Alumni Spotlight: Dr. Asia McIntosh
Dr. Asia McIntosh, a Trinity School of Medicine graduate, is the Medical Director of Palliative Care and Associate Hospice Medical Director at Baptist Health in Montgomery, Alabama. With a lifelong passion for medicine, she trained in Family Medicine and completed a Palliative Care fellowship at the University of Miami. Now working in one of the most emotionally demanding specialties, Dr. McIntosh is committed to compassionate care, system improvement, and mentoring the next generation of physicians.
What’s your academic background?
For undergrad, I went to the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. I obtained a Bachelor's of History with honors. I knew I wanted to do medicine even though I got a history degree. I made sure that even though I was pursuing a history degree that I took all the prerequisites needed for medical school.
What brought you into medicine?
I have a lot of family in medicine. My mother’s a nurse, and I’ve just had a lot of exposure to it. From an early age, I’ve known that I wanted to do medicine, so it’s always been my trajectory. In high school, I also participated in a work-study program so I could hang out with doctors, and that helped make it clear that that’s what I was going to do.
Where did you match?
I matched where I currently practice, in Montgomery, Alabama, at the Baptist Health Montgomery Family Medicine residency. Then, I pursued a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Care at the University of Miami.
What are you doing now?
Now, I am the Medical Director for the Palliative Care program and the Associate Hospice Medical Director at Baptist Health. After my fellowship, I decided to come back to Montgomery because my mentor was here, who taught me a lot about Palliative Care. I told myself I was going to chill and focus on symptom management and see patients while she did the “big girl stuff”. Little did I know that I would take on more responsibility than I imagined. Fresh out of fellowship, I had to take on a big girl job, which I’ve been doing for about a year and a half now. Once I got into it and got into the role, things started coming together, and I also have a lot of support. I realized that once you get into something like this, you find that you know more than you think you do. I often rely on my faith in God, family, and friends to get me through.
What is a typical day like as a medical director?
Busy. With how palliative and hospice care is, I see patients when they’re the sickest. I see the patients who are the most seriously ill, so that’s a very emotional experience. It’s very difficult. I see families and patients on the worst day of their lives, every day. So, I come into the office, meet with my nurse practitioners and my team, and we figure out who our consults are and who we’re going to see, and what symptoms need to be managed. Throughout the day, I see all the patients on our list. I have my own patients that I take on as well. Usually mine are the most complex. I may have administrative meetings throughout the day, and in the middle of that, have tough conversations with families about prognosis, trying to manage symptoms, transitioning people to hospice, etc. I do all the hospice admissions during the day, so it can get kind of busy.
Are you involved in any research?
Currently, I’m working on a lot of quality improvement projects at the hospital. I did work on a poster with my residents recently, and we presented it to the Healthcare Ethics Consortium at Emory University. It was about Medicaid costs and spending, and how that affects patients. It goes over how they’re not able to have access to the first-line treatments, and overall, their healthcare is worse, and they end up in the hospital again. If we could get on the front end and get Medicaid to cover these preventative measures at the beginning, we could save money from them coming to the hospital over and over again. Our poster for next year will highlight a specific measure, like colonoscopies at the hospital, and see how it’s affecting that population.
Why did you choose Trinity, and what ultimately helped you make the decision?
I applied to U.S. medical schools first and was having some difficulties. I also applied to Trinity, and things started to develop. The person I did my interview with really made an impression, and things just matched up from that point, and I knew that medicine was something I really wanted to do.
What was the transition like from Alabama to the island?
It was a pretty big transition. Leaving the country and living outside it for almost two years was a step up, but I feel like I had a lot of support around me. We had a welcome committee made up of term 4 students who greeted us at the airport. You also see other students who have figured it out, and so after the first month, it’s like normal. It just becomes second nature, like okay, this is how we live, and the goal is to become doctors.
During my time there, I was part of the library committee. Another student and I would go over the rules and make sure everyone had access to the resources they wanted. We also started a little store in the library so students could get school supplies and stuff like that. I also participated in some Village Doctor missions to help underserved areas of the island. I also participated in a World Pediatric project. It was a Neurosurgery mission. It was me and some other students, and we went there for the whole day. We saw all kinds of different pathologies, stuff that I haven’t seen since I was there. I think the experience at the hospital helped because it helps you relate everything you’re doing, and it shows you what you’re working towards. You can actually see the patient, and that's what you want to do, not just reading books about it.
What are the clerkships (rotations) like at Trinity? Where did you take them?
I completed my core clerkships in Baltimore, Maryland, and my elective clerkships in Georgia. My rotations in family medicine had a great Palliative Care team at the hospital where I’m working now. Even in Baltimore, I learned that I liked Hospice a lot. At Northwest Hospital, they had an inpatient hospice unit, and I spent a lot of time there, learning about hospice and symptom management and things like that. I took those experiences well, and that's what led me here.
Do you have any stand-out memories, stories, or experiences regarding your time at Trinity?
Taking trips on a catamaran in between terms and island hopping was so much fun. Exploring the island and the surrounding Grenadines was amazing. It’s just such a beautiful palace down there, and you don’t necessarily get to experience it all when you’re in your books, but then, when you get breaks, you get to see how awesome it is. It’s quite impressive.
What are you doing for fun these days?
Sleep. That’s the best thing ever. I watch movies, go out with friends, go out to a nice restaurant, and be in bed by a decent time. I also love audiobooks. I can hear an audiobook while doing other things, whether it’s driving or just relaxing.
What’s the best advice you’d share with a prospective Trinity student?
If you have decided that this is your path, Trinity has a good support system to help you throughout this journey. It’s not an easy process at all, regardless of what road you take, but Trinity has the support there, and they can produce some really good outcomes.
What are your future plans?
I’d like to create a fellowship program. I think that would be too cool.
If you’re interested in learning how Trinity can support your dream of becoming a doctor, we invite you to reach out to our admissions team today! Contact us here.
