The Business of Life with Dr King
Dr Ariel Rosita King brings on a variety of International guests from various countries, cultures, organisations, and businesses to talk about turning
problem into possibilities! Let's turn our challenges in opportunities together!
The Business of Life with Dr King
Dr Lara Akinnawonu on Sheep, Scalpels, and Sickle Cell: A London Doctor's Rural Welsh Adventure
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu powerful journey from patient to physician began after a childhood road traffic accident landed her in intensive care. This formative experience ignited her passion for medicine and shaped her dedication to serving underrepresented communities throughout her career.
After training in rural Wales – a dramatic shift from her London upbringing – Dr. Lara Akinnawonu gained invaluable perspective on delivering healthcare with limited resources. This creative approach to medicine has infused her work as she advocates for Black health issues across the United Kingdom. Her focus spans multiple critical areas: addressing the maternal mortality rate where Black women face three times higher risk during pregnancy, promoting blood and organ donation within minority communities, and tackling knife crime as a public health emergency rather than solely a criminal justice issue.
The conversation highlights how systemic inequalities manifest in healthcare access and outcomes. Dr Akinnawonu shares compelling examples from the COVID-19 pandemic, where second-generation immigrants became crucial bridges between healthcare systems and vulnerable communities by translating vital health information. She draws attention to the stigma surrounding mental health in Black communities and how this contributes to maternal health disparities, while emphasizing the power of representation: "We need more Black doctors, more Black female doctors in every space, in every specialty."
Now focusing on paediatrics with a public health lens, Dr. Akinnawonu is tackling childhood obesity, vaccination awareness, and nutritional health in schools. Her international experience in Namibia exposed her to rare conditions and practitioners delivering excellent care with minimal resources – further fueling her commitment to global health equity. Join us for this inspiring conversation about medical advocacy, community service, and creating meaningful change in healthcare for all. What health disparity will you help address in your community today?
Music, lyrics, guitar and singing by Dr Ariel Rosita King
Teach me to live one day at a time
with courage love and a sense of pride.
Giving me the ability to love and accept myself
so I can go and give it to someone else.
Teach me to live one day at a time.....
The Business of Life
Dr Ariella (Ariel) Rosita King
Original Song, "Teach Me to Live one Day At A Time"
written, guitar and vocals by Dr. Ariel Rosita King
Dr King Solutions (USA Office)
1629 K St, NW #300,
Washington, DC 20006, USA,
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DrKingSolutions.com
Hi and welcome to the Business of Life. Today we have an extremely special guest and I'm so excited we have Dr Laura Akuenu. Is that correct?
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:Dr Akuenu Akinawanu. Oh goodness.
Dr Ariel King:Okay, I'm going to stop and start again. Hi, and welcome to the Business of Life.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:Today we have a very, very special guest, hi, welcome special guest Hi, welcome, hello, nice to meet you, dr King. I'm Lara Dr Kinowani and I'm a medical doctor in the United Kingdom, and I just want to start by saying thank you for inviting me to be on the podcast. I think it's a brilliant opportunity for me to talk a bit about myself, but also about things that I'm passionate about, about black health and how it's important, as a black doctor, to be an advocate for the health of our population. Um, so I'll start off by talking a bit about myself and how I became a doctor.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:oh, that would be great, thank you so, um, I think I started thinking about medicine when I was in year nine, which is like I don't know what the UK, so the US equivalent of that would be. But I think it's when you start choosing. You know your GCSE options and I knew I enjoyed science and I knew I enjoyed helping people, so it felt like a natural sort of option to choose. But, in particular, I was inspired by the doctors that have helped me and that looked after me. So, fortunately, when I was younger, I got into a road traffic accident and it meant that I had to spend quite a few days in the intensive care unit and it was obviously, as you can imagine, quite a scary experience. Experience, you know, for my parents to um have to go through that and, particularly because I was the first born, um, there was a lot, you know, at stake. So you know I'm a Christian and you know, glory be to God that I got through that. Um, and, you know, hearing the testimony my parents meant that I could, you know, see how important it is that, how important health care is, and how important overall that they have in general. So that's what inspired me to start looking at medicine as a career option.