After living all over the world, Adeboye “Boye” Ogunseitan, M.D., M.S., the new chief of the Division of Supportive Medicine in the Department of Supportive Care Medicine, is ready to make Southern California — and City of Hope — his home.
Dr. Ogunseitan was born in Lagos, Nigeria, but he did not stay there long. His father, a military officer, held various posts throughout the country during Dr. Ogunseitan’s childhood, so the family moved around a lot. Eventually, he was sent to a military boarding school to complete his primary education.
“Boarding school helped me understand that to succeed in anything, you have to have focus, perseverance and a sense of personal as well as group responsibility. You align with the values and the mission of that group, and you play your part to make sure the group succeeds,” Dr. Ogunseitan said.
That lesson has stayed with him throughout his medical career, where dedication, resilience and a sense of duty to patients, colleagues and the broader community are essential.
A Passion for Medicine Takes Hold
After earning his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Lagos, Dr. Ogunseitan found his way to the U.S. for graduate school.
“Nigeria was going through a rough patch at the time. We had a nascent democracy that had been overthrown by the military. For someone my age then, staying in a military dictatorship kind of felt very confined. It felt like if you wanted to do more with your life, you had to get out,” he explained.
Dr. Ogunseitan moved to England with plans to get his Ph.D. in chemistry, but the gray, wet weather was a rude awakening. He applied to universities in the U.S., ultimately choosing the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Dr. Ogunseitan was excited about the prospect of pursuing a career in basic science while embracing the Hawaiian lifestyle. However, he did not yet realize that his time in graduate school would ultimately change the course of his career.
During his graduate studies, Dr. Ogunseitan completed a summer fellowship with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health. This opportunity got him thinking about medicine as a career.
“Being at the NIH and seeing where science got translated to health care and its impact on people’s lives made me switch my mindset,” he said. “The lab I was in was run by a physician, and many of the people who worked there were physicians, so I saw that doctors could also be scientists,” he said.
With a new vision for his career, Dr. Ogunseitan finished the program with a master’s degree in analytical chemistry and then left to pursue his dream of becoming a physician.
Specializing in Supportive Care Medicine
Living in Hawaii made navigating the medical school application process logistically challenging. Dr. Ogunseitan had to fly to the mainland to visit universities and conduct in-person interviews, which was costly and time-consuming. Additionally, he got married during graduate school, and his wife was living in London. So, he moved back to the U.K. to be close to her while continuing to apply to medical schools in the U.S.
All those interviews eventually paid off, and Dr. Ogunseitan and his wife uprooted their lives to a new city yet again — this time, Chicago. Dr. Ogunseitan chose the University of Illinois in Chicago for medical school and then went to the Mayo Clinic for his residency, where his interest in supportive medicine blossomed.
“Medical school and medical training have changed quite a bit, but supportive care never really came up when I was in school. It was during my residency, when I saw people from all over the world who had been told there was nothing more we could do for them, that I realized its importance,” Dr. Ogunseitan said.
“You still had to care for everybody who showed up, regardless of their prognosis. Mayo had a palliative care group that was there exactly for that. They cared for everyone who showed up, regardless of whether their outcomes could be changed.”
Seeing supportive care in action reminded Dr. Ogunseitan of an experience he had had with a terminally ill loved one years before.
“I think back to when I was in London, when a very close friend of mine was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. He was a medical student himself and was in his last year of medical school when his diagnosis was made. He spent the last eight months of his life at Saint Thomas' Hospital in London, where those of us in his circle of friends visited every day we could,” Dr. Ogunseitan said.
Witnessing his friend's battle with cancer, Dr. Ogunseitan realized the emotional toll such a diagnosis can take, not only on the patient but also on loved ones. Despite their close proximity and frequent visits, the lack of open communication about his friend's prognosis left him unprepared for their final moments together.
“He ultimately died from his cancer. I didn't know he was dying until the day he died, even though we had visited the hospital almost every day for about a year. Nobody talked to or prepared his family. One day, I called his wife and was joking around with her, and she stopped me. She said, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have it in me right now. He’s dying,’” Dr. Ogunseitan recalled.
