BALTIMORE (WMAR) — As students get ready to head back into the classroom, Johns Hopkins doctors are too.
They go in to promote health and wellness beyond the confines of the hospital and be a source of inspiration.
“I want the hospital and healthcare system to feel like they belong in the community and I want the community to see they belong here too,” said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, a Pulmonary and Critical Care doctor at Johns Hopkins Bayview.
Through the organization Medicine for the Greater Good, doctors like Galiatsatos teach about a variety of topics including lung health, vaping and COVID-19 with the goal of fostering partnerships and just maybe inspiring a few of them to consider health care as a future career.
“A big goal is to see more people like us, a son of immigrants from Baltimore City, making it into science as a physician. The proximity of being with these kids, the hope is can they become like as they get older and become like us because they met people like us,” said Dr. G.
While that impact will take just a few more years to see, Dr. G has already helped shape the next generation of doctors.
Olivia Veira was in her second year of teaching middle school science in south Baltimore when Dr. G first came to speak to her class.
“It was a really wonderful experience to have Dr. G to come to the classroom,” said Veira. “Our students really needed access to information about the health of their lungs, particularly in south Baltimore where the air quality is really low and the incidents of asthma are really high.”
She met Dr. G not only when her students needed the lesson, but when she needed advice professionally.
She slipped into their conversation that she was torn between teaching and going to med school and Dr. G became a huge source of motivation.
“As Dr. G show me, I don’t actually really have to choose. I can be in the clinic working with my patients and I can also engage community on a boarder scale and in a more preventive manner,” said Veira.
It was a hard choice to leave the classroom, especially with a teacher shortage but she helped find her replacement and is now studying at the Emory University School of Medicine.
She isn’t sure what specialization yet, but she wants to leave a mark just like Dr. G.
“While I miss my students so much and I’m fortunate to still have connections with them and to be able to reach out to them, I know that this is what it looks like for me to do right by them. Doing what I think I can be best at,” said Veira.
Dr. G hosts community conference calls every Friday if you’d like to ask health-related questions or get connected.