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:And then I got an offer to study in Wales and when I went to Wales and if you've ever been to Wales, it is a beautiful country, lots of beautiful landscape, lots of opportunity to practice rural medicine, which is not something that I'd ever considered, given the fact that I grew up in London and that's quite an urban area. So being dropped in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by sheep and fields, was something that I had to get used to, but something that I thoroughly enjoyed used to, but something that I really I thoroughly enjoyed. And I believe that in Wales, the, the medicine that they practice is very sort of outside of the box and very creative. Um, because you don't have a lot of the resources that you would have in an urban city area and also the population is very different. Um, it's a majority Caucasian population and with sort of small pockets or small neighborhoods that are um densely the minority ethnic. So depending on where you are would depend on the demographic or the type of conditions that you would come across. Um, but I thoroughly enjoyed my medical training um, and then I moved um back and started working as a doctor and I've rotated through a number of specialties in surgery and medicine and my current interest now is in paediatrics.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:So, coming back to what my other things, I've done as a doctor, I've tried to use my platform and um the roles that various roles that I've held, in order to platform issues that are specific to black health. Um, specifically, I spoke, I've spoken quite a lot about um, knife crime. Um, and the fact that you know we have to raise awareness and we have to treat this as a public health issue. Um, and having a public health approach, particularly to um issues in general, I think is something that I'm passionate about. So, um, looking at, you know, maternal, the increase in maternal death outcomes in black and brown communities. Looking at mental health in black and brown communities as well, it's important not to just have a prescriptive approach, just focusing on treating it, but also focusing on preventing, prevention and management as well, and often that involves engaging with communities, and something that I'm proud to have done is sort of engaging with my local community. So I've spoken about the importance of blood donation, organ donation.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:In the UK we have an up, have a system where you can opt out of organ donation, so just making people aware of their status. You can also volunteer to be a blood donor or to be a stem cell donor, and I think it's so important to raise awareness about these issues because it's a way in which we can serve our community. And I believe, coming back to the point about public health, it's all about serving your community and serving specific communities, as well as preventing conditions and preventing pathology. So organ donation and blood donation is one of the ways in which we can do that, and a lot of the time it's about debunking certain myths and making people realise that they actually know they can help, they can be a part of the solution and they can be someone who helps and serves their community. And in the UK, you can sign up to be a blood donor if you're over the age of 17, if you are a healthy weight and if you've got suitable veins and you don't have a certain number of other medical conditions.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:So a lot of um you know black and brown people would fall into that category, but haven't, you know, gone through that step of actually signing up to be a blood donor. So raising awareness is really important. Um, and particularly in the uk, um conditions such as sickle cell it is one of the you know growing um conditions, inherited conditions. It's one of the UK's largest growing genetically inherited conditions, meaning that blood transfusions from people within our community is even more important than it's even more important, and it's estimated that we're going to need a lot more, you know, back and brown blood donors in order to meet the increasing demand. So that, I think, is I think it's important with, regardless of what you do and where you find yourself, you find ways of serving your community, and I think becoming a doctor and using my platform to advocate for black and brown health issues has been a great way which I've been able to serve my community and also be part of a specialty that has helped me essentially be alive as well.
