Doctor of Medicine MD Program
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Table of contents A message from the president and dean.................................1
Year 1: This community’s medical college Caring for the community..............................................................2 Year 1 curriculum............................................................................... 4
Year 2: Grounded in science Research opportunities..................................................................6 Year 2 curriculum..............................................................................6
Year 3: Regionally engaged, nationally relevant Year 3 curriculum: Longitudinal integrated curriculum...............................................................................................10 Regional campus model...............................................................14 Regional impact................................................................................17
Year 4: The continuum: ready for residency Year 4 curriculum........................................................................... 22 Match maker.................................................................................... 24
GME enriches the UME experience.................................... 28 Faculty............................................................................................... 30 Preventing burnout with ePortfolio....................................31 Abigail Scholars Program........................................................ 32 MD Class of 2023 profile...................................................... 32 Apply...................................................................................................33
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine educates aspiring physicians and scientists to serve society using a community-based, patient-centered, interprofessional and evidence-based model of education that is committed to inclusion, promotes discovery and utilizes innovative techniques.
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine is committed to non-discrimination in all employment and educational opportunities.
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
A message from the president and dean Healthcare is changing. Interprofessional teams, rather than disconnected individual providers, now deliver care. Technologies like electronic health records and gene sequencing are necessary tools rather than novelties. The very foundation of medicine has shifted to focus on wellness, rather than disease intervention, and there’s a growing recognition that people don’t stay well or get sick in a vacuum. Neighborhood, income, education — these all play a vital role in health that physicians must understand before they can see and treat the whole person. Tomorrow’s physician must be equipped to approach medicine on both a macro and a micro level — to be capable of discerning and helping to cure the systemic, societal causes of disease, as well ready to render compassionate care rooted in the Geisinger values of kindness, excellence, safety, learning and innovation. For this reason, in addition to the MD, Geisinger offers an outstanding degree program in nursing and a master’s degree in biomedical sciences and a professional science master’s degree. We also have more than 500 residents and fellows, comprising 31 accredited residency programs and 23 subspecialty fellowship programs, which encompass Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education physician programs as well as dental, podiatry, pharmacy and more. We are dedicated to providing education that will make our learners leaders of the healthcare teams of the future, which is why our MD students often work side by side with learners from these other programs. As a young school born of innovation and integrated with a health system routinely held up as a national model of excellence for person-centered care, Geisinger offers a unique and distinct medical education. Leveraging Geisinger’s acclaimed clinical and technological strengths — including its international prominence in genetics and genomics — we emphasize active learning, early clinical exposure and community engagement to address social determinants of health from day one. That’s why Geisinger Commonwealth graduates are known for their brilliance and their caring — for authentic empathy coupled with superior clinical skills and knowledge, all accompanied by an unparalleled ability to connect with patients. This is the kind of doctor who will lead the healthcare teams of the future. If this is the future physician you’d like to be, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine is the place to learn. Sincerely,
Steven J. Scheinman, MD President and Dean of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine Geisinger Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
This community’s medical college
Year 1
Caring for the community There’s a space in medicine where encyclopedic scientific knowledge and finely tuned clinical skills can’t reach. It’s the space where a physician connects with patients, beyond their collection of signs and symptoms — on a human level, where true communication occurs. As medicine’s technological complexity increases, so does the need for practitioners who effortlessly inhabit this infinitely more fundamental space. At Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, we call that space caring. And, along with mastery of medical knowledge and clinical skills, it forms the basis of our MD curriculum.
It begins with a focus on the student Geisinger Commonwealth’s medical education blends tradition with invention. Our curriculum honors the century-old mandate that students gain experience and expertise in basic and clinical science, but it also capitalizes on the learning advantages inherent in being part of a dynamic, fully integrated health system that sets the standard for medicine’s new focus on improving outcomes through initiatives in population health and the novel use of technology. All of this begins, however, with the student. Throughout their four years at Geisinger Commonwealth, students engage in professional identity formation that asks them to look within and begin to build a core of values and priorities. This core is something students can rely on to replenish their mental and spiritual reserves, and something that will keep them connected
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program to their ideals when the strenuous pace of medical education — and later medical practice — can seem overwhelming. Throughout their time at Geisinger Commonwealth, through a variety of assignments and experiences, medical students are continually challenged to envision and to plan for not just what kind of doctor they want to be, but also what kind of person.
Putting the patient at the center of medicine At Geisinger Commonwealth, students spend time with real patients right away. Through our Family-Centered Experience Program, students take a break from studying anatomy, physiology and molecular biology to meet with their assigned family — community volunteers who agree to allow medical students into their homes and lives to be up-close witnesses to what it’s like for a family to cope with chronic and debilitating illness. Students forge close bonds with the families and often accompany them
to various appointments to see firsthand how fragmentation and communication barriers in the health system can impact well-being. Experiencing medicine from the patient’s point of view is a life-altering experience and an essential piece of learning to put patients at the center of healthcare.
Community immersion: The view from 30,000 feet During their first two years of medical school, Geisinger Commonwealth students have a chance to change a community and, in the process, gain the tools and learn the strategies necessary to enhance population health anywhere. Through Experiential Learning in Community Settings (ELICS), students spend time in a specific community and get to know the residents and their unique problems. In addition, they work with partner agencies and healthcare providers (including all members of an interdisciplinary team) to identify population health challenges endemic
to the community. The pinnacle of the experience, however, is the Longitudinal Community Health Intervention Project (L-CHIP). Mushfiq Tarafder, PhD, director of Preventive Health and Community Studies and associate professor of epidemiology, said that L-CHIPs offer students a community health research project that not only targets a large enough population, but also follows it over enough time to collect meaningful data that can be analyzed to determine an intervention’s effect. “The main idea is to give students real contact with community and incorporate hands-on experiences with population health. These are robust projects meant to have lasting impact. The students build intervention projects in collaboration with our partner agencies and they go through every step: literature review, planning, IRB approval, recruiting participants and collecting and analyzing data. This experience is something they can take with them anywhere, and the lessons learned translate to any community,” he said.
Fast fact: Geisinger Commonwealth students completed 15,960 hours of service in academic year 2018–2019.
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
The humanities and medicine Students choose medicine because they want to help people, but sometimes the rigors of medical education put distance between that altruism and the immediate demands of passing exams and fulfilling academic requirements. At Geisinger Commonwealth, we acknowledge the importance of keeping the philanthropic flame alive in our students. One way we do this is by threading humanities throughout the curriculum. Our students are called upon to write and reflect frequently. They are also immersed in community and get to know agency and service providers who serve as continual reminders that patients have full lives and needs beyond medicine that impact their well-being. They are also invited to read and discuss books — like Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal — that explore the idea that healthcare outcomes are measured just as accurately by patients’ perceptions as they are by scientific evidence.
