Adam is the Accelerator Programme Manager at Pioneer Group. Here, he helps early stage life science founders who are tackling big unmet needs in healthcare, by helping them to de-risk their ideas and build companies around their technologies. Prior to this role, Adam was the clinical/commercial lead for a team investigating urology and gynaecology needs during the prestigious BioInnovate fellowship, a sister programme of the BioDesign programme created at Stanford University, California. Adam originally trained in paediatric surgery in CHI Crumlin and Temple Street. He has also completed an Executive MBA at Smurfit Business School.
I was always interested in Medicine but I could never say I was 100% certain on pursuing this career during school and never thought I’d be able to get 600 points. I had no immediate family in healthcare careers and so I didn’t really know much about it. I remember that we had a career questionnaire around fourth year in school, and it matched me about 70% with Medicine, but also something like 60% with Architecture and 55% with Business – so it was a broad mix! But what attracted me to it was the idea of having a meaningful job and being able to make an impact – helping people at some of their most vulnerable moments.
I got 550 points in my Leaving Cert and went to do Business, Economics and Social Studies in Trinity. And then during my second year of that, the HPAT was introduced (Health Professionals Admissions Test). This gave me a second bite of the cherry at Medicine, and I was able to get on to the course. I was really lucky to get in when I did, as the requirements have shot up since then!
One thing I really loved about UCD Medicine is that you get to rotate through all the specialties and get a bit of a flavour of each before you have to make any decisions. We did big medicine and surgery rotations, and I loved the technical challenge of surgery. It's a high stakes situation where you’re working with a high performing team, combining these new hands-on skills with all of the knowledge you've been building over the years. Additionally, you can usually see a pretty direct impact of your work. And when I went into paediatrics, I loved working with children, as well as whatever family unit was around the patient. Paediatric surgery ended up being what piqued my interest as you had to balance all of the technical surgical skills with human factors and softer communication skills.
I also really liked the pre-med year. It gave people like me (who didn’t do Biology in school!) a chance to get up to speed on some of the core principles. It also helped us to build group relationships early on, which proved invaluable as the course progressed. The intern year is a tough year, so working alongside friends who you’ve been building a relationship with over six years is a big help. Knowing that you have someone in your corner makes such a difference.
Lastly, I really liked the fact that the class was very diverse. There was a broad age range, we were joined by overseas students and also shared classes with graduate meds. There’s a lot to be said for having people at different stages of life, from different places, and with different experiences.
My first piece of advice would be to always consider your alternatives when making a decision. It’s harder to decide on something in isolation. So think of it like - is it medicine versus repeating a year in school? Is it medicine at UCD versus another medical school? Is it medicine versus another undergraduate programme? Deciding on something is a lot easier if you're comparing it to other options.
Secondly, I would say to always look for advice from a lot of different sources. Your first big decision is “should I do medicine”, but there's going to be a lot more career decisions down the line. So, it's always good to get advice from people well-embedded in their career, but also from people a couple of years ahead of you.
Finally, I would say that it's up to you to ultimately decide. You may get conflicting input from different people – as I’ve experienced! Everyone's entitled to their perspective and you need to take it all in, but it will be up to you to decide how relevant each piece of advice is to you. That’s why the more perspectives you have from a wide pool of different people, the better able you will be to make the best informed decision you can.
UCD really sets a priority on balancing extracurricular activities with all of the coursework. I played in an international football competition for UCD a couple of times, and always enjoyed the Sports Days. The focus wasn’t just on academia.
One funny memory is of the traditional panto which was always great fun. After we’d finish a long rotation in one of the hospitals, some of the students would put on a panto in the lecture halls of St. Vincent’s or the Mater. They’d always take off some of the professors and consultants, and most of the time these senior professionals could get wind of it and come and watch! It was hilarious seeing someone about to start a big monologue and then they’d see the actual professor in the front row! But it was always taken in good fun.
When I pivoted out of surgery, I wanted to remain in healthcare, and one of the biggest drivers for me was still having an impact on patient care. I did a career test at one point which tells you what anchors you in your career. Mine were technical challenge and autonomy. So, I knew I needed my job to be interesting and stimulating, and also to be somewhat independent in my role. I’m lucky as the company I’m with now – Pioneer Group – fulfils this for me.
We create ecosystems around startups that are trying to develop a new device or drug for healthcare. There might be a clinician, a scientist, or an engineer that has a really great idea of how to treat a condition, but they’ve never actually created a company before - and that's where we come in. We can provide lab and office space to get things up and running, and offer support.
Where I fit in is running accelerator programmes, which are essentially workshops teaching someone how to build a company around the idea they have. The core of this whole industry is using innovation to tackle unmet needs - we want to hear about where the gap is, what are patients or physicians or providers missing right now that could be improved by your idea? So this allows me to still have an impact on making life easier for people in the healthcare system. It's translating research in order to make that impact. I find that helping people to make sense of the chaos is very rewarding. I can use my experience and expertise to guide and advise what’s fit for purpose, and what the patients actually need, so it’s a really fulfilling role for me.