Dr Ariel King:Wow, that's just absolutely amazing. You've done so much. May I ask in general, are you seeing that there is a difference in the community? For example, we talked about various public health issues, right. So one is violence, specifically knife violence, but still violence. And then we're also talking about organ donation, blood donation. We're also talking about maternal child health, including those that are able to sustain pregnancies and then give birth, that are able to sustain pregnancies and then give birth. Is there a disparity or is there a difference between the European born or I shouldn't say European born, but European background, compared to those of the African, caribbean background or even Southeast Asian background? Is there a difference and, if so, how wide are those differences in the areas that most interest you, I should ask.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:That's a really good question and I'll first of all talk about the difference between immigrants and then first line or first generation. So people who, like they didn't, they weren't born in like where their parents had came from, but they grew up in this country, um, like, there is a lot of um learning that has to be done. So, particularly people who are sort of immigrants who've come to this country, um, they have their own sort of specific health challenges and it's in some ways a bit more difficult to engage with those communities, whereas if you, for example, were born and raised in a European country, even though your parents may be from Africa, nigeria or somewhere, you can much easily grasp or have a bit more intel into how to navigate the, the health service. Um, and often it's that that's the community that I'm from, I'm second gen or first gen, because I was born in this, born in the UK. It's often that community that is circling back to help um the people who were first-time immigrants in the country, and I think that's the same within the African, afro-caribbean and Southeast Asian communities.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:The biggest example I can give is during COVID-19, during the COVID pandemic, there was a lot of public health messaging that needed to go out and it was people who had been brought up in this country but spoke the language and knew the communities that were being most affected by COVID. They were the ones that sort of stood up, did translation of certain public health messages, were the ones to translate posters, leaflets about COVID-19, about the COVID-19 vaccine and how to stay safe, and made that accessible for immigrants and for people who may not have English as their first language. And that was just one small anecdote that is incredibly inspiring. Coming back to that idea of serving communities and then also coming back to the idea about the different health outcomes. And you had a second part of your question which I think I've yeah, that's such a great example.
Dr Ariel King:Thank you, I was wondering is there let's give the example of maternal child health, since most people, through the system that we have, many people have a general practitioner and then they're able to access the healthcare through the general practitioner and through specialists, so through the public health. Is there a difference between those from the European background community compared to, for example, those from Africa, southeast Asia, caribbean? Is there a difference? And, if so, may I ask, in your opinion, as a person that's done pediatrics and also to help with the community, why do you think there's a difference? And maybe even we can go as far as what do you think can be done about that difference? So maternal child health is a very good example.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:Yeah, so yeah, I completely agree about maternal child health, and in the UK we had a report called the Embrace Report, which spoke about the fact that black women in the UK close to three times more likely to experience or die from pregnancy related issues compared to white females, and that's quite a stonking statistic. And obviously there are a number of contributors to this disparity Racism, systemic racism being one of them. Socioeconomic factors just having a sense of cultural competency within the NHS service being one of them as well. Examples that we give about language barriers and that kind of thing, people coming forward with their health conditions and feeling safe within the health system that exists these are all contributing factors that result in such massive health disparities. So I guess the main thing to focus on is making sure that we're giving a voice to these women who are going through these issues, and often Black mothers will talk about their experiences through pregnancy and through childbirth and they'll talk about stories where perhaps they were in a lot of pain and the pain wasn't necessarily recognized or managed in a timely manner, and that's a contributing factor.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:Um, a lot of women talk about, maybe, the issues that they've had with mental health after giving birth, and we know that in the UK um a massive contributing factor towards, you know, postnatal death.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:There's postnatal depression, health issues, and we know that in the black community there's a lot of stigma around mental health and seeking help, particularly amongst black women.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:So there are a lot of areas that need to be addressed and I know that the government have been doing a lot of work looking at the embrace report and looking at how they can make sure that maternal services better serve black and brown communities, because it's absolutely appalling the bias that exists, the bias that exists um. I think this is why representation is important, which is why you know we need more black doctors, more black female doctors in every space, in every specialty surgery of the theatrics, for example because often it don't take someone who is of that ethnicity to be the one to flag up these issues and to represent our communities and to be outspoken and to raise issues. Unfortunately, uk, like maternal services, are in a poor condition and they're very fragmented depending on what trust you're in. So sometimes it does take you being the voice for the voiceless, essentially, and being the person who's going to stand up and make a change. You know, and audit, research, ways in which you can improve services thank you that that's such an important.