“ The ideal modern doctor should be neither paternalistic nor informative but rather interpretive, helping patients determine their priorities and achieve them.” —T he New York Times’ Sunday Book Review of Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, Nov. 6, 2014
Year 1 curriculum Students spend their first two years primarily in Geisinger Commonwealth’s North Campus location, studying basic sciences. Courses are designed to address the interface of patient, physician and society, and introduce clinical thinking and decision-making in today’s socioeconomic and cultural environment. During first year, the focus is gaining a core understanding of the structure and function of the human body.
Year 1
Physician & Society
Case-based Learning 1
January
Human Structure & Function
HSF
Patient-centered Medicine
PCM
Physician & Society
Case-based Learning 1
PAS
CBL 1
February
March
HSF
Foundations
PCM
PCM
PAS
CBL 1
PAS
CBL 1
Apr Experiential Learning in Community Settings
Patient-centered Medicine
December
Spring Break
Orientation
Cellular & Molecular Basis of Life
November
Experiential Learning in Community Settings
October
Winter Break
September
Experiential Learning in Community Settings
August
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N
Pa
Phy
Case
Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
Experiential Learning in Community Settings
April
May
June
July
Neuroscience
Patient-centered Medicine Vacation & Other Activities Physician & Society
Case-based Learning 1
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Year 2
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Grounded in science
Research opportunities Medical research today is much like physics, focusing on things both galactically enormous and so small we can only infer their existence. On the macro side, medical researchers believe population health is the key to subduing modern-day scourges like high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as the growing problems of addiction and suicide. Yet even as medicine zooms out to consider the health of entire populations, it is also going micro, with the advent of precision medicine through genomics. At Geisinger Commonwealth, researchers are on the cutting edge of these disciplines and everything in between.
Year 2 curriculum The second year of medical school lays the foundation for the clinical experiences of the third and fourth year. The educational theme shifts to the study of illness, with a focus on the body’s 12 organ systems and processes. Courses continue to address the interface of patient, physician and society and introduce clinical thinking and decisionmaking in today’s socio-economic and cultural environment.
Year 2
Gastrointestinal
The Art & Practice of Medicine
Case-based Learning 2
January Systems II
Renal
Cardiopulmonary
Hematology
The Art & Practice of Medicine
Case-based Learning 2
The Art & Practice of Medicine
CBL 2
February
March
Reproductive
Endocrine
PCM
CBL 2
PCM
CBL 2
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A Experiential Learning in Community Settings
Dermatomusculoskelatal
December
Spring Break
Systems I
November
Experiential Learning in Community Settings
October
Winter Break
September
Experiential Learning in Community Settings
August
Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
MyCode: Personalizing healthcare Geisinger’s research theme is to personalize healthcare by discovering ways to empower doctors to discern differences in patients — genetic, environmental or social — that impact quality and outcomes. Anchoring this theme is the MyCode® Community Health Initiative, a systemwide biobank storing blood and other samples for research use. MyCode analyzes the DNA of volunteers and is on track to surpass its current goal of 250,000 participants. Researchers use this vast body of data to transform knowledge of the genome into powerful intelligence that is personally relevant to individual patients. MyCode research has already been translated into ways to diagnose certain medical conditions earlier — even before symptoms appear — and to implement new treatments or medications to manage them.
CM
BL 2
May
June
July
Mind
The Art & Practice of Medicine
Case-based Learning 2
Vacation & Other Activities
MD Class of 2021 Elliott Cha, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine MBS Class of 2017, MD Class of 2021, worked in the lab of Sarah Pendergrass, PhD, for three years. Dr. Pendergrass is a genetic bioinformatician at Geisinger focusing on high-throughput data analysis and data-mining projects for uncovering the genetic architecture of complex traits. “Dr. Pendergrass applies genomic data to real-world problems. Her lab has a real ‘startup culture,’ using genetics, electronic health records and innovation to find new ways to help patients,” Elliott said. MyCode research Elliott has been involved with includes utilization of CT images to find genetic links to adipose tissue surrounding organs — locations which suggest more susceptibility to diseases associated with metabolic syndrome. The Journal of Obesity will soon publish a paper on the subject that lists Elliott as a coauthor. He also worked on a project that studied genetic variants linked to ophthalmic traits, specifically cup-to-disc ratio, which has implications for glaucoma susceptibility. That research resulted in a coauthored abstract, which was chosen by the American Society of Human Genetics for a platform presentation at its annual conference. Elliott had to decline because, as a medical student, he had important exams looming. More recently, Elliott’s work with MyCode has focused on a potential relationship between BMI, the APOE gene (a gene that provides instructions for making a protein called apolipoprotein E) and Alzheimer’s disease. He is also working on Geisinger’s latest initiative, machine learning, in which computers are “taught” to detect data patterns and alert doctors when clinically relevant patterns are perceived.
Year 3
eproctive
April Experiential Learning in Community Settings
ch
Elliott Cha
Elliott said that his involvement with MyCode over the past three years has been an invaluable enhancement to his learning. “Medicine is changing, and there’s growing demand to treat patients more precisely. This is exactly the mission of MyCode — to return Geisinger Commonwealth results to patients in a way that will students have a pass improve their care. So my exposure to precision medicine has been priceless. rate of 0.97 for the STEP 1 exam. It’s put me ahead of the curve. No The national average is 0.96. matter what specialty I choose, bioinformatics will be a big part of it.”
Fast fact:
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
From the bench to the bedside The research of Sonia Lobo, PhD, responds to the need for a validated interstitial cystitis (IC) biomarker that can be used for diagnostic and potentially prognostic purposes. “Many of the struggles clinicians face in diagnosing IC and in selecting treatments, evaluating effects and deciding when and how to modify treatments could be overcome if a validated biomarker for IC existed,” said Dr. Lobo, associate dean for Research and Scholarship and professor of biochemistry. Antiproliferative factor (APF) holds the most promise as an IC biomarker, as it has been shown to be present in the urine of 95 to 97 percent of IC patients. A reliable technique to detect and measure this biomolecule in urine has eluded investigators to date. Dr. Lobo and her colleagues have developed a method that uses advanced technology to specifically detect and measure APF in the urine, with no invasive procedures. “It is critical to validate and refine this methodology, which we believe will eventually lead to a noninvasive test for IC and provide greater insight into APF’s role in IC.” Such a test, if validated, would not only be safer and less costly, but it will also help physicians understand the disease and be trained to quickly diagnose and treat this painful condition.
Hands-on education As a neuroscientist, Brian Piper, PhD, believes that teaching and learning should be informed by new discoveries about the brain. So when cognitive research empirically proved that the traditional “sage on the stage” teaching model doesn’t work, he was more than happy to cede his spotlight to his students. “Education is in a transitional period,” he said. “Whatever is new and is proven, I’m open to it.” Dr. Piper says evidence shows today’s students like to be hands-on and to participate in their own learning. It’s a trend he likes because it mirrors things happening in healthcare, where patients are now far more involved in care and medicine itself is now team-based rather than physician-driven. “Students learn and
retain more when they make information their own,” he said. “We are finding many ways for students to handle and deal with and creatively apply information. For example, when I teach bioethics and we
discuss health disparities, the students themselves have valid insights to share. There’s tremendous value to listening to lived experiences.”
