Dr. Germaine Owen. Photo Credit: WOMEN IN BUSINESS VI & CARIBBEAN INC.
At just 16 years old, Germaine Owen left St. Croix for college—a bold step made possible not only by academic promise, but by the unwavering support of family.
In a heartfelt appearance on The Laura Show, Dr. Owen reflected on her journey from a Central High School graduate to a Johns Hopkins-trained physician, crediting her mother’s decision to move the entire family to Baltimore as a pivotal act of love and sacrifice. That move, she recalled, kept her family close and grounded her through the formative years of her education.
“I want to say thanks to my mom…for having the wisdom of letting us leave for Baltimore as a family,” Dr. Owen said, recalling how her mother moved the entire household from St. Croix to Maryland so she could attend Johns Hopkins University with family support close by. She described the move as both a sacrifice and a wise decision—one that kept them united during a pivotal chapter in her life. “We stayed as a family unit, and the support was just down the street,” she added.
The cycle of caregiving has come full circle to and through the physician, she noted, describing a mother who now lived with her children, and a medical practice tailored around patient needs.
The idea of making home visits a central part of how she interacted with patients came from a graduation gift given by her cousin, Dr. Owen said. “I didn't know what I was going to do with this doctor's bag, but I was really grateful for it. Somewhere along the line, a thought came up: ‘I'm gonna do home visits.’ I really think that this was the seed that started that concept,” Dr. Owen explained. “I don't even know where I got that concept from, but I think this bag was a seed.”
She explained to host Laura Forbes that she found this aspect of her practice perhaps “the most satisfying thing that I do.” While she loves her work at the hospital, Dr. Owen says she feels that her home visits are fulfilling a “critical need,” particularly for elderly patients – one which will only increase as time goes by.
Dr. Owen has also found a way to prove care from a distance. She explained that over her years of experience as a physician, as well as her time spent as a cancer patient herself, she became acutely aware of the gaps in knowledge between the healthcare bureaucracy and a patient trying to navigate an often obtuse system while grappling with a life-changing diagnosis. She therefore decided to write a book about it.
“I didn't want anybody to ever say, ‘I wish I had known,’” Dr. Owen said. “I hear that so many times. All the things I could think about, I put into that book. All the angles come from personal experience,” she noted. In the book, she advocates for trust in health and medical science, something that many people hesitate to do when it comes to oncological care. “God has given doctors wisdom, he's given scientists wisdom,” she argued. “Even the research scientists…they spent years in a lab so that we could have the information so our lives could be better…we shouldn't look down on that,” she declared.
From a patient's perspective, the book, "Doc, What Would You Do In My Shoes?", is about figuring out how things work when undergoing care, perhaps confined to a hospital bed. “This book came out of this caregiving,” Dr. Owen said. "Out of doing the home visits and seeing the things that worked well in the homes and things that didn't work well.”
The perspective of a caregiver was captured as well, once again from Dr. Owen's personal experience. “I want to help people anticipate the mental and the physical and all the things that go into caregiving, because a lot of people feel alone in it,” she mused. “There are a lot of caregivers here who are alone.”
Dr. Owen hopes that the preemptive answers in the book can make caregivers and patients alike feel more supported in their healthcare battle.
