BRONX TIMES REPORTER, A BTR PRIL 19-25, 2019 15
St. George’s University School of Medicine. Photo courtesy of St. George’s University
Caribbean medical school sends
21 graduates to Bronx hospitals
Nick Romagnoli, a St. George’s University
medical school graduate, is one of 21 newly
minted doctors who are in their residency
training that are being sent to borough hospitals
this year from the Grenadian school.
Photo courtesy of St. George’s University
BY PATRICK ROCCHIO
A group of graduates from a Caribbean
medical school are about to make
a big impact on the medical landscape
of the borough.
This year St. George’s University
School of Medicine in Grenada is sending
21 graduates to residencies, or postgraduate
training, at three local hospitals
in the borough.
The graduates are headed to Bronx
Lebanon Hospital, Lincoln Medical
Center, and Montefi ore Medical Center
– Albert Einstein College of Medicine,
said Dr. Richard Liebowitz, St. George’s
University vice-chancellor.
They will be doing their residencies
in pediatrics, surgery, psychiatry, internal
medicine and emergency medicine,
said Liebowitz.
The students were matched with the
hospitals where they perform their postgraduate
medical training by a computer
ranking system based on their
own preferences and the preferences of
the hospitals.
This means that many of the young
doctors headed to the borough selected
the local hospitals where they will
work, said Liebowitz.
“The students put in into their ‘rank
order lists’ places where they are happy
to train,” said Liebowitz. “So the 21 people
who have matched to the Bronx are
probably going to be very happy.”
Most of the students at the college’s
medical school come from the United
States originally, said Liebowitz, but
like the borough, they are also from a
diverse group of countries as well.
The college has a long history of
matching students to borough hospitals,
particularly to Lincoln Hospital,
said the vice-chancellor.
The fact that borough hospitals
took so many new residents from St.
George’s speaks well of the school, the
vice-chancellor believes, saying that it
shows graduates of the school have been
reliable.
He said he believes a lot of students
chose to work in urban environments
like the borough where there are sometimes
higher levels of poverty, because
of their strong commitment to social
justice.
One of the young doctors matched to
Lincoln Hospital, Nick Romagnoli, who
is about to graduate from St. George’s
University School of Medicine, said
that he was impressed by Lincoln’s
Emergency Department when he spent
a month there in August 2018 during
medical school. Romagnoli, who is
originally from the Washington D.C.
area, will be doing his residency in
emergency medicine at Lincoln.
Romagnoli said his experiences at
Lincoln Emergency Department and
elsewhere drew him to specialty.
He said he was especially impressed
by the camaraderie amongst the residents
at the Melrose-based hospital.
“Everybody was friendly, welcoming
and willing to help. It felt like a true
team effort there and I knew I would be
happy (at Lincoln),” said Romagnoli.
The future Lincoln resident and
soon-to-be M.D. said he is especially
happy to train at Lincoln because it is
a Level 1 trauma center, the highest designation
of trauma treatment.
“It is a great place to train because
being in the south Bronx….you get to
see this incredible display of diseases
and trauma,” he said. “So, as far as
emergency medicine goes, it is one of
the best places to train.”