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program Since coming to Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in 2016, Dr. Piper said he has experienced something unique to his new student body. “Geisinger Commonwealth students are motivated and prepared,” he said. “It may sound cliché, but they’re also nice — and that’s not a euphemism, it’s accurate.”
Research synergy There is an apocryphal tale about Michelangelo describing sculpture as simply removing parts of the stone that aren’t statue. The story may be false, but the process it illustrates — patient acceptance of uncertainty until a form emerges from the fog of infinite possibilities — is a good metaphor for scientific discovery. Whatever the term, Dr. Piper says it’s how he thrives. He prefers to focus on areas where competing or even contradictory facts make a single answer unlikely. “Our society likes extremes, blackand-whites,” he said. “But there are shades of gray. I like the ambiguity. For example, I conduct research concerning opioids,
which have both medical benefits and potential for misuse. I also research ethical questions, particularly conflicts of interest not revealed in scientific journals. I find it interesting because, on one hand, we get products with great promise to improve evidence-based medical care, but there’s a downside when industry doesn’t report its financial incentives.” Dr. Piper’s interest in the gray areas of opioid research was sparked during his undergrad days as a psychology major studying children whose mothers “used” during pregnancy. The experience persuaded him to switch to neuroscience, and he’s been studying neuro chemicals ever since. However, coming to Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine and embracing its community-focused mission has allowed his research to branch out in new ways. For example, he’s lending his expertise to a unique project to discover the health needs of the Scranton area’s Latino population led by Ida Castro, JD, Geisinger Commonwealth’s vice president for Community Engagement and chief
diversity officer. The population health project involves Geisinger Commonwealth medical students leading teams of REACH-HEI participants (those who participate in the Regional Education Academy for Careers in Health – Higher Education Initiative), armed with iPads and fanning out into various neighborhoods to conduct a survey Dr. Piper designed. The survey will delve into issues with health, nutrition and substance abuse that affect this “hidden population” in northeast Pennsylvania. Dr. Piper has another unusual summer project. He and a team of Geisinger Commonwealth students have a grant to analyze Scranton’s wastewater and look for opioid “signatures.” These varying chemical compositions will reveal how much of the area’s opioid use comes from prescribed versus illicit sources. For this connoisseur of gray, the study will reveal welcome bits of black and white. “Right now, we are relying on self-reported information,” Dr. Piper said. “The analysis will give us actual data.”
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Regionally engaged, nationally relevant
Year 3
Longitudinal integrated curriculum At Geisinger Commonwealth, third year follows an innovative longitudinal integrated curriculum with a hybrid of inpatient and outpatient experiences. This hybrid model provides for outstanding continuity of outpatient care with dedicated outpatient faculty, and also allows for intensive inpatient training in each core discipline. This curricular approach also helps students develop a cohort of “continuity patients� in each clerkship and allows students to take part in the initial assessment, the plan of care, the intervention and in follow-up. The long-term nature of these relationships provides for a period of sequential learning with incrementally greater levels of responsibility that are not achieved in brief clerkships. It also allows for longitudinal assessment and feedback that are critical to the development of competence. In addition to the specific inpatient and outpatient experiences for our 6 core clerkships, students also complete an 80-hour rotation in emergency medicine and 4 weeks of electives and selectives.
How does it work? The year is divided into two halves. For one half of the year, students complete the outpatient curriculum working in all six clerkships simultaneously. For the other half of the year, they complete inpatient curriculum (primarily in hospital settings), selectives, electives and emergency medicine.
Outpatient curriculum During the six-month outpatient curriculum, students work one on one with attending physicians in an outpatient setting. This experience emphasizes continuity of students with their preceptors and patients, and allows the students to integrate into patient care in a meaningful way. During the outpatient curriculum, students participate in six clerkships simultaneously.
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
2019 – 2020 Academic Year July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
Core Week
Inpatient Pediatrics
Electives
Selectives
Inpatient Psychiatry
Anesthesia
Inpatient Surgery
Inpatient OB/GYN
Outpatient Surgery
Emergency Medicine
Outpatient OB/GYN
Inpatient Adult Medicine
Outpatient Family Medicine
Winter Recess
Core Week and Regional Orientation
Outpatient Internal Medicine
Outpatient Psychiatry
Outpatient Pediatrics
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Inpatient curriculum Inpatient experiences primarily occur in hospital settings. These experiences allow for training with acutely ill and hospitalized patients in numerous disciplines. They also provide for experience in obstetrics, surgery and anesthesia. Students will often work with interdisciplinary teams and residency teams in these settings. In addition, students must also complete a two-week selective in one of the following:
• • • • •
Introduction to Diagnostic Imaging Pathology/Lab Medicine Neurology/Neurosciences Anesthesia Nutrition in Medicine
Students also complete a two-week elective in a discipline of choice, as well as 80 hours of emergency medicine during the inpatient curriculum.
Clerkship Education Day Clerkship Education Day is held each Friday afternoon from 1:30 to 5 p.m. This time is dedicated to group learning activities, case conferences, reflections and other core curricula.
Core weeks Students are required to participate in two core weeks at our North Campus in Scranton to emphasize preparation for residency.
Sample outpatient schedule Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Morning
Internal Medicine
Psychiatry
Surgery
OB/GYN
White Space
Afternoon
White Space
Family Medicine
White Space
Pediatrics
Clerkship Education Day
Sunday
Inpatient schedule
• • • • •
Discipline
Number of weeks
Adult medicine
4
Surgery
4
Psychiatry
3
Obstetrics/gynecology
3
Pediatrics
2
Anesthesia
1
Emergency medicine
2
Elective
2
Selective Introduction to Diagnostic Imaging Pathology/Lab Medicine Neurology/Neurosciences Anesthesia Nutrition in Medicine
2-week rotation
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
Jessica Briscoe MD Class of 2020 Jessica Briscoe, a member of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s Class of 2020, has spent the past two years delving into the secrets of the human brain at Harvard Medical School. She was awarded a second year to continue this work as a fellow in the prestigious Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) Medical Research Fellows Program. Jessica is working with Emery Brown, MD, PhD, Harvard’s Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anesthesia, on research that studies unconsciousness, especially as induced by various type of anesthetics. “Surprisingly, this has not been done before — trying to understand what different drugs do to the brain,” she said. “Understanding how each anesthetic affects neural dynamics will greatly inform neuroscience and medicine.” The previous year, she worked with Emad Eskander, MD, researching diagnostic approaches of neuropathology, which resulted in a presentation on techniques of epilepsy diagnosis and a paper, “Structural and Functional Network Dysfunction in Parkinson Disease,” published in the December 2017 edition of the journal Radiology. Multiple papers based on the work she has done with Dr. Brown, studying how the brain recovers from general anesthesia, are pending. Jessica, who hopes to become a neurosurgeon, said summer research after her first year of medical school sparked her interest in the lab. “I was part of the Summer Research Immersion Program at Geisinger Commonwealth with Ying-Ju Sung, PhD. It was such a great experience, so enriching — but it was over too soon! I wanted to do more,” Jessica said. “That’s when I began to research programs and found Howard Hughes.” What intrigued Jessica about the HHMI program was its mentorship aspect. “HHMI encourages applicants to find a mentor they want to emulate. I identified Dr. Eskander and just ‘cold-emailed’ him. And he responded!” she said. “He encouraged me to come up with a project, write a proposal and develop a timeline about how the project and mentorship would help me. I got the fellowship and since that time, I’ve met so many different people who’ve helped guide me, including Dr. Brown. It’s been such a rewarding experience.”