Dr Ariel King:Uh, I think that's such an important issue. You know, the birth right basically adding to the generations, adding to the population, adding to those that will be there to live life and to basically run the country, and you know, I think it's extremely important. May I ask how about after? You know? We talked about postnatal depression, but how about within the first year? Are there differences within the first year? I believe there was a time when you used to have health nurses or people that would go to the mother and child just to do some health checkups. Is that still happening now? And, if so, is that the same all across the board? Or, once again, do we see differences? And I'm asking about differences not to say, oh, things are so terrible, but just to have a basic understanding of what is it like for birth and the first year of life for these mothers and these babies.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:I think that's a very good question and I have to admit I'm not as well versed in as I wish I was. But what I can say is there are prenatal checkups, anti-natal checkups that do exist, but then the issue is engagement and access for this, and often that's where you will find the systemic inequalities present. So are black and brown women engaging with antenatal services, particularly those that are more at risk of having high blood pressure, diabetes during their pregnancy? Is it accessible for them? Often these appointments may require them having to travel to a specific centre and if you can't afford, or if you're in the early stages of pregnancy, you can't afford to have that time off work, then that creates an issue where you're more likely to miss those appointments. And because the health service is, you know it's free at the point of care um, but it's if you don't engage, it's very difficult for you to um for the to play catch up. So I think there are definitely areas within um the sequence between when a child, when a woman, becomes pregnant and period and after they give birth, where we see systemic um health inequalities and biases, um in that first year of life, um, I think in particular just making sure that, um, mothers and babies are engaging with, you know, general practitioners making sure that their children get their vaccines, for example, um, and that are engaging with the health service to make sure that their health, the well-being of them and their child is being looked after them.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:And often it does take you having to advocate for yourself in order to get things done, um, because sometimes it's very easy to fall through the cracks and you may not get that checkup call.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:You have to be the one who sort of does the advocating for yourself to make sure that you get certain things, um. Also, a lot of mothers may not be aware of the things that they're entitled to during pregnancy, so there may be financial things that you can have support with. You may have, you may be able to get discounts on, like dental care or receiving certain food vouchers and things like that, even support with child care as well. It's really important when you're a new mother with a new baby, and often it's about raising awareness about these issues so women don't feel so alone, um, which can also contribute to to health and well-being, um, in that for the mother and baby in that first year, first year of life. So, just to summarize, there are different points where, again coming to this point about serving your community, where we, if you raise awareness, we can definitely support women of our community to be advocates for themselves thank you, that's really.
Dr Ariel King:It's so inspiring. May I ask you? You said now you've turned your attention to pediatrics, so wherever you turn your attention, they're very lucky. So may I ask, um what part of pediatrics are you quite interested in now and just can you tell us more about that?
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:my interest in pediatrics started when I did my elective um in Namibia. I absolutely loved it. I think the reason why I wanted to do paediatrics is because all the people that inspire me, pediatricians I just thought they were just such cool doctors. I think never have you never, ever seen a specialty where they're such good communicators, they operate with such empathy and their medical knowledge is so vast in terms of understanding you know, the human body from when it's when the child is a neonate to when they go through their toddler ages and then they become an adolescent. And having to have such a good working knowledge of the human body as it's transforming and evolving, I think it's just mind-blowing. That's why I'm mainly interested in in peds, um, I'm not in this. To regards to what area? Pediatrics? Because I also have that interest in public health. I think I would like to one day sort of marry the two and public health issues within pediatrics. One one that comes up quite a lot is, you know, vaccination uptakes and vaccination programs, raising awareness about that. Another thing that comes up is, um, making sure that children are, you know, healthy at school and are they engaging in physical activity, are they getting breakfasts, are they having healthy meals.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:We've seen globally in fact that there's been in certain Western nations that there's been an increase in childhood obesity. I'm looking more closely into the reason why that is. You know there is an organisation called the Obesity Health Alliance which looks at obesity and the increase in the uk and looks at how certain things there's certain things that we can do to limit that from a public health approach. So simple things like advertising fizzy drinks and sugary drinks after 9 pm or during the times when children are going to be watching tv something simple that we can, that we can change better labeling on food as well, so people not just see what is high sugar and high fat, but actually what is ultra-processed and what is ultimately going to increase their risk of developing diabetes later on in life. So there's lots of things that interest me around paediatrics Public health, I would say, is one of them, and I'm definitely inspired by the different mentors that I've shadowed as a medical student and as a doctor in pediatrics.
