Adrianna Ramirez, MD, MPH, is a surgeon who specializes in treating thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal tumors, including those that are benign (noncancerous) and malignant (cancerous).
Dr. Ramirez says she couldn’t think of anything else she wanted to become other than a doctor when she was growing up. She would visit family in Venezuela each summer, where she was exposed to social injustice in the form of socioeconomic gaps that affected people’s health. “That drew me to be interested in public health and service, in addition to medicine,” Dr. Ramirez says.
After obtaining her medical degree, she pursued a master’s in public health. “I get a sense of appreciation and satisfaction from individual interactions with patients, but I also like to understand the processes that impact their health,” she says. “A common reason a patient will come to see me is because of a thyroid nodule or a newly diagnosed thyroid cancer. I need to understand not only their presentation symptoms and what we are going to do about it, but understand their social circumstances and their health literacy. Many of the diseases I work with can have a genetic component, which leads me to wonder if this person has other family or community members we need to screen.”
Dr. Ramirez says she was drawn to endocrine surgery in part because of how it involves multiple organ systems. “The field itself is multidisciplinary. I love that I get to work with colleagues from medical oncology, radiology, and pathology very closely,” she says.
The best part of her job, she says, is working with patients. “There’s just this incredible trust between a patient and a provider, and I respect that relationship so much,” she says.
Dr. Ramirez’s research focuses on issues related to access to endocrine surgical care. “Generally, that involves looking at large, population-based studies to see timelines of where patients are accessing care, where there might be delays, and where there are opportunities for improvement,” she explains. “I want to identify disparities in access as well as in outcomes. It’s not just treating the thyroid cancer, but treating the community, and empowering the community to engage in their health.”
