Folu Ayoade, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Dr. Folu Ayoade is a clinician-educator at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and his role is traditionally split into three segments - clinical, education, and research. His educational roles are multi-level. At the medical school, he is a longitudinal clinician education program facilitator and he also provides support as the NextGen Phase 3 Infectious Diseases Course Co-Director. For the residency program, he offers didactic lectures to Internal medicine and neurology residents on several CNS topics. For the Infectious diseases fellowship, he provides didactic lectures on Neuro-infectious diseases and general ID topics and also provides mentorship to clinical fellows in research and scholastic activities.
I was very fascinated by the teaching skills of one of my Infectious Diseases attending that I happened to rotate under during some of my Internal medicine residency training clinical blocks. My first opportunity to formally get involved in medical education came when I was in my first year of Infectious diseases fellowship. I took an interest in volunteering as an educator on microbiology and virology blocks for the medical school. I enjoyed the experience so much that in the following year, I was regularly assigned as an Instructor to help with didactic lectures for the 2nd-year medical students covering several infectious diseases topics. When I joined as a clinical faculty at the University of Miami, even though my duties were mainly clinical, I looked for several opportunities to continue to be involved in educational activities starting with the clinical fellows which later extended to the medical residents and students.
I believe a principle taught is better understood and remembered. Even though I work in a busy urban setting, I understand teaching is an opportunity to impact knowledge, share professional clinical experience, and make a difference. The positive difference and impact will stay with the learner and may help them someday to transfer the same experience to other students.
As a clinician educator working in a tertiary health setting alongside students, residents, fellows, nurse practitioners, and clinical pharmacists, medical education is part of what I do in my practice. Whether illustrating clinical or preclinical concepts in a didactic, facilitating a medical curriculum, or piecing together different elements of a case report to educate the medical community, dissemination of medical education forms an integral part of my career.
One medical innovation in the past year I championed was the “Miami Case Report Group”. I pioneered and coordinated the formation of this group comprised of infectious diseases and hospital medicine faculties, clinical fellows, nurse practitioners, clinical pharmacists, medical residents, students, and residency applicants. The group helps and guides trainees and students with manuscript writing and publication. Since inception, we have successfully published 6 peer-reviewed articles with a mentee as the first author, with a few more in the pipeline for submission or under review. I am also honored to be awarded the 2024 Outstanding Clinical Educator Award for the ****Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
I have supported my mentees in scholarly activity on different peer-reviewed manuscripts, medical writings, and other perspectives. I have also encouraged motivated clinical fellows to be sub-investigators on my clinical grants. Through the “Miami Case Report Group" platform, my mentees were the first authors in 5 of the 6 published peer-reviewed manuscripts within one year.
Our success with the Miami Case Report group, the experience of watching over the space of two years newly recruited fellows metamorphosing into Infectious disease experts, and the opportunity to be involved in educating the next set of world medical leaders. All these and many more are very rewarding and encouraging.