Dr Ariel King:That's absolutely wonderful. I think you're going to do quite well. So, since you have focused on public health right, the health of the public and children, so the health of children within the public arena may I ask, do you have any plans, or would you like to have plans in the future to do more work outside of the UK? And also, can you tell us what your time was like in Namibia? That would be quite interesting what, what your time was like in Namibia.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:That would be quite interesting. Yeah, so I mean, working internationally is definitely something that I would love to do. I think you know different health systems work so differently. The NHS is a very specific system in the way that it works and operates and in some areas it's a leader in the way it serves the population, um, but I would love to work in um, particularly in other countries where their um pediatrics, their pediatric problems are quite different. But there are certain things that we don't necessarily see as much of in the uk but you're more likely to see if you were working in a lower to middle income lower to middle income country to see if you were working in a lower to middle income country. So, which is why I was interested in doing my elective in Namibia and I absolutely loved it, not just because of the weather but but because of the um, the variety of conditions that I saw and um, the incredible resilience of the clinicians that were working there. They were able to do so much with so little and, yes, I mean a lot of healthcare workers around the world are overworked and burnt out, but they just had this incredible resilience and strive and passion to make sure that their patients had the best care possible.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:I saw a lot of conditions that I didn't see or I wouldn't see if I was in the UK. So a lot of congenital heart conditions which we screen for in the UK in the antenatal period and can prepare a lot better for A lot of conditions like, obviously, things like sickle cell I saw a lot more of in Namibia malaria, yellow fever, those kind of things I saw more in children and I also saw a lot of sort of congenital health conditions as well as heart abnormalities as well as heart abnormalities and a lot of sort of genetic conditions where we don't really know what the genetic condition was, but we just were sort of managing it as and when, just monitoring the child as and when to see what, how we could help and best support the child. Um, which is quite interesting because often in other specialties you sort of have a diagnosis and you know what you're working with, whereas if it's a genetic condition that no one's come across before, then you're sort of managing things as they come along and it requires you to be a bit more forward thinking and a bit more innovative in how you manage and support that child. So, yeah, I think Namibia was a great experience, um, so, yeah, I think the movie was a great experience.
Dr. Lara Akinnawonu:I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to um travel just as a place to travel it's absolutely beautiful and someone who wants to do medicine. I would definitely recommend um the hospitals there and uh, yeah, it was. It was great. It was great. I wish I could go back if I have another one. Well, since, since it looks like you're going to be doing children and public, it was great it was great.
Dr Ariel King:I wish I could go back.
Dr Ariel King:Well, since it looks like you're going to be doing children and public health and marrying the two together, it is likely that, even if you're in the UK, you'll be doing international work and you'll be focused on people that come from other countries.
Dr Ariel King:As you said, there's a lot of immigration and also public health is usually international. So I want to thank you for this time we had together. It was absolutely invigorating learning what you're doing and learning about what's going on with children and also, just in general, with health care of people of African and Caribbean and South Asian descent, and it's really good to know that there are people like yourself that are out there so committed to the people that you work with, so committed to the community, young and amazing. So thank you so much for being with us, and I want to thank our audience. Thank you for joining us with the Business of Life and remember, if I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, then when? That's by Hillel and I say if not me, then who Go out and make it a very, very good day? Thank you.