About Doctor Chuck

Whether he is writing an essay on his early career as an island doctor, hiking on the Appalachian Trail, or sharing his misadventures in his boat, SAKAMO, Dr. Chuck Radis brings a singular perspective to his writing.

Following an internal medicine residency, the young doctor moved his family to Peaks Island off the coast of Maine to fulfill a Public Health Service obligation. His first two books, Go by Boat, and Island Medicine capture the challenges of a rural medical practice in which x-rays and advanced lab tests are available only on the mainland. When he traveled to the outer islands of Casco Bay for house calls, he relied on his physical exam skills and a tackle box of emergency medications to treat his patients.

Dr. Radis eventually left his Peaks Island medical practice for fellowship training in clinical immunology/rheumatology at the University of Pittsburgh’s Presbyterian University Hospital but returned to Peaks Island, where for more than three decades he has commuted year-round by boat to his mainland rheumatology practice. His children, Kate and Molly, attended the Peaks Island grade school--at 40 students, one of the smallest grade schools in Maine--before graduating from Portland High School, where more than 30 languages are spoken by immigrant and asylum students from Africa, Asia, and eastern Europe. His quirky wife, Sandi (originally a family therapist), spent 12 years working as a plumber/electrician on Peaks Island.

Since co-founding the Maine-African Partnership for Social Justice with Dan Crothers MD in 2013, his public health work has focused on South Sudan and Uganda. He has collaborated in a First-Aid course in Nyolo, South Sudan with Solo Schools, partnered with the Massachusetts General Hospital in a week-long traditional birth attendant program, and helped found a South Sudanese Women’s group and Youth Group within the United Nations refugee settlement in Norther Uganda.

In recognition of his commitment to public health, Dr. Radis has been named both the Louis Hanson Maine Physician of the year and Professor of the Year at the University of New England, College of Osteopathic Medicine where he is a Clinical Professor of Medicine.