Being an entrepreneur and a physician is no easy task, but Dr. Benedict Nwachukwu is proving that success in both business and medicine is possible. Dr. Nwachukwu is an orthopedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS). He has spent much of his career caring for athletes and professional sports teams, including the Brooklyn Nets, NY Liberty, Chicago Bulls and the White Sox. He is also the co-founder of the digital health platform, Best In Class MD (BICMD), and the Team Physician of the Brooklyn Nets & NY Liberty. Tune in to hear how  Dr. Nwachukwu balances his busy medical & entrepreneurial career.

JUMP STRAIGHT INTO:

(01:49) - Ben’s early inspiration - “When I had the opportunity at 16, I volunteered in a hospital in my mom's hospital, actually, where I assisted in certain patient care duties and started immersing myself in healthcare and really got the bug there.”

(05:28) - Making the decision to get his MBA - “I knew that that actually was something that made it the right decision because ultimately change is hard and to do the right thing you often will meet resistance. And so that gave me the courage to do it.”

(09:06) - What it takes to be an innovator - “I would say that if I could go back to a younger me, and if I could give advice, I would say take better advantage of cultivating the relationships and the networks at business."

(18:31) - Betting on yourself: The challenges and failures Ben had to face to get where he is - “You know, up until this point, and even this very day, you have sort of your micro failures and macro failures that you have to push through. ”

(23:04) - Best In Class MD: Ben’s new platform and how it came to be - “I had been thinking of this idea in residency, around the idea of how do you improve connectivity in orthopedic surgery, ”

(32:59) - Walking both worlds: Finding the balance between being an entrepreneur and physician - “We do track to make sure that, you know, I'm still a good doctor while I'm still a good entrepreneur, so you have to balance and you have to hold yourself accountable to be a good doctor.”

(32:29) - The next steps (+Pizza talk!) - “I think that at this point we are a great solution for, you know, expert medical opinions, medical record reviews. Our goal is to evolve, to be a care manager, care management company.”

EPISODE RESOURCES: 

Connect with Ben on LinkedIn

Learn more about Best in Class MD

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The Slice is produced by Sterling Shore and Rachael Roberts at StudioPod Media, and Shauna Davis at Osso VR. Engineered by nodalab.