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The campus is beautiful.
The people here are some of the most friendliest people I've ever met.
It seems like everybody's so friendly and everybody's new here.
Who knew becoming a physician could be so enjoyable, so picturesque, or so rewarding.
Well, for thousands of physicians around the world who proudly call St. George's University
their alma mater.
It's a well known fact.
Joining me now is St. George's University President, Dr. G. Richard Olds.
I'm so excited to have you here today.
It's great to be here.
Oh, Dr. Olds, I mean, St. George's is an international medical school based in Grenada.
Beautiful place.
Tell us more about your history and your curriculum.
Well, the school was started in 1976 by Chancellor Modica, who himself didn't get into a med
school in the United States and ended going to med school in Spain in Spanish.
He only completed the first year and ended up going to Law School.
But he always felt that there was a need for a medical school that taught in English that
would help prepare students for careers throughout the world including the United States.
And he started St. George over 40 years ago.
And let's talk about international medicine and the role St. George's plays in that.
Well, there's a few things we should always think of internationally.
You know, AIDS and certainly most recently Ebola points out that there is no healthy
problem in this world that isn't all our health problems.
So, health problems in general are international.
The other thing to remember is that we're very proud in this country of the fact that
we have very high tech and very high quality medicine.
But statistically speaking, we don't do so well.
We're very expensive and compared to many industrialized countries, we don't get as
good in outcomes.
The combination of learning the best of what we do in the United States and learning many
lessons about what other countries in the world do is probably the best education for
physicians for the future.
And how does St. George's University really differ from other universities?
Well, I would think the most important thing about St. George is our commitment to student
success.
Everyone talks about student success, but you know, some schools have more of the old
law school approach.
They take 100 students and they expect a third of them to flunk out and they teach the rest.
And they're happy with that.
Every student that we pick we're committed to them ultimately not only completing their
medical education but getting a residency to complete their training.
We even start in the front end.
If we have a student that we think would make a great doctor but we're not sure they're
ready for med school, we'll actually accept them in our undergraduate university and guarantee
them a spot in the med school if they maintain the right grade point.
That's so great.
Then the in-med school, per se, we spend a lot of time and energy helping each and every
student get through the curriculum.
It's hard to become a doctor and students learn in different ways.
But we spend a lot of time and energy making sure that every student that we accept makes
it through.
And then at the end, we actually do quite well in getting our doctors into residency
training programs.
Over 90% of our grads get in first-attempt...
Oh, that's incredible!
…into an ACGME accredited program.
But the small number that don't make it through, we actually work with them for the next year
or two free of charge to make sure that they also --
Did you just say free of charge?
Yes.
Free of charge.
Nobody does that.
We do not.
Nobody does that, but St. George's does that.
How are these SGU Doctors making a difference?
Well, first of all, I think many people don't realize how big the numbers are.
1% of all the doctors practicing in the United States are St. George graduates.
Woo!
We represent a very significant part of the man power in our own country, and because
we teach not only in the United States, but we teach in England and we have teaching activities
throughout the world, we have both students from about 140 different countries and we
place students as practicing physicians all across the world.
That is just incredible.
And now let's take a look at what one SGU medical student has accomplished.
My name is Brian Boyarsky and I'm a 3rd year medical student at St. George's University.
I helped develop and write the HOPE Act, the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act.
Transplanting organs from HIV positive donors into HIV positive recipients has the potential
to impact thousands of people each year.
The HOPE Act was signed by President Obama in November of 2013.
I'm incredibly proud to have been part of the process.
Wow.
Dr. Olds, it sounds like Brian's achievements really represent those of so many St. George
students and graduates.
Are people surprised at the quality of education they're getting?
Well, I don't think they are if they've had exposure to our graduates before.
I spent most of my professional career in the United States in U.S. based medical schools,
and I have taught many St. George graduates.
And so I knew they were a very high quality.
But because we have a campus in Granada for the first two years and then we train our
students in the United States and England for their last two years, if you get contact
with our students, you know our students.
But if you don't, you may assume that all international students are the same, I certainly
don't think that's true.
Okay, I just want to visit Granada and see the school there.
I don't really care about the U.S. and England.
I'm just kidding.
What an amazing place, you're doing amazing work.
Thank you so much.
And where can our viewers find out more information?
Well, probably the best place is to go online.
We have our own SGU.EDU website and you can find out about applying for medical school.
And remember, we're more than just a medical school.
We have a veterinary school, a college of Arts and Sciences, and a graduate school that
gives among other things a Master's of Business Administration and a Master's in Public Health.
Well, that's excellent, Doctor.
Thank you so much for being here today.
It was such a pleasure to hear about St. George's.
Wonderful.
And remember, you can always logon to TheBalancingAct.com for more information, and don't forget to
follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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