For more than 14 years, the medical director of the Lauderdale Center for Student Health and Counseling, Dr. Steven Radi, has been dedicated to making a difference in the lives and wellbeing of students.
Radi arrives at his office at 7:40 a.m. Though he starts his day by reviewing labs and communication from students, Radi sees patients by 8 a.m., which he says accounts for 95 percent of his job.
“A college health service deals with the entire spectrum of medicine — basically, we see pretty much everything here, so it’s always interesting and it’s always busy,” said Radi. “It’s quite challenging at times, but it’s really been quite fulfilling, too. I find it fun every day, even after 14 years.”
Radi gives high praise to the staff members he works with, including nurses, nurse practitioners and counselors as well as other medical professionals and support staff.
"We all have the best interest of our students in mind every day, and it shows in our teamwork," said Radi. "I couldn't be working with a better group of professionals in caring for our students."
The Health Services’ staff provides routine primary care services such as immunizations and physical exams. Additionally, Health Services specializes in diagnosing and treating health problems common to students, most frequently cases dealing with upper respiratory infections.
“We like to use the phrase in medicine, ‘Common things are common,’ but it’s really true,” said Radi, “though we see some serious illnesses, too.”
This includes certain chronic conditions, which Health Services also specializes in managing. In his time as medical director, Radi has seen students with signs of acute cancers, leukemia, viral infections of the heart, collapsed lungs and more.
“When I talk to other physicians about doing college health and college medicine, they might say, ‘Oh, isn’t that kind of boring? Don’t you just see colds?’ And the answer is absolutely not,” said Radi. “I am always intrigued, often fascinated and always stimulated by the type of things that students have, and over these last several years, there have been a lot of concerning things.”
For Radi, this involves all of the recently confirmed cases of the mumps at Geneseo, which is the first significant infectious disease outbreak to occur during his time here. Through the campus’ preparation, Geneseo has been able to institute a comprehensive, campus-wide response to the outbreak, which Radi believes is a testament to the organizational structure within the Division of Student and Campus Life.
“It’s really a test of our ability to cohesively protect the campus health,” said Radi.
In addition to Radi’s motivation to help students with their physical health in all cases — including everything from the common cold to the mumps — Radi is also driven to support students in patient education.
“I like to say that this age, for many aspects of health, is the teachable moment,” said Radi. “Our students are coming in at the age of 17 or 18 and basically are on their own for the first time, and there’s an opportunity to really get a lot of messages across as far as healthy living is concerned and their futures.”
Educating students on health habits involves teaching them lessons that will follow the students for life, which inspires not only Radi, but all of Health Services, as they want to be known as the place to go to for expert care. This includes Geneseo’s counseling services, too, as the best way to take care of college students is in one combined department for health and counseling, according to Radi.
“A place to get comprehensive care and comprehensive information about your health — that’s what we want to be; we want our mission statement to reflect that and we want to live those words,” said Radi.
As such a motivated and community-minded medical director, Radi undoubtedly demonstrates the Lauderdale Center for Student Health & Counseling’s mission: to promote students’ optimal health, well-being and development through the provision of high quality, integrated and holistic health services.
Radi is a SUNY alumnus himself, having received his M.D. from SUNY Upstate Medical University and an associates degree from SUNY Farmingdale. He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell. Radi’s son, Michael, is a 2010 SUNY Geneseo musical theatre/English alumnus working in New York City as a writer, performer, musical director and vocal coach.