Scholar spotlight: Tyler Schubert

Scholar spotlight

Tyler Schubert

Student researcher: MyCode and primary care led me to Geisinger

Tyler Schubert had a solid medical school application — a degree from Franklin and Marshall College, experience working in a behavioral health hospital and basic science research experience in labs at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine.

“The Abigail Geisinger Scholars Program was the most notable factor that drew me to Geisinger. I like that the health system is committed to solving the physician maldistribution problem. However, MyCode was the second determining factor,” he said, referring to the system’s precision medicine project and its biobank of more than 300,000 participants.

Now accepted to both the Abigail Geisinger Scholars Program and the school’s Medical Research Honors Program, Tyler is working on an NIH NHLBI-funded study on familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) with Laney Jones, PharmD, MPH. The purpose of the study is to build awareness and systems that will encourage clinicians to screen patients early for FH, a genetic condition that affects one in 250 people and can cause onset of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease at a young age if not treated.

Tyler is helping Dr. Jones’ implementation science team analyze qualitative data from clinician interviews and direct observations and synthesizing it “so we know where the pain points are in moving FH screening into the primary care setting,” Dr. Jones said. “From our talks, I know Tyler wants to do med-peds and incorporate genomics into his practice. Geisinger is one of the best places to do this kind of work. And because he is an Abigail Geisinger Scholar, our study directly relates to the work he will do when he comes back to Geisinger after residency. He’s making great connections here and learning how we use genomics to facilitate better health. It all seems like a perfect fit.”