Spotlight: Sean Gilhooley

Sean Gilhooley, MBS ’20

MD Class of 2024

Abigail Geisinger Scholar

Sean Gilhooley was certain of two things when he entered Wilkes University as a biology major — he wanted to be a doctor and, more specifically, he wanted to be a primary care doctor. “My dad is a primary care doc in Scranton, so I was introduced to medicine early. I learned from him what goes into medicine as a career,” he said. “But it was shadowing doctors when I was a student at Wilkes that convinced me to choose primary care. Every doctor I shadowed was in primary care, and I enjoyed seeing the relationships they had with their patients — they had known most of their patients for years and could easily talk about their families. They knew the person, not the symptoms on a paper.” From Wilkes, Sean entered Geisinger Commonwealth as a Master of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) student. That’s when he and his classmates first heard of the Abigail Geisinger Scholars Program and began to discuss among themselves. “We talked about what your debt really is to go to medical school. It’s staggering. And I knew I wanted primary care, and I knew I wanted to stay in this region to serve my own community. It’s what really drew me in.” Now a second-year student, Sean said he couldn’t be happier about his decision to apply to the Scholars program. He particularly likes the way Scholars are prioritized for experiences at sites that offer an upclose look at Geisinger’s signature innovations, such as 65 Forward clinics and the Fresh Food Farmacy. His research experience has also been positive. An abstract he co-authored based on a project initiated during the 2019 Summer Research Immersion Program (SRIP) was accepted for presentation at the national American Heart Association. Sean worked with Stephen J. Voyce, MD, director of clinical cardiology research at Geisinger, to conduct the study.