Ask Dr. Scott: American University of the Caribbean transcends medical boundaries

Dr. Scott T. Anderson: Ask Dr. Scott

I flew to Miami May 17 with my family to watch my nephew receive his medical diploma from American University of the Caribbean.

Congratulations, Dr. Wade Castro Licup. Two days later, I was back in Fairfield.

Earlier voyagers contended with the need to find fresh water as they crossed North America. We suffered through security screenings, endless crowds and the battles for luggage space. Times change.

Florida’s ceremony exposed me to the next generation of doctors, once again.

I teach students and doctors-in-training at the University of California, Davis School of Medicine, but this was a transnational event. My last trip to AUC occurred when I participated in my nephew’s “White Coat Ceremony” four years ago. The students learned much in the intervening years.

AUC’s campus is located in St. Martin, an island situated in the Eastern Caribbean Sea. Students, in completing their studies, travel to sites in the United States to perform rotations in various specialties. Globalization marches onward.

Indeed, the roster of graduates hailed from many locations. We posed with photographs with other proud families from Thailand, the Philippines and Nigeria, for example.

It was a happy time. I noted that “The Star-Spangled Banner” was performed also, rendering an American imprimatur to the proceedings.

The graduates of AUC tend to favor primary care fields, such as family medicine and pediatrics. The list of graduate destinations included residencies in anesthesiology, surgery and other fields.

One of the concerns voiced by these young people surrounds cost. Specifically, they seem to incur large debts getting through medical school, well into the six-figure range.

How will the loans be repaid? Will they moonlight to make extra money? Will they go work in underserved areas? Time will tell.

The process of graduating is both solemn and celebratory, depending on the moment.

Graduates brought legions of family and friends, who competed to generate the most decibels. It was a wild scene, punctuated by periods of pomp and circumstance.

The Generation New Status Drum Corps, a traditional percussive band from St. Martin, provided a musical kickoff to the proceedings. The members, all children, announced their own medical school ambitions. We were uplifted.

Doctors in the audience were invited to recite the Declaration of Geneva, established by the World Medical Association in the post-World War II era. The original version of 1948 was updated most recently in 2006.

Physicians, old and new, invoked it together. To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, the torch of leadership seemed to be passing to a new generation. President Kennedy spoke to “friend and foe alike.” Only friends were present this time.

Miami, by the way, is bursting with energy. In Calle Ocho, we saw crowds playing dominoes, in front of a mural of world leaders.

We also congregated along the waterways of the city, watched the NBA finals in a sports bar, saw Lamborghinis on display in a high-rise lobby and feasted on Cuban cuisine.

My personal favorite was the Versailles restaurant, which boasts an interior decorated with ornate mirrors and a staff that was attentive and effortlessly bilingual. Our servers shared some insights into life in Cuba, particularly.

What will the future hold for AUC’s graduates? Checking my emails upon returning, I found notifications from various professional organizations detailing recent medical developments.

The World Health Organization released guidelines on preventing dementia. Public health experts are noting a lower birth rate than we have seen for a generation.

The opioid epidemic is raising consternation as we struggle to control post-surgical pain. These are just a few issues I came across from a Cleveland Clinic email newsletter.

Good luck, medical school graduates of 2019. Your work is cut out for you.

Scott Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., is a clinical professor at the University of California, Davis Medical School. This column is informational and does not constitute medical advice.