Photo © Stanley Rowin stanstudio.com
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Regional campus model We have affiliation agreements with several hospitals and healthcare systems in our region. Our healthcare delivery partners are each known for the quality of care they provide and for their commitment to healthcare education programs. Our students also work with physicians and health professionals in private practice, community health centers and other sites throughout our region.
Geisinger Commonwealth offers a community-based model of medical education with five regional campuses: Central (Danville), Guthrie (Sayre), North (Scranton), South (Wilkes-Barre) and the newest, AtlantiCare (Atlantic City, N.J.), a member of Geisinger. In years three and four, medical students at Geisinger Commonwealth complete their clinical training at their assigned regional campus. Each campus offers exposure to urban and rural settings, allowing for abundant, diverse clinical experiences. Geisinger Commonwealth is fortunate to have outstanding clinical partners with whom we work in each regional campus community.
Tompkins Schuyler Steuben Chemung
Tioga
Sayre
Susquehanna
Bradford
Tioga
Wayne Lackawanna
Scranton
Wyoming Sullivan
Pike
Lycoming Clinton Columbia Montour Union
Wilkes-Barre Luzerne
Danville
Northumberland
Monroe
Carbon
Schuylkill
Doylestown
Dauphin
Cumberland
Ocean
York
Atlantic City Atlantic
Cape May
Campus locations:
Regions:
Guthrie
North
South
Central
AtlantiCare
A member of Geisinger
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
Campus location: AtlantiCare in Atlantic City, NJ Counties: Atlantic, Cape May, Ocean
AtlantiCare Campus
Campus location: Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA The Central Campus includes a cohort assigned to Geisinger Holy Spirit in Harrisburg, PA. Counties: Clinton, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Union, York
Central Campus
Campus location: Guthrie in Sayre, PA Counties: Pennsylvania – Bradford, Tioga; New York – Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins
Guthrie Campus
Campus location: Medical Sciences Building in Scranton, PA Counties: Lackawanna, Monroe, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming
North Campus
Campus location: Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre in Wilkes-Barre, PA Counties: Carbon, Columbia, Luzerne, Schuylkill
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
Regional impact Distributed campuses: An entire region dedicated to educating the healthcare teams of the future Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine is unique among academic health centers, which all have welldeveloped research capabilities and carefully crafted educational programs. At Geisinger Commonwealth, however, patient care is a robust third pillar. Our distributed campus model and our tremendous community clinical faculty — who are physicians first — thrust patient care to the forefront of everything our students learn. That commitment to patient care is the great strength of a Geisinger Commonwealth medical education.
“Our community faculty are embedded deeply in their communities and engaged in direct patient care — it’s what they do every day. This gives our students a unique experience. The learning goes beyond what is actually being taught to include interactions with staff and patients in a realworld setting. “The strength of the distributed campus model is that each of the campuses is comparable, but not identical. Each campus has the same curriculum and offers a high-quality experience, but has its own flavor. Our students can see it all: urban settings and rural settings and sites in small communities. Students who grew up in one kind of community or another are typically amazed at how different each setting is, no matter how similar the care.” – Shubhra Shetty, MD Regional Associate Dean, North Campus Professor of Medicine 17
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Community well-being As a system, Geisinger has devoted significant resources to examining the unique health needs of the communities it serves and proposing novel solutions that can be applied locally, but transferred globally. From Springboard Healthy Scranton to the health system’s innovative Fresh Food Farmacy®, Geisinger believes that if it can solve common health problems like obesity and Type 2 diabetes in our part of Pennsylvania, those solutions can be carried across the nation and around the world. Nowhere is this belief put into action more vigorously than at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. The School of Medicine plays a central role in the well-being of its home communities. Our impact is felt economically (Geisinger has an annual $9.9 billion positive impact on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s economy), but more importantly, it’s felt in the ways our presence enriches and uplifts our neighbors. Geisinger Commonwealth is most visibly concerned with bettering lives and improving the healthcare workforce through medical education and advanced fellowships, but our academic focus begins as early as grade school. Our REACH-HEI (Regional Education Academy for Careers in Health – Higher Education Initiative) program is an out-of-school experience that provides academic enrichment opportunities and enables students in northeast Pennsylvania to succeed in health-related professions. A longitudinal program helping middle school, high school and undergraduate students, REACH-HEI has a proven track record of success, with hundreds
of its program participants successfully completing their high school and college goals. In 2017, the first cohort of high school students graduated from universities — and some have joined their Geisinger Commonwealth REACH-HEI family as students in the school’s doctor of medicine (MD) and master of biomedical sciences (MBS) programs. The School of Medicine also cares about behavioral health in the region. Market intelligence firm Open Minds, working on behalf of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s Behavioral Health Initiative (BHI), concluded that a 7-county region in northeast Pennsylvania would need to increase its number of psychiatrists by 40 percent simply to meet current need. As a result of those data, in 2015 BHI generated a key recommendation: The School of Medicine and The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education should co-create a psychiatry residency program to train new doctors in this desperately needed specialty. Just two years later, The Wright Center welcomed four residents to its brand-new, ACGME-accredited (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) psychiatry residency program. Every year since, a Geisinger Commonwealth graduate has matched into the program. In addition, in 2018 the School of Medicine welcomed nationally renowned psychiatrist Leighton Huey, MD, as associate dean for Behavioral Health Integration and Community Care Transformation. Since Dr. Huey’s arrival, BHI has launched integration of care efforts in partnership with local agencies and has laid the groundwork for a project focused on building resiliency in the community.
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
“ Geisinger Commonwealth is a unique medical school because no other medical school has made mental and behavioral health, in collaboration with community, its No. 1 priority. My goals for the curriculum are to provide students with the tools, awareness and expertise to integrate physician and mental health in a way that’s seamless — so it’s just a matter of fact that the two problems will be addressed together.” –L eighton Y. Huey, MD, Associate Dean for Behavioral Health Integration and Community Care Transformation
Fast fact: Approximately 1,538 physicians and healthcare professionals in northeast and central Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey serve as Geisinger Commonwealth community faculty members.
