Having Practiced Medicine For 21 Years in U.S., Virgin Islands Surgeon Returns Home With Passion to Serve

The U.S. Virgin Islands is always in need of good physicians, a need that became more acute as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the heightened demand for medical workers. From nurses to doctors and their assistants, the USVI has been paying a premium to hire medical staff in recent times, many of whom leave when their contracts have expired.

In the case of orthopedic surgeon Dr. Jamil Jacobs-El, the story is similar but different. Similar in that the USVI continues to seek physicians and Dr. Jacobs-El is a much-needed addition. Different because unlike those who leave the territory when their contracts are done, Dr. Jacobs-El — who started his employment at Comprehensive Orthopaedic Global this month, a leading firm in the USVI — is moving home for good.

Dr. Jacobs-El was born in New York City and is the eldest of ten children of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Jacobs-El. The family relocated to Mon Bijou, St. Croix in the mid-1970s, where the second five of the siblings were born. He received his primary and secondary education on St. Croix, and attended the St. Croix Central High School then Good Hope School, graduating salutatorian in 1983. Dr. Jacobs-El spent several years on the St. Croix Dolphins swim team, then competed in cross country and track.

"To come home for me is something that I have been thinking about for several decades and making a full plan for," he told the Consortium in a recent interview. "So to return home for me is like a dream coming to fruition, and a chance to come back and return the favor of education and upbringing that the Virgin Islands gave me."

Dr. Jacobs-El received his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at Stanford University, CA. He then changed career direction and entered the MD-PhD program at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, with a thesis in molecular and cellular physiology.

His internship and residency in orthopedic surgery was done at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and that was followed by a fellowship at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

He has practiced in Durham, North Carolina, and for the last 20 years has taught surgery part-time at Jacobi Medical Center located in Bronx, New York, a Level I trauma center.

Dr. Jacobs-El is completing his 17th year of private practice at now-Advocate Aurora Health Legacy Dreyer Clinic in Aurora, IL in general orthopedic surgery with a focus on adult reconstruction/trauma (hip, knee and shoulder replacement, including complex cases), along with severe trauma.