Throughout my education and my career, I've been driven more by what interests me rather than the big picture or specific job roles or titles, or long term plans. And I think that's a privilege that's been afforded to me, because I’ve had support in various ways and later in life, a medical degree allows you to work locum roles while you are transitioning careers. But the core pieces have always been there. In school, I did 2 science subjects (Physics and Chemistry) and 2 business subjects (Business Studies and Accounting). I did enjoy the business side of things in my BESS undergraduate, but I wasn’t really getting that human connection element that I eventually got with medicine.
And now my current role is in an industry that blends the things I’m interested in - the healthcare and the commercial. So my interest was always there, but it’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve found my niche and I can marry the two interests in one career.
Three standout moments come to mind.
The first was when I was the contact surgeon for the Emergency Department In St. James’s Hospital. My biggest fear as a Senior House Officer was that someone would come in with an upper GI bleed, which is very serious and requires a lot of interventions from the SHO in a short period of time. This one evening, not only did I get that call, but within 15 minutes I also had a call about severe appendicitis, and a third call for someone with free air under their diaphragm, which is another big emergency. And while I didn't sail through the night, I got through it. It was incredible to look back and think that something I had been worried about ended up being just one of three major things that I was able to manage - over time and with support. That was a big boost in confidence.
There was another time when we had a 9-year-old girl come in after a big car crash, with severe injuries. This was on my first night as a registrar, which represents a big step up in terms of decision-making. I had to coordinate about 5 or 6 teams, and bring in my consultant at about two in the morning to do his first splenectomy in over 12 years (something he didn’t thank me for!). But it was big step for me in terms of being the person in charge and getting everyone through it. That little girl was in with us for months and it was really powerful to see her slowly recover and eventually be able to go home.
Lastly, in March of this year I was working on my first big accelerator programme in my new company. We had 20 teams that were all working on technologies using AI, and I was completely out of my comfort zone! There was a kind of imposter syndrome, but I got through it. Looking back on it, while it didn’t have the same direct impact as some of my other cherished moments, it is exciting to think that I’ve potentially played a part in getting new treatments to patients across many different areas of medicine.
My Mum and Dad have aways been fantastic in terms of constant support, words of encouragement, financial support and advice. They’ve both been really helpful, especially around the big moves and changes in my career.
All of the surgeons I worked for have been great, but (Paediatric Colorectal Surgeon) Professor Alan Mortell in particular was really helpful for my career. I was on student placement with him and he’s part of what sealed the deal for me in pursuing paediatric surgery.
I also have to mention Dara O’Keeffe, who’s the Simulation Training Lead at RCSI, where we did our human factors and technical skills training. She transitioned from a purely clinical role in plastic surgery to this tutor role, and she’s phenomenal in it. She was the first professional colleague I had who made me feel comfortable with the idea of questioning whether I want to stay in surgery, go to another specialty, or leave clinical health care.
Those two professionals really gave me the most support through my journey, I think.
From a patient perspective, I want to mention a young girl I met who also inspired me to go into paediatric surgery. She’d had a Mitrofanoff procedure and an ACE procedure, to allow her to drain her bladder and bowel respectively. This young girl had to manage these complex surgical problems that had a big impact on her day-to-day life, but she was so stoic and more concerned about not being able to dunk in basketball than any of her medical background. She was incredibly inspiring!
One of the biggest challenges facing future graduates is the current healthcare system we have in Ireland. We have a population that is living longer with chronic conditions. There’s more expected of medical staff every year in terms of how much to know and do. And also the patients coming in are more informed and want to be more involved in their care. But there are limited resources available to manage it all and a lack of understanding from the general public as to how hard some of these healthcare workers are working. So I think it's the system we have that's going to be the biggest challenge. Ireland has always produced excellent doctors and they're always really well recognised internationally, and have a great work ethic and are very collaborative, but there's limitations to the system that they're in. This is probably the biggest hurdle most of them will have to navigate.
When I was doing the rotations, I couldn’t decide whether to go into surgery, or paediatrics, or go completely off the wall and go into paediatric surgery, which is a very small field and very technically challenging.
Serendipitously, I was attached in my GP rotation to a clinic with a GP who was really open and approachable. He had been an orthopaedic surgeon and he was a year out from finishing all of his exams and eligible for consultancy. But he went back to do GP, back to being an SHO in the hospital doing junior shifts on call. He said all of his friends at the time thought he was crazy. But he said in his early 20s what suited him in his career was being up in the middle of the night, taking on the big surgeries, making the impact. But then in his 30s, his priorities changed - he now had young children so he valued a more reliable schedule. His point was that when he realised his priorities changed, he made the change in his career, and he told me if I could recognise when my priorities change, and do something about it, then I’d never have to worry about making the wrong decision or making one decision to last the rest of my career. And I think if I hadn't met him, I probably wouldn't have taken on the career in paediatric surgery to begin with.