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Jake Parrick, MD ’19 Matched into psychiatry residency at The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education Jake Parrick chose to become a doctor because he wanted to give back to his community. “Give back” is a phrase heard so often that it’s almost trite, yet Jake’s experience with the power of community is anything but banal. He had just started classes as a freshman at Wilkes University when the rain began. By the time it stopped, he had a completely different outlook on himself and his neighbors. “It was September 2011 and I was living with my family in my childhood home in Duryea. Weather reports said the rain had affected the Lackawanna River right behind our house, but we couldn’t see much difference, so we weren’t worried. Then the National Guard came knocking and warned people to leave. My mom and sister did, but my dad and I figured we’d ride it out,” Jake said. Remaining in the home was no longer an option when the pair looked out their kitchen window and saw waves of water coming through the fence in their backyard. After their narrow escape, the family came home to complete devastation. Fortunately, every day, an army of volunteers swarmed the neighborhood’s homes. “People would just walk in and start working, pulling down drywall, bringing food and supplies. People we didn’t even know. I was overwhelmed by their generosity,” he said. The experience drove Jake’s desire to excel in his undergraduate studies so he could attend medical school. It was also influential in his choice of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. “I wanted to remain in the northeastern Pennsylvania area to serve the community I grew up in,” he said. Jake is now a psychiatry resident at The Wright Center of Graduate Medical Education. “I chose psychiatry because it really enables the clinician to form lasting deep relationships with patients,” he said. He is also pleased that his training continues to put his community at the forefront. “Geisinger Commonwealth places great emphasis on service. Students are not only encouraged, but required to get involved. So I like that The Wright Center has that community focus, too. I chose to be a doctor because I wanted to serve. My training is helping me to achieve that dream.”
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital is the first rural acutecare children’s hospital in the country and one of the first rural academic facilities in the region. As a dedicated 91-bed inpatient unit, Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital has separate floors for infants, toddlers and teenagers where children receive the most advanced pediatric services. At the children’s hospital, specialtytrained pediatric doctors and nurses provide expertise in more than 30 medical and surgical disciplines, including care of children with neonatal illness, life-threatening critical illness, traumatic injuries, neurologic disorders, cancer, diabetes, gastrointestinal disease, infectious diseases and heart and lung disorders. In addition, the genetic team partners with Geisinger’s Genomics Institute to provide cutting-edge diagnosis and treatment of genetic disorders and birth defects.
“ Being a teaching hospital, Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital has a wonderful culture of learning. Medical students get to see a wide variety of pediatric patients — the hospital has specialists in every field. And working with residents provides yet another facet to medical student learning. It is a very comprehensive experience.” –T homas Martin, MD, Professor Emeritus and Founder of Geisinger Department of Pediatrics at Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital
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Year 4
Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
The continuum: ready for residency Year 4 curriculum Fourth year is focused on advanced clinical experiences. Throughout the fourth year, students participate in a variety of subinternships, as well as several months reserved for electives.
Residency prep Knowing how you compare to others competing for the same residency program is essential. That’s why Geisinger Commonwealth uses the Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) model of assessing readiness for residency matching, together with our own institutional data, to provide practical counseling services as you plan your application and compare it to those who have successfully matched in your desired specialty. All Geisinger Commonwealth students have a career coach to see them through to a successful residency match. Everything from the mean number of research experiences you have to the number and quality of volunteer experiences influences your chances of gaining entry to your desired specialty. Your coach will help you navigate these critical decisions and when your third year begins, weekly team support is available for:
• CV prep and personal statement development and two-tier review of finished product • Specialty specific advising • Mock interviews • Rank order list assistance • Peer mentoring by alumni
Core week
July
August
Electives: Student Choice
Subinternship: Student Choice
September
October
Acute Care
Subinternship: Medicine
Students are required to participate in one core week at our North Campus in Scranton to emphasize preparation for residency.
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No
Year 4
Electives: Student Choice
February
March
April
May
Senior Seminar Break Graduation
January
Interprofessional Selective
ship: ne
December
Electives: Student Choice
November
Match / Core Week
er
Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Match maker Geisinger Commonwealth’s student-centered approach to medical education reaches its denouement in the fourth year. That’s when an abundance of resources is brought to bear to ensure our students make the best residency match possible. Geisinger Commonwealth’s collaborative advising model is intensive and effective. In fact, the school’s student affairs team presented on their approach at a meeting of the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). The process begins with collaborative team meetings held weekly beginning in the second half of the third year. During the fourth year, the team continues to meet weekly to guide students through the application and interview season. Institutional match data are used to assist students in comparing their application to that of alumni who have successfully gained interviews and match status. Students receive strategic direction in regard to application submission, and alumni provide peer mentoring, as needed.
Student success In 2019, Geisinger Commonwealth medical students participated in the match experience hosted by the NRMP. Students interviewed across the country with residency programs in a wide range of specialties and programs.
Anesthesiology • • • • • • •
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, California Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C. New York University School of Medicine, New York University of Southern California , California University of Virginia, Virginia University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Medical Education, Pennsylvania
Child neurology • Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Ohio
Dermatology • Geisinger, Pennsylvania • Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania • University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Medical Education, Pennsylvania
Emergency medicine • CMSRU/Cooper University Hospital, New Jersey • Drexel University College of Medicine/Hahnemann University Hospital, Pennsylvania • Geisinger, Pennsylvania • Thomas Jefferson University, Pennsylvania • University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville, Florida • University of Rochester/Strong Memorial, New York • Zucker School of Medicine – Northwell Staten Island University, New York
Family medicine • • • • • •
MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C. Meritus Health, Maryland Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska Reading Hospital Medical Center, Pennsylvania St. Vincent Health Center, Pennsylvania University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals, Utah
General surgery
Fast fact: 43% of Geisinger Commonwealth’s Class of 2019 matched into a primary care specialty.
