Need inspiration as you tackle your new year’s resolution list? Consider learning about Dr. Hassan A. Tetteh and his work. He has accomplished more in his 50 years than most of us can even dream of. Dr. Tetteh is a heart and lung surgeon, author, A.I. expert, Navy veteran, professor, poet, marathon runner, TEDx speaker, medical school lecturer, and entrepreneur. He is also a husband and father of two. But he’s not content to rest on his laurels – he’ll be working on several more projects in the near future.
First, a little more about Dr. Tetteh:
Tetteh’s parents, originally from West Africa, moved to Brooklyn where he was born and raised. He dreamed of becoming an artist but his father had a different vision for him: he wanted Hassan to become a doctor. However, months before he was to start medical school, he contracted bacterial meningitis and almost died. He believes focusing on becoming a doctor while sick gave him purpose and helped him get well. This experience led him to embrace the mind-body-spirit connection that has informed his medical practice ever since.
He did recover, earning his medical degree and then completing his general surgery residency at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.
Following his medical training, Tetteh joined the Navy in 1998. He spent 25 years in the service, having retired as a captain last summer. He reflects: “the uniqueness of serving in the military afforded me the opportunity to do things, which would have never happened if I was a civilian surgeon…such as going back to school and traveling to over 50 countries – it opened the aperture of my world view.”
He started his Naval career as a staff general surgeon at Bremerton Naval Hospital in Washington followed by two years as a carrier strike group surgeon on the USS Carl Vinson and deployment to the Persian Gulf. Dr. Tetteh advanced his education while in the Navy. He completed his thoracic surgery fellowship at the University of Minnesota, completed a mid-career MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School and finished an advanced cardiac surgery fellowship at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
In 2011, Dr. Tetteh earned an MBA in Medical Service Management from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. After graduation he endured eight grueling weeks in Camp LeJeune and was deployed to Afghanistan with II Marine Expeditionary Forces. Not surprisingly, the seven months he served as a combat surgeon, working and sleeping in a tent, was an eye-opener, even for someone used to the rough and tumble world of Brooklyn. Among his first casualties was a baby with a bullet in his heart. With other members of the surgical team he was able to operate on the child and save the baby’s life. However, soldiers suffering catastrophic injuries continued to present with a heartbreaking frequency.
Returning to the States Dr. Tetteh never slowed down, and worked as a cardiothoracic surgeon at Walter Reed and MedStar Washington Hospital Center. He joined the Washington Regional Transplant Consortium, serving as a heart and transplant surgeon. He founded and previously led a Specialized Thoracic Adapted Recovery (STAR) Team in Washington, DC, and his research in organ transplantation aims to save lives.
He also taught at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine, at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) and as an adjunct professor of surgery at Howard University School of Medicine. He somehow found time to serve as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and was a visiting scholar at the Congressional Budget Office.
Not content with just practicing an extremely demanding form of surgery he expanded his horizons yet again, participating in the Harvard Medical School Writers' Workshop and Yale Writers' Conference. He created The Art of Human Care book series, and wrote several best-selling books, including Gifts of the Heart.
According to Dr. Tetteh, his last assignments in the military were among his best. During a two-year assignment as the Command Surgeon for the National Defense University, Tetteh earned an MS in national security strategy with a concentration in artificial intelligence with the National War College. His tour provided him an opportunity to travel to 16 countries within a year, including trips to Jordan, Abu Dhabi, Egypt, and Israel. He subsequently served as the Chief Medical Informatics Officer for the Navy and was then recruited to serve as the Warfighter Health Mission Chief for the Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center at the Pentagon.
After retiring from the Navy last August, Dr. Tetteh reflects on what to do next. Ever the planner, he has written a mission statement: “To inspire, to serve, to heal, to teach, to lead, and to create.” He adds, “I want to make an impact and I want to be an inspiration -- whether it be an inspiration of someone saying ‘I read your book’ or a student saying ‘I heard you lecture and you made me think a certain way because of what you said.’”
He sold his STAR Teams (heart and lung transplant) practice but will continue to work in heart and lung transplantation. He plans to bring a Nautical Bowls franchise, a healthy, quick-service restaurant serving acai bowls and superfoods, to Maryland. He is working on a new book with Forbes called Smarter Healthcare with AI. He intends to stay active on the three boards he currently serves on: The David Lynch Foundation, Mentoring in Medicine, and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health.
Recognizing that it is necessary to keep healthy himself while serving others, he has always kept fit. To date, he has finished 24 marathons – including the recent Boston Marathon – and completed his first half-distance IRONMAN over the summer. He is now training for a full-distance IRONMAN. All bets are on that he accomplishes this goal with a flourish!