Dr. Jennifer Ellis is in a very exclusive sorority. She is one of only five board-certified, Black female cardiothoracic surgeons in the U.S. The Washington, D.C. native was influenced to become a doctor partly by her psychiatrist father, who encouraged his children’s ambitions in any arena, but also by a childhood babysitter with a congenital heart defect.
Ellis knew from a young age that the heart was something she wanted to learn how to fix. After graduating from Yale and the Jefferson Medical College, Ellis picked up yet another degree in Business from John Hopkins University. She is now a senior cardiac surgeon at MedStar Heart Institute at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
Ellis loves her job, despite the sacrifices she’s made and the obstacles she’s overcome. One of the primary reasons she became a heart surgeon is that its a specialty where results are tangible.
“Every specialty has its highs and lows and wonderful things about it and some things that are less fun. In cardiac surgery, we get to fix a problem and we get to put people back on a normal chain of life,” Ellis said in an interview last year.
Ellis is also passionately committed to improving healthcare for minority patients and assisting others who want to attend medical school, extending herself, despite her busy schedule, to tutoring and mentoring. She gives sound advice for anyone who wants to enter the medical field.
“The commitment to providing your patients quality care begins in medical school,” she told the Association of American Medical Colleges. “Studying as much as you can about your subject and being able to draw upon the knowledge at any time enables you to provide them the best care possible. In medical school you will have 90 hours of work each week, 3 times more work than in undergraduate. If you don’t get this time management skill from day one, you are going to have a difficult time.”
For Ellis, managing her time includes keeping up her golf swing despite the hours she dedicates to her patients. She’s so committed that she says working minimum 80-hour weeks is important in ensuring that her patients get the best care possible. But she also believes that no one should be committed to your health more than you.
“You should be more interested in your health than anybody else on this planet. When we talk about diabetes, smoking, diet and exercise, cholesterol, smoking and family history, out of those five things, only family history is out of your control. Everything else is absolutely within a patient’s control.”
(Photo: Med Star)