• Christiana Care, Delaware • Drexel University College of Medicine/Hahnemann University Hospital, Pennsylvania • Emory University School of Medicine, Georgia • Geisinger, Pennsylvania • Keesler Medical Center, Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi • Stamford Hospital/Columbia, Connecticut • University of North Carolina Hospitals, North Carolina • University of Rochester/Strong Memorial, New York • University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Mercy Hospital, Pennsylvania
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
• • • •
Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania Rhode Island Hospital/Brown University, Rhode Island St. Vincent Hospital – Worcester, Massachusetts University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Medical Education, Pennsylvania
Medicine-primary • Thomas Jefferson University, Pennsylvania
Neurological surgery • Geisinger, Pennsylvania
Obstetrics-gynecology Internal medicine • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Massachusetts CMSRU/Cooper University Hospital, New Jersey Geisinger, Pennsylvania Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, New York Indiana University School of Medicine, Indiana Lankenau Medical Center, Pennsylvania MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C. Ocean Medical Center, New Jersey Pennsylvania Hospital, Pennsylvania Rutgers–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Jersey University of Michigan Hospitals – Ann Arbor, Michigan University of North Carolina Hospitals, North Carolina University of Rochester/Strong Memorial, New York University of Utah Affiliated Hospitals, Utah Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Maryland White River Health System, Arkansas Wright-Patterson Medical Center, Ohio
Interventional radiology (integrated) • Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania
Medicine – emergency medicine • University of Illinois College of Medicine – Chicago, Illinois
Medicine – pediatrics • University of Rochester/Strong Memorial, New York • West Virginia University, West Virginia
Medicine – preliminary • Abington Memorial Hospital, Pennsylvania • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, New York
• • • • •
CMSRU/Cooper University Hospital, New Jersey Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania Reading Hospital Medical Center, Pennsylvania Richmond University Medical Center, New York University of Texas Medical School – Houston, Texas
Orthopaedic surgery • Duke University Medical Center, North Carolina • University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa • Yale-New Haven Hospital, Connecticut
Otolaryngology • Henry Ford Hospital, Michigan
Pathology • Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina
Pediatrics • Carolinas Medical Center, North Carolina • Case Western/University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Ohio • Jefferson Medical College/duPont Hospital for Children, Pennsylvania • Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania • San Antonio Military Medical Center, Texas • St. Christopher’s Hospital, Pennsylvania • Stanford University Programs, California • Tufts Medical Center, Massachusetts • Zucker School of Medicine/Northwell at Cohen Children’s Medical Center, New York
Pediatrics – preliminary • Geisinger, Pennsylvania
Physical medicine and rehabilitation • NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia & Cornell, New York • State University of New York Health Science Center Brooklyn, New York • University of California Davis Medical Center, California 25
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
Psychiatry • Christiana Care, Delaware • Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio • Drexel University College of Medicine/Hahnemann University Hospital, Pennsylvania • Lehigh Valley Hospital, Pennsylvania • Ocean Medical Center, New Jersey • University of Kentucky Medical Center, Kentucky • University of Maryland Medical Center, Maryland • The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, Pennsylvania
Radiation oncology • University of Florida College of Medicine – Shands Hospital, Florida
Radiology – diagnostic • • • • •
Pennsylvania Hospital, Pennsylvania Rhode Island Hospital/Brown University, Rhode Island Stony Brook teaching hospitals, New York Temple University Hospital, Pennsylvania Thomas Jefferson University, Pennsylvania
Thoracic surgery • University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas
Transitional • • • • • •
Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Pennsylvania Geisinger, Pennsylvania Lehigh Valley Hospital, Pennsylvania St. Joseph’s Health, New York St. Luke’s – Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Suburban Community Hospital, Pennsylvania
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
GME enriches the UME experience In addition to undergraduate medical students, Geisinger also counts more than 500 residents and fellows as its learners. Geisinger has 31 accredited residency programs in a variety of specialties and subspecialties, from anesthesiology to urology, as well as 23 accredited fellowships. The medical student/resident relationship is mutually enriching. Residents and fellows have the opportunity to teach and mentor, and medical students benefit from having the chance to see what residency/fellowship is really like, up close and personal.
Sarah Bashaw Hayek, MD ’15
Morgan Rogers, MD ’16
Sarah Bashaw Hayek, MD, a fourthyear surgical resident at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, said there was one thing for which she was eminently prepared on day one of the program. As a 2015 graduate of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, she said her medical education laid a solid foundation in professional identity formation and it gave her a tremendous boost in residency. “I had a leg up on figuring out how to be a professional,” she said. “One of the most valuable lessons I learned at Geisinger Commonwealth was that I’d spend a long time training — during all the young years of my life — and that I couldn’t look at it as a pause. It’s not a pause. This is real life and you have to keep living it.”
As a family medicine specialist, Morgan Rogers, MD, said the most important lesson she learned is how powerful self-reflection is in aiding communication and building relationships with patients. “Everybody has a story,” she said. “So when I find myself feeling frustrated during an encounter, I try to evaluate what the source of that emotion is — is it that I am failing to communicate, or that the patient does not understand? I try to see things from the patient’s perspective and I find it really helps to ask additional questions about the patient’s fears or barriers. When you ask the right questions, you get some surprising answers.”
This simple but powerful insight, coupled with time-management skills Dr. Hayek attributes to Geisinger Commonwealth’s longitudinal integrated curriculum, resulted in her being named intern of the year at the end of her initial year in residency. She has also won an award for professionalism. Her experiences in residency have been, she said, “wonderful so far.” She has grown close to her fellow residents and has high praise for the surgeons teaching her. “The surgical attendings teach because they love it and that’s apparent,” she said. “They are very invested in making us great surgeons, but they also look out for us and try to create a family atmosphere. The faculty is committed to us all the time.” In this way, she said, her experiences at Geisinger Medical Center mirror those she had at Geisinger Commonwealth. For this reason, she said, she was “thrilled” at the integration of medical school and health system. As for her future, Dr. Hayek said she is entirely open to staying in the region. She and her husband, Andrew, an engineer, have a home in Bloomsburg and have recently welcomed their first child, Abigail. The Vermont native said that, in addition to her career in surgery, she hopes to eventually teach medical students or residents. She’s already begun honing her teaching skills. She’s been mentoring 2017 Geisinger Commonwealth graduate Josh Cole, MD. “Surgery has a reputation for being hard on residents. Our program director is wonderful, inspiring — so I haven’t had that experience,” she said. “I’m happy now to have the chance to return the favor.”
Seeing things from a patient’s point of view is something Dr. Rogers said she learned at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. “Dr. (Jen) Joyce taught our Patient-Centered Medicine courses and one of the most memorable things was the poverty simulation she offered our class. It was a powerful lesson on how hard it is for some patients to navigate the health system — for example, the barriers patients face with transportation and refilling prescriptions. It was an experience that my colleagues in residency were not familiar with and prepared me well to understand some of the social stressors that my patients face.”
Fast fact: Geisinger has more than 500 residents and fellows. The system is home to 31 accredited residency programs and 23 accredited fellowships, which encompass ACGMEphysician programs as well as dental, podiatry, pharmacy and more.
