Leaving a legacy of great patient care and medical staff mentorship
Many years before becoming MaineGeneral Health’s chief medical officer, Dr. Steve Diaz began practicing locally in 1993 as a resident in the Maine-Dartmouth Family Medicine Residency (MDFMR) program.
Like his classmates who came to MDFMR not long removed from medical school, he had a lot to learn from the various clinical areas he rotated through – orthopaedics and sports medicine being two of them.
That’s when he really got to know Dr. Anthony Mancini who, along with Drs. Marc Golden and Jose Ramirez, would serve as mentors for him, and many other physicians, at various stages during his career.
As all three orthopaedic surgeons transition to retirement by the end of the calendar year, Diaz reflected on their long careers with deep gratitude.
“They all trained me over the years,” he said. “When he first came here, Tony took me and Dr. Chris Lutrzykowski under his wing as residents and we provided sports medicine care at Gardiner High School football games. For my formal education in orthopaedics, my primary assignment was to Jose. And then, when I started in the emergency department and learned how to become an emergency medicine doctor, I was the liaison to orthopaedics, so I met with all of them for many years and did fracture rounds with them.”
Diaz said the doctors’ impact has been significant and far-reaching.
“They’ve been iconic,” he said. “In addition to serving the community and its patients, they also provided incredible education, mentorship and support to the greater medical staff, especially in the ED, helping us learn to splint, reviewing our films and giving us feedback.”
“They really integrated themselves in the community and provided first-class service,” he added. “Now that they’re retiring, it’s really the end of an era, but they’ve set our orthopaedics service line up well for the future and we’ve very fortunate. They all had options where they could practice but decided to stay here, and we couldn’t be more grateful.”
