PROFILE
Dr. Nkechinyere Ijioma is the senior associate consultant (physician) in the Department of Cardiology and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Mayo College of Medicine.
STRONG LEADER, STRONG HEART
Dr. Nkechinyere Ijioma brings passion for health and helping to the Coulee Region. BY JANIS JOLLY | PHOTOS COURTESY OF MAYO CLINIC HEALTH SYSTEM
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t’s a long journey from being a medical student in Nigeria to becoming a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse, and Dr. Nkechinyere (Nkechi/pronounced as Ketch-ee) Ijioma has made the trip with a heart full of courage and a positive attitude. She says her passion for medicine was triggered in high school. “I attended an all-girls boarding secondary school in Nigeria,” says Dr. Ijioma. “The school typically organized an annual career day and invited professionals from a range of different careers—lawyers, chartered accountants, etc.—to speak to the students about their careers. I still remember the sense of awe and wonder that filled me, a teenager, to see and hear a female medical doctor talk about her medical school journey and her career as a medical doctor, wife and mother,” she remembers. “She radiated joy and fulfilment, and despite her depiction of the numerous exams required to become a doctor, I knew at that moment that I wanted to be like her: I was going to be a medical doctor.” FOLLOWING HER DREAMS Dr. Ijioma earned her medical degree in Nigeria, then completed her U.S. medical licensing exams in Iowa City. “My post-graduate medical education (residency and fellowship training) began in 2007
at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and has taken me to The Ohio State University in Columbus and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. I jokingly remark that I went from being a Hawkeye to a Buckeye!” she says. Cardiology became her choice as she worked through rotations in internal medicine residency. “I wanted to be a doctor who takes care of people’s hearts because the heart affects everything else,” she explains. “The heart is a small organ, with an average weight of about 300 grams. However, without a beating heart, there is no life. In addition, there are arteries and veins whose functions affect other bodily function. My fascination with disorders of the heart— coronary artery disease and heart failure—made me pursue cardiology fellowship training.” HEART OF HER PRACTICE What’s at the “heart” of her practice here in La Crosse and the Coulee Region? Her love of working with patients to arrive at a solution to their problems. “Patients want to know that their medical needs will be met. I have learned that people respond to kindness, empathy and a sense that the healthcare provider is genuinely interested in meeting their medical needs,” Dr. Ijioma says. Heather Kujak-Coons, operations manager at Mayo Clinic Health www.crwmagazine.com FEBRUARY/MARCH 2022 11