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
Nelson Sofoluke, MD ’17 When he was growing up in Baltimore, Nelson Sofoluke, MD, loved computers. Delving into the mechanics behind what made a program run appealed to his curiosity and he was delighted by seeing immediate responses when he tweaked a program. In fact, he was fairly certain he was going to have a career in computers — right up until his junior year at the University of Maryland when he had a neuroscience course. That course sparked his deep fascination with the brain and the ways surgeons can revive lost function by fixing the brain or nervous system. “When I began to think about medicine, I felt that I would be choosing to do all of the things I loved most — solving problems, thinking critically, being a detective,” he said. Since Nelson’s call to become a surgeon came late in his college career, he began to look for master’s degree programs where he could get the basic science prerequisites necessary to apply to medical school. “The master of biomedical sciences program was my introduction to Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine,” he said. “I chose it because I liked the community — it was small and I felt at home there. The school was so integrated with the community that I instantly felt a part of it. One of my favorite events at the school
was the Alley Oop for Autism basketball tournament. All of my friends in the community came and played in it — it was open to everyone.” Another of Nelson’s favorite memories of his time at Geisinger Commonwealth was sharing small group discussion as a medical student with Gino Mori, MD, a retired Scranton surgeon who decided to audit the first two years of medical school just for the intellectual stimulation. “In effect, he graduated with us,” Nelson said, saying he admired Dr. Mori’s dedication to lifelong learning. As a medical student interested in the highly competitive field of neurosurgery, Nelson said the School of Medicine’s longitudinal integrated curriculum in his third year gave him an important advantage. “Because of the inpatient/outpatient combination, I was in the operating room every week — straight block rotations wouldn’t have allowed that. I was able to have that repetition with the instruments and gained skill with my hands,” he said. “And I had very good teachers. That experience gave me a lot of confidence that helped a lot when I started residency.” Now in his second year of a seven-year residency at Geisinger, Dr. Sofoluke admits that, despite his confidence, he finds working in the OR the fulfillment of his dreams. “Neurosurgery has very high rewards because the risk is so great. When someone has a deficit and the surgery fixes it and function returns, the reward you feel is amazing. But I also think of how wrong things can go, so when patients trust you to touch them despite that risk, it’s humbling. Sometimes it’s nerve-wracking, but it’s always humbling.”
Max Vogel, MD ’18 Max Vogel, MD, a member of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s Class of 2018, is beginning his second year of residency in orthopaedic surgery at Geisinger Medical Center. As the son of a carpenter and a registered nurse, the Aliquippa native said he was raised to have compassion for others and use his mind and other tools to find solutions to problems, making his career choice and specialty decision almost effortless. It didn’t hurt that, as an athlete, Dr. Vogel’s earliest and most frequent exposure to medicine came through orthopaedics. “I played baseball in college in South Carolina, where I met my wife, Kaley. We both love sports and the outdoors, so we were happy to come back to Pennsylvania and all of the outdoor
activities it has for my medical school education,” he said. “The experience has been even better because I got to go to Geisinger Commonwealth. It has such a family feeling. Everyone there is on your side. Everyone is there to help. It’s a school where many students are on a first-name basis with faculty and staff, which is both unique and impressive,” he said. Dr. Vogel said that warm family feeling has continued at Geisinger Medical Center. “One thing that is consistent across both the School of Medicine and Geisinger Medical Center is the focus on community. Geisinger was, of course, founded by Abigail Geisinger with the intent of helping to serve her community. Similarly, the School of Medicine was founded by the surrounding community with the intent of increasing healthcare availability in the region. At Geisinger Commonwealth, I think the result is that there’s a true family feel and a sense of connection to the region. At Geisinger Medical Center, I get that same impression. That strong sense of family/community is the overarching theme, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Faculty
Nabella Mian, MD
At Geisinger Commonwealth, students encounter excellent instructors and mentors, such as:
Dr. Mian is a rheumatologist in Wilkes-Barre, affiliated with Wilkes-Barre Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Associate Professor of Medicine
John Arnott, PhD
Mark Olaf, DO
Interim Chair of the Department of Medical Education Associate Professor of Cell Biology
Assistant Regional Dean for Central Regional Campus Assistant Professor of Medicine
Dr. Arnott’s research focuses on understanding the signaling mechanisms in osteoblasts that are important for bone formation and fracture repair.
Dr. Olaf practices emergency medicine with Geisinger in Danville, Pa.
Joseph Bannon, MD
James Scott, MD
Associate Professor of Surgery
Regional Clerkship Director of OB/GYN Assistant Professor of OB/GYN
Dr. Bannon is a colorectal surgeon with Geisinger. He serves as associate professor of surgery and program director for the Geisinger Northeast general surgery residency program.
Dr. Scott is an obstetrician/gynecologist at Guthrie Corning Hospital in Corning, N.Y.
Sonia Lobo, PhD
Shubhra Shetty, MD
Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship Professor of Biochemistry
Associate Dean for North Regional Campus Professor of Medicine
Dr. Lobo’s areas of research expertise are in signal transduction, palmitoylation and cancer biology, with a specific focus on the signaling networks under the control of the ZDHHC2 gene that are important to cancer and interstitial cystitis.
Dr. Shetty serves as the director of The Wright Center’s HIV Clinic and as an infectious diseases specialist at Moses Taylor Hospital and Regional Hospital of Scranton, both affiliates of Commonwealth Health.
Geisinger Commonwealth patient safety certificate Steven J. Scheinman, MD, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s president and dean, announced a comprehensive patient safety curriculum for health professionals at the Patient Safety Movement Foundation’s seventh annual World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit. He and Margrit Shoemaker, MD, chaired the Patient Safety Movement Foundation workgroup charged with developing the curriculum. Dr. Scheinman said the curriculum acknowledges and leverages excellent existing curricula, including the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Open School Patient Safety series, the World Health Organization’s patient safety curriculum and others, and also includes new content such as case studies, videos, and supplemental teaching resources such as role-playing scenarios. Its structure allows flexibility and adaptability for use by schools teaching nursing, medical or any health professions students. It can also be employed by health systems to educate staff across the developmental spectrum, from novice to expert in their field. At Geisinger Commonwealth, Dr. Shoemaker said patient safety is being woven throughout the medical student curriculum, but the school will now offer a patient safety certificate to students who elect to go beyond basic curricular requirements. “Medical school is already jam-packed,” she said. “It’s hard to introduce more material. But for students who choose to spend some extra hours online and in reflection on their clinical experiences, the certificate will be a great way to demonstrate patient safety expertise on a CV.”
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
Margrit Shoemaker, MD Care for the student. That’s the attribute that Margrit Shoemaker, MD, identifies as the thing that makes Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine different. “This school is very responsive to student feedback,” she said. “I don’t believe students will get the same hands-on support for their career planning anywhere else.” Dr. Shoemaker, an endocrinologist, is assistant chair of Internal Medicine and assistant professor of medicine. She said Geisinger Commonwealth’s integrated curriculum, especially the longitudinal integrated curriculum in the third year, is a powerful example of the school’s student-centered approach. “Alumni often comment on the longitudinal integrated curriculum as being the highlight of their experience at Geisinger Commonwealth,” she said.
Preventing burnout with ePortfolio
Michelle Schmude, EdD
Tanja Adonoizio, MD
“To promote burnout among physicians, it is only necessary to subvert their professional and personal priorities, so that they spend all their time on little things and suffer continually from a growing sense that they are neglecting the ones that really matter.” –The Atlantic magazine paraphrasing Sir William Osler, one of the four founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. (“The Root of Physician Burnout” by Richard Gunderman, The Atlantic, Aug. 27, 2012) “Burnout at its deepest level is not the result of some train wreck of examinations, long call shifts, or poor clinical evaluations. It is the sum total of hundreds and thousands of tiny betrayals of purpose, each one so minute that it hardly attracts notice.”
