by God's grace, I made it through. that's a So you you spoke about synergy earlier. I think that's an extremely positive synergy. Like that is a positive feedback loop if I ever saw one.
00:32:58
Speaker
You have a challenging time. You turn to your faith. Your faith gets you through. And by you getting through, you say, I'm strong enough to get through. This challenge wasn't really that challenging to begin with.
00:33:12
Speaker
That's powerful. That's different. That that was powerful. yeah grow Yeah. It was crazy. I respect that immensely. um So you spoke about the imperfections of the system and the ways that it it it needs fixing, right? It needs some adjustment. there' is There are things that could be better. Could you give me like just two or three things that you think could be tweaked that would yield better outcomes for all?
00:33:42
Speaker
Yeah, sure. For example, in medical training, I do surgery. So a lot of surgeries hands on. I see, you know, um I played basketball growing up. I think doing surgery and being a part of a surgical team is like being on a sports team.
00:33:58
Speaker
Everybody's good at something, you know, at the end of the day, every surgeon will have to be a leader in a room and coordinate a team. However, as you grow as a department, as you grow as a surgical team, a junior, a senior, an attending, I think you're only weak. You're only as strong as your weakest link.
00:34:15
Speaker
And I think what's broken in the system is that the medical training is very subjective. Yes, there are objective exams, but there are a lot of subjective things where people say, you know, I don't think you just have it.
00:34:30
Speaker
I don't think you're displaying the proper level of knowledge. The only way to truly know that if you standardize all the questions you ask everybody. Yeah. and And you standardize the level of training.
00:34:42
Speaker
Now, obviously, we're human, that doesn't always work. We're all very different. And so I think in the medical training environment, if we treated our teams as weak as our as strong as our weakest link, then we would focus on people who need more attention.
Personal Goals and Community Building
00:34:57
Speaker
I'm not saying us, we people that look like us need all the attention.
00:35:02
Speaker
I'm just saying that sometimes the grading scale is a little different for each person because of some implicit biases. And what adds to that level of implicit bias is when people like us don't really assimilate to the majority and become misunderstood.
00:35:20
Speaker
when you're misunderstood, people are not going to be as, um, they're not going to take as much initiative to help you. that They're not going to give you that benefit of the doubt.
00:35:32
Speaker
And they're going to give you the benefit of the doubt. And then it puts more energy on you to one, you know, prove yourself and two, get what you need to get out of there with the amount of knowledge you need for the next step.
00:35:47
Speaker
And so that's the one really broken part of the system. I think that is probably i don't know what else I need to say. I think that might be the summative statement for every other. no Yeah, that's it's just.
00:35:59
Speaker
Yeah, you you said a whole lot, but without you said a whole lot without saying too much with that one for sure. um but I want to take it a little different direction now. you know, I'm thankful for you to share, you know, all your accolades and the words of advice and inspiration. But we want to also get to know the real Dr. icky You know what I'm saying? You about to be attending physician, get this money.
00:36:22
Speaker
Like, yo, what is it that got to look forward to when I get this attending? You know, you about to go to Atlanta. Like, you know what I mean? Without me saying too much. Like, what's up, bro? Like, what's going on and in life? Like, what what's the goal, personally?
00:36:38
Speaker
What you got coming You know, without saying too much, you know I'm saying? No, I'm playing. I'm playing. You know, I'm thankful, man. This is a painful road, but, you know, there's delayed gratification.
00:36:54
Speaker
Obviously, I've never tasted this. I've never tasted the freedom, the check, all the things that come with it, the independence, But yeah, you know, what we made, we made range of 65, that's 75K, right?
00:37:11
Speaker
The average orthopedic surgeon, I believe, makes around half a million at least, at least starting off, around half a million. Now, that's working a full-time job, you know, busting your butt, doing everything you can, taking calls, XYZ.
00:37:24
Speaker
And, you know, I chose to do spine surgery, not only because of the reimbursement patterns, Because of the challenge. Y'all didn't ask me that question, but it's fine.
00:37:37
Speaker
and you Anyway, you know, sponsors just get paid a decent amount. They can make up to million dollars. Bro, they get paid. right now. They get paid. They make up to a million dollars a year.
00:37:49
Speaker
Exactly. And so, I lost one of my AirPods. And so, ah you know, yeah. I mean, Luckily, i mean, that's, that's cool.
00:38:02
Speaker
That's cool. mean, it's cool to know that that's the potential. Okay. Now, for myself, though, for myself, I, I did not go into medicine for the money. Obviously, now I didn't. Hey, look, I know a lot of you would say, Oh, i went into it just for altruism completely. Absolutely not. I went into it for job security.
00:38:22
Speaker
There's a lot of job security in medicine. People will always be sick. They will always need a doctor. Luckily, I have a passion for science and people who work. All that said, I'm not really chasing to make the amount most amount of money I can in the first year.
00:38:38
Speaker
And so honestly, I'm planning to take a part time job where I can, for the first time in my life, take some time and breathe and get to know myself while making some money.
00:38:50
Speaker
and hopefully use some time to educate myself, you know, in terms of financial streams, invest properly, invest into myself, invest into my brand, and hopefully produce things that make more of an impact that are beyond financial measures. of them And so hi that's what I've learned through the pain of my journey.
00:39:13
Speaker
And I'm just praying that God helps me through that. Got you. Got you. So you mentioned that you wanted to um invest in the brand a little bit more. ah I was actually very curious.
