Yewande E. Odeyemi, M.B.B.S.
Consultant, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Assistant Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science
What moment or experience in your life influenced your decision to be a clinician?
My decision to be a clinician was largely influenced by my childhood health struggles. Endearing memories of caring and dedicated health care providers led me on the path to a career in medicine, with the goal of helping others.
What motivated you to become a Kern Health Care Delivery Scholar?
The Kern Health Care Delivery Scholars Program provides the unique opportunity to transform my daily clinical practice through high-quality research focused on improving patient-centered outcomes. I look forward to expanding my research skills through the didactics, expert mentoring and career development activities offered by the Kern Health Care Delivery Scholars Program.
What is your focus as a scholar within the Mayo Clinic Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery?
My passion is to use the tremendous computational power available to individualize treatments in prevalent conditions in pulmonary and critical care medicine, resulting in a personalized medicine approach. Therefore, as a scholar within the Mayo Clinic Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, I'm focused on individualizing corticosteroid use in community-acquired pneumonia.
Tell us about your mentoring team.
I am fortunate to work with a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, research scientists and experienced mentors.
- Erin F. Barreto, Pharm.D., R.Ph., is a clinical pharmacist with expertise in individualizing pharmacotherapy for patients who are critically ill with infections. She is an alumna of the Kern Health Care Delivery Scholars Program.
- Roberto P. Benzo, M.D., is a pulmonologist with expertise in epidemiology, implementation science and patient-centered outcomes research.
- Ognjen Gajic, M.D., is an intensivist and world-renowned expert in risk prediction, pragmatic clinical trial research in critical illness and implementation science.
- Phillip J. Schulte, Ph.D., is an associate professor of biostatistics with expertise in individual, dynamic treatment regimens.
- Hemang Yadav, M.B.B.S., is an intensivist and pulmonologist with expertise in phenotyping critical care syndromes and the incorporation of biomarkers in acute respiratory distress syndrome risk prediction.
How will your research improve patient care or impact public health?
In addition to early antimicrobial therapy and best supportive care practices, adjunct anti-inflammatory therapy — specifically, corticosteroids — can further improve outcomes, as recently observed in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The potential benefits of adjunct anti-inflammatory therapy in pneumonia, regardless of the infectious pathogen, can be better defined and tailored to patient-specific characteristics through data science. My research focuses on individualizing corticosteroid use, duration and timing in patients with community-acquired pneumonia by adapting advanced statistical and machine-learning methods, thereby maximizing the benefits of corticosteroids and minimizing their side effects.
Why did you choose Mayo Clinic to pursue your career?
Mayo Clinic's mission to inspire hope and promote health through clinical practice, research and education offers a conducive environment for boundless opportunities to help others. I've enjoyed learning from and working with a diverse group of internationally renowned experts and feel very fortunate for this opportunity. Moreover, my core values align with Mayo Clinic's values of providing excellent, compassionate and patient-centered care with integrity and continued innovation through research.