“Clerkship Education Day (CED) is also frequently mentioned. It’s a good example of how students help shape the curriculum.” Dr. Shoemaker explained that CED is held every Friday at each regional campus for all third-year students. Originally conceived of as a chance for a didactic session, student feedback demonstrated a strong preference for more interactive case-based learning and group discussion — which perfectly describes CED today. Dr. Shoemaker noted another compelling reason students appreciate CED. “At most medical schools during the third year, students are more or less on their own. During their block rotations, students can begin to feel isolated and cut off from the relationships they formed during their first two years of school. CED is a way to bring everyone together, to reconnect. It’s also a way for faculty to be sure each student is thriving,” she said. Dr. Shoemaker, who cochaired a Patient Safety Movement Foundation work group that wrote a comprehensive, universal patient-safety curriculum, said patient safety is being woven throughout the School of Medicine curriculum. That lesson, however, is potently reinforced by Geisinger Commonwealth’s care for students. The empathy modeled throughout their educational experience is something future doctors take with them as they treat patients. In this way, supported students become patientcentered clinicians who create a safer healthcare environment.
–“For the Young Doctor About to Burn Out” by Richard Gunderman, The Atlantic, Feb. 21, 2014 At Geisinger Commonwealth, students learn about external tools, like healthy eating and exercise, to help combat stress. More importantly, however, carefully crafted components of the curriculum are designed to build and strengthen students’ internal resources, and none is more important than professional identity formation, or simply “professionalism.” Numerous studies have demonstrated that professionalism not only ensures patient safety, but is also key to preventing physician burnout. As a way to ensure that students are gaining competence in professionalism, Tanja Adonoizio, MD, associate dean for Student Affairs and assistant professor of medicine and Michelle Schmude, EdD, associate dean for Admissions, Enrollment Management and Financial Aid and associate professor, developed the ePortfolio, first introduced to the Class of 2021. The ePortfolio digitally collects students’ reflections and provides tools to aid students in self-directed learning. It also logs periodic assessments of each student from faculty, peers and advisors that provides “a 360-degree view” of the student and his or her progress from a variety of perspectives. The ePortfolio also uses leading measures of hard-to-define qualities like emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and an individual’s sense of personal accomplishment. The student and advisor will be able to use this to establish a baseline for each student’s attitudes and track variations over time. “The purpose of ePortfolio is to enable students to reflect, to gain self-awareness and to continually ask themselves what it means to be a doctor,” Dr. Adonizio said. In short, ePortfolio will create a narrative of a student’s journey to professional identity and to the sense of purpose that will illuminate and sustain them throughout their future careers.
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Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine
Abigail Geisinger Scholars Program Medical school debt can be crushing. According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, average medical student debt is $192,000 and 1 out of 5 students accumulates debt of more than $300,000. Such debt can drive students’ career decisions. Through the debt forgiveness offered by the Abigail Geisinger Scholars Program, Geisinger Commonwealth students selected for the program are empowered to follow their passion, not their balance sheet. Abigail Geisinger Scholars pay no tuition, in exchange for an obligation to work at Geisinger once they finish residency. “I am proud of the purpose-driven Abigail Geisinger Scholars Program,” said Steven J. Scheinman, MD, Geisinger Commonwealth president and dean and executive vice president for Geisinger. “Selected students are brilliant, but more importantly, they are committed. They promise to serve as Geisinger physicians in their future and so will have no medical school tuition
debt. We can think of no better way to free our scholars to practice medicine in the way Geisinger Commonwealth is teaching them — with caring rooted in scientific evidence and centered around the patient — than by forgiving the debt that might otherwise dictate their career choices.” The program selects students through a competitive application process. Those chosen pay no tuition, in exchange for an obligation to work at Geisinger once they finish residency. Preference is given to students who express a desire to care for the communities Geisinger serves. Selection criteria includes demonstrated financial need, academic merit, diversity and predictors of whether the applicant is likely to stay in the region Geisinger serves. According to Dr. Scheinman, no fewer than 10 awards will be made annually, with an eye toward expanding the number of recipients in the coming years. geisinger.edu/AbigailScholars
MD Class of 2023 profile • • • • • • • • • •
Number of applicants: 5,780 Class size (new students): 115 Pennsylvania residents: 82 Geisinger Commonwealth counties: 45 Men: 55 Women: 60 First generation to college: 20 Underrepresented in medicine: 18 Average overall GPA: 3.63 Average MCAT 2015: 510
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Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
Apply Admission requirements Students seeking admission to Geisinger Commonwealth’s MD program must:
1. Have a bachelor’s degree from a U.S. or Canadian accredited undergraduate college or university (must be completed before enrollment in MD program) 2. Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident 3. Be able to certify and comply with Geisinger Commonwealth’s technical standards with or without reasonable accommodations 4. Have MCAT scores no more than three years old at time of application 5. Have completed the following coursework:* »» General biology with laboratory (1 year/2 semesters) »» General inorganic chemistry with laboratory (1 year/2 semesters) »» Organic chemistry with laboratory (1 year/2 semesters) »» General physics with laboratory (1 year/2 semesters) »» English and English composition (1 semester) 6. Have consented to Geisinger Commonwealth’s enrollment requirements for accepted students prior to matriculation 7. Have submitted to and satisfactorily completed required background checks *AP credits can be applied toward these requirements.
Application process Students interested in applying to Geisinger Commonwealth’s MD program should:
1. Complete an application through the online American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS), the national application for U.S. MD programs »» AMCAS application completion includes an application fee and all supporting documents as requested. »» Geisinger Commonwealth will only consider verified AMCAS applications (no incomplete applications will be reviewed). 2. Submit letters of recommendation via AMCAS letters »» All applicants are required to submit one preprofessional/pre-health/committee letter or three evaluation/recommendation letters from faculty who are familiar with the applicant’s career goals and academic coursework. »» For nontraditional students, the Admissions Committee will consider letters of recommendation written by individuals who have firsthand knowledge of the candidate’s strengths, work ethic, abilities and commitment to the field of medicine.
3. Complete the Geisinger Commonwealth Secondary Application »» All AMCAS-verified applicants will automatically receive a secondary application. »» The application fee is $100. »» Candidates in receipt of an AMCAS Fee Assistance Program waiver should submit a PDF copy of the form to admissions@som.geisinger.edu.
Interviewing After a review of the application materials, students are notified if they have been offered an interview for the MD program. All interviews are conducted in person with a faculty member in the Department of Medical Education and a current medical student in a conversational format.
Contact us 570-504-7000
admissions@som.geisinger.edu geisinger.edu/gcsom
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525 Pine St. Scranton, PA 18509
570-504-7000
geisinger.edu/gcsom admissions@som.geisinger.edu
952-3013-8/19-HDAV/BF
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