“I dropped everything and went to the hospital and sat with him. I watched him die, and all I could think about was the people who looked after him for the past year and how they did not prepare us.”
The memory of Dr. Ogunseitan’s friend remained with him throughout his residency, during which he realized the critical need for supportive care, not just for managing pain and symptoms but also for offering guidance and emotional support to families. It inspired his deep belief in the importance of clear communication and compassionate care during the most vulnerable times in a patient’s life.
Supportive Care at City of Hope
In 2006, Dr. Ogunseitan joined Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, where he remained until moving to City of Hope. City of Hope’s strong reputation among his peers and commitment to supportive medicine appealed to Dr. Ogunseitan. So, when it was time for him to trade in the Midwest for the West Coast, he knew where he wanted to be.
At City of Hope, the Division of Supportive Medicine, of which Ogunseitan is chief, is housed within the Department of Supportive Care Medicine, led by Andrew Leitner, M.D., the Arthur M. Coppola Family Chair in Supportive Care Medicine. The division is comprised of doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses and clinical staff who work with patients, families and the patient's primary health care team to help improve quality of life and keep patients comfortable at any point during their treatment.
The Department of Supportive Care Medicine includes the Sheri & Les Biller Patient and Family Resource Center as well as 12 other divisions and clinical programs. These divisions include interventional pain management, psychology, psychiatry, clinical social work, spiritual care services, the Positive Image CenterSM and more. Together, they collaborate to provide comprehensive, patient-centered care that addresses the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of patients.
Dr. Ogunseitan was attracted to City of Hope not only for its philosophy of whole-person care but also for its remarkable history and recent expansion across the U.S.
“To go from a place that started out looking after people with tuberculosis and trying to give them somewhere to go when nobody else would take them to evolving into a national powerhouse in cancer care is incredible. And now, to see that shining campus in the desert grow to different parts [of the country] is inspiring.”
Building on this legacy, Dr. Ogunseitan envisions a future where each patient’s overall health, lifestyle and comfort are prioritized in all medical decisions, regardless of their prognosis. He also hopes to forge stronger connections with the community so that people know that City of Hope is a compassionate and inclusive treatment center, filled with medical professionals who are committed to putting the needs of the patient first.
“My vision for our group is to continue ensuring that for every patient who comes through the doors of City of Hope, their quality of life and well-being are at the center of every health care decision we make. This is not just for people who have to begin end-of-life care — it is for all of our patients,” he said.
“More broadly, my goal is to treat our patients not just as people but as members of a family and members of a larger community. Community engagement and community-based care is a core part of who I am. It is where I want to take our division. That work is already been done here, but I want to make that one of our central focuses so that we're engaged with and plugged into our community.”
Working in supportive care has profoundly shaped the way Dr. Ogunseitan approaches life beyond the hospital walls as well. His work serves as a powerful reminder to embrace every moment and make the most of the time we have on this earth.
“Having a mindset of gratitude is important. Gratitude that we get to play a role in the lives of people during this serious time in their lives. Gratitude that the work we’ve done has purpose and meaning,” he said.
“We must go out and be human and live. I recognize that a core part of what we do is trying to give people time. You're trying to extend their lives so they can do things they’ve always wanted. You can't live with that all day at work and then not value the time that you have outside of it. You have to go out and enjoy the time you’ve been given.”
The Department of Supportive Care Medicine at City of Hope was the first in the United States to fully integrate across supportive care specialties and into the patient’s clinical care and is one of the largest programs of its kind today. The program provides cancer patients with comprehensive physical, psychological, social and practical support services, including care navigation; survivorship programs; specialists in cancer and aging; child life specialists; psychological and spiritual counseling; pain management; integrative medicine, such as yoga, massage and meditation; and more — all with a focus on maximizing patient and family strengths, quality of life and the ability to best engage in their treatment journey and beyond. Thanks to a gift from The Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation, City of Hope is working to expand this offering across its cancer care system and to advocate for establishing supportive care as a standard best practice for cancer care in the United States.