Docs on the Bay

The improbable story of one man’s ingenuity and perseverance in overcoming an entrenched medical system and an array of unbelievable obstacles to rescue America from a crisis in healthcare—and become the most prolific educator of physicians now working in the US.

In the 1970s, the US faced a long-brewing physician shortage crisis. The American medical school system was far underproducing new members of this critically needed profession, even in the time of the Vietnam War. Charlie Modica, a second-generation immigrant from Long Island, was a victim of that crisis when he was denied one of the few seats available in the US programs. This is the unbelievable story of Charlie’s odyssey from that senseless rejection, through unimaginable circumstances—a coup, an American military incursion, a hurricane, and a volcanic eruption—to the ultimate redemption of forever reinventing the entire US medical profession, not only for himself but for the whole country. Necessity breeding invention has never been more demonstrated than by his unique creativity and his mythical tenacity to fulfill his destiny.