00:39:25
Speaker
Where do you see yourself taking the brand? So at this point, you know, dr Iggy is a very popular social media page, I'll say.
00:39:36
Speaker
I'll say you're probably among the leaders in medical influencing. um back What comes next? Do you see yourself... ah maybe doing your own podcast? Do you see yourself maybe taking to more long form content?
00:39:52
Speaker
What do you do you think? I think the root of it is in some of the, um um I'm going to describe it this way because this is how I felt it was.
00:40:05
Speaker
Although medical training gives you a lot of tangible skills, it was a form of bondage to me. I'm sorry. feel like for so long i wasn't free. I haven't been free to be myself.
00:40:18
Speaker
Okay. And I haven't actually been free to say what I want. Gotcha. In fear that someone be checking my page and judging what I do in the hospital based on what I say or do online.
00:40:29
Speaker
And now, I mean, don't get me wrong. People still checking. That's fine. I'm not going off the, you I ain't going on hands, but ah recognize I got a little bit more freedom to say what I want and do what I want.
00:40:41
Speaker
ah And part, a big part of that is I can now teach. as I see fit, I can now share my story as I see fit.
00:40:53
Speaker
And so my goal is actually to yes, do more long form content, but really do more teaching and more mentorship. Because I felt that I'm not in the bondage of my system. I've never felt encouraged or validated to be that person online as I feel like I should be.
00:41:11
Speaker
I feel convicted by God to do it. but I don't feel encouraged by my environment to it. I don't feel encouraged by my leadership to do it for whatever biases they have. But now I have that chance. So hopefully building more community, stronger community, instead of entertaining as much, educating more and still inspiring.
00:41:29
Speaker
And yeah, that's the hope.
00:41:33
Speaker
I love that. I feel like everyone listening and tapping in, that's exactly what we you know we aspire to do when we come into the medicine iss inspire and impact our communities. And You're doing a tremendous job of that. But I'm gonna have to ask this question, bro. There's a lot inquiring minds.
00:41:51
Speaker
I feel like he already know what's coming. Look at him, look at him. He already know what's coming. There's people hitting me up like, yo, what's up with Dr. Iggy? Do we got a shorty?
00:42:05
Speaker
Is he in a relationship? You know what I'm saying? don't know, bro. But yeah, they asking, so they want to know what's up with you and how they can get at you. We need one line for the streets.
00:42:18
Speaker
One line for the streets. We got a street question. they catch you outside and they approach If you catch me outside, you cannot approach me.
00:42:36
Speaker
He said, I'm too fired. I'm old school, man. Don't approach me, man. approached her. Got it. Got it. Got it. This guy different. Okay. Okay. He was raised correct. He was raised correct.
00:42:52
Speaker
So what's the second part? The second part is I'm actively searching. I'm actively, you know, I believe that God put me on earth to be married and have kids one day. So yeah, I'm trying to, I'm trying to reach that goal.
00:43:12
Speaker
I am not married yet. But wait, you got it. Wait, it looked oh like got never But the ring. He got Everywhere but the ring. Everywhere but the ring figures. You got you got catch it. This is the right hand. It's my right hand. Yeah. So.
00:43:32
Speaker
You know, I might, you know, I post this all the time. I say one day I'm just going to pop out and be engaged. I feel like your followers are scared that they suited it later. It is suited. Absolutely.
00:43:45
Speaker
I pray that into existence.
00:43:49
Speaker
I like that one. I like that one. Yeah. That's all y'all get. That's all we need. It's lovely. So before we wrap up, before we wrap up, Dr.
Closing Remarks and Social Media Call to Action
00:44:01
Speaker
Iggy, I want to try something with you.
00:44:06
Speaker
What we're going to do, i want you to leave ah question that we're going to give to our next interviewee. We don't know who that person We don't know what ah what we're going be talking about.
00:44:19
Speaker
Just leave a question.
00:44:30
Speaker
If someone gave you a million dollars a year, would you still practice medicine?
00:44:37
Speaker
I like that. Nope. like that. I definitely wouldn't.
00:44:48
Speaker
we're going to see. We're going to see. Fire, fire. This has been a fantastic interview. Thanks so much, Dr. Iggy, coming out and kicking it with us in the lounge.
00:45:00
Speaker
We appreciate you. This has been a very enlightening conversation. Very enlightening conversation. um I'll give you a moment. Tell everybody where they can find you.
00:45:13
Speaker
I'm sure they know. It's been on the screen a couple of times, but you know, so you say one time for yourself. Hey, sure. What's up, y'all? My name is Dr. Iggy. I'm an orthopedic surgeon about to graduate spine surgery fellowship.
00:45:25
Speaker
I make content for premeds and medical students and residents focused on entertainment, inspiration and education. If you're looking for me, can just look up Dr. Iggy, D-R-I-G-G-Y, or Doc Iggy, D-O-C.I-G-G-Y, on all my platforms.
00:45:44
Speaker
You should be able to find me somewhere, even if it's on Google.
00:45:49
Speaker
And the DMs are closed. Don't forget, guys. the DMs are closed, man. It's over one. Nah, the bots outdid y'all, man. ah ah Makes sense. Makes sense.
00:46:01
Speaker
All right. That's it for this one, everybody. Thank y'all for tuning in to this episode of Kicking in the Lounge. This has been our interview with Dr. Iggy. For my co-host, oldness Dr. Alden Sumare and summari myself, Jared Jeffrey, we're signing out.
00:46:16
Speaker
Peace.