GCSOM Journal - Spring 2018

Journal The

Spring 2018

For alumni, community and friends

Sneak peek: Four community faculty members who embody the spirit of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

Alumni feature Mark Ayzenberg, MD ’13 Residency: Orthopaedic surgery at Einstein Medical Center Fellowship: Orthopaedic sports, arthroscopy and reconstructive surgery at Southern California Orthopedic Institute Hometown: Philadelphia

When Mark Ayzenberg, MD, a member of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s charter Class of 2013, first began his orthopaedic surgery residency at Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, he feared the 80-plus-hour weeks spent in the hospital might threaten his ability to deliver the person-centered care he learned in medical school. “When all you do is work, you stop looking around. You don’t really see your surroundings,” he said. He knew capitulating to drudgery would lead to burnout and cynicism, so having interests outside of medicine was vital — and he vowed to be sure to indulge them.

With a camera borrowed from his dad, Mark began visiting favorite spots in his native Philadelphia and photographing them using a multiple-exposure technique he thought truly captured the essence of the place.

People began to see the familiar in new ways through Mark’s photos. To his surprise and delight, his photography began to sell locally, as well as abroad, through his website. An entire business

resulted from photographs he shot during the day while he was working months of nights. He even found an unexpectedly direct connection between his photography and medicine. “Next year I’ll begin a sports medicine fellowship in Los Angeles,” he said. “When I was interviewing for it, I was asked if I thought my photography related to arthroscopic surgery and the ability to visualize problems inside a joint — something I never really considered before that conversation.”

Mark’s fellowship is in orthopaedic sports, arthroscopy and reconstructive surgery at the Southern California Orthopedic Institute. “It’s an orthopaedic specialty hospital and was my No. 1 choice for fellowship. I am grateful that my Geisinger Commonwealth education has led to so many amazing opportunities,” he said.

In the future, he plans to also continue his artistic career. “During my year in LA, I definitely hope to take advantage of the myriad national parks and opportunities for West Coast adventures — camera in hand, of course. I have been expanding the photography business, which has really exploded in the last year.

I currently donate a portion of all proceeds to Shriners Children’s Hospitals and I hope to increase that significantly once I have started my practice.”

geisinger.edu/AlumniSpotlight

A message from

the president and dean It’s been one year, and look how far we’ve come. I say this as we reflect on all we have accomplished since joining the Geisinger family. I might, however, also say “It’s been 10 years, and look how far we’ve come.” Our founders are certainly enjoying this sort of reminiscence. Either way, every School of Medicine anniversary celebrates a single thing: student success. That’s why I find it fortuitous and fitting that as we pass these significant milestones — 1 and 10 — they are joined by yet another joyful commemoration. It’s been five years since our Charter Class were graduated from the school they helped to build, and I am happy to report that several members have returned or are in the process of coming back to our area to practice. Returning students are the essence of our mission and will make our year of celebration even more jubilant.

In addition to welcoming alumni home, this year gives us many more reasons for optimism. As a member of the Geisinger family, the School of Medicine now offers incredible new pathways for career development. Obviously, our medical students benefit from access to world-class research like the MyCode project, but they also gain from the subtle advantages provided by rotating through a hospital like Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital and being exposed to the innovative technologies and approaches that make Geisinger a national model for high-quality patient care. We also have new clinical venues for third- and fourth-year student rotations and are proud that so many committed community faculty members continue to express great joy in teaching.

Alongside the medical students, the Geisinger educational enterprise, now gathered under one umbrella, claims a number of different learners, all of whom benefit from the synergy of integration. We are planning new residency programs targeted to respond to unique community needs. We’ve redesigned our master of biomedical sciences (MBS) degree program and have made significant strides in creating new master’s degree programs in groundbreaking areas like precision health. We will digitize educational content to provide new ways for learners to prepare themselves — or sharpen their skills — for indemand careers in new frontiers of science and medicine.

Even our youngest learners, high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds who comprise our pipeline program, REACH-HEI, benefit from the past years’ achievements, most notably the $3.4 million grant the school has received from HRSA/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a Center of Excellence (COE) for Diversity and Inclusion. REACH-HEI is an integral part of the COE’s goal of building a leakless pipeline to expand the pool of underrepresented-in-medicine candidates for both faculty and applicants to medical colleges.

The groundwork is being laid for a comprehensive enterprise that delivers education required of the healthcare teams of the future. That’s why, even though 2018 will observe many milestones, I believe we’ll have just as much and more to celebrate in 2019, 2020 and beyond.

Sincerely,

Steven J. Scheinman, MD

The Journal A publication by the Department of Marketing and Communications: Venard Scott Koerwer, EdD Vice President for Strategy & Planning Vice Dean for Graduate Studies Professor of Organizational Systems & Innovation Elizabeth Zygmunt Director of Media and Public Relations Heather M. Davis, MFA Director of Marketing and Communications Jessica Hine Graphic Designer Jessica Martin Editor Board of Directors Robert Dietz, Chair Earl Foura, Vice Chair David T. Feinberg, MD, MBA Pedro J. Greer Jr., MD V. Chris Holcombe, PE David H. Ledbetter, PhD, FACMG Virginia McGregor David B. Nash, MD, MBA Deborah E. Powell, MD Steven J. Scheinman, MD Office of Institutional Advancement Phone: 570-955-1310 Email: development@som.geisinger.edu Marise Garofalo Vice President for Institutional Advancement Andrea Mulrine Senior Director of Advancement Operations/ Campaign Manager Jane A. Kanyock, MBA Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations Kara L. Badyrka Director of Special Events and Special Projects Anthony A. Cernera, MEd Director of Annual Giving and Alumni Relations Karen A. Stine Administrative Assistant to the Vice President for Institutional Advancement Lori Ann Kerrigan Data Integrity Specialist On the cover: Our community faculty members provide a legacy of commitment and service when educating our future physicians. Read more on page 2.

President and Dean, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer, Geisinger The Journal

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Modeling medicine: Geisinger Commonwealth preceptors’ best lesson is their example Community faculty are the backbone of Geisinger Commonwealth’s innovative approach to medical education. The daily schedule of a practicing physician typically squeezes 20 hours of work into what, with hope, will be a “mere” 12-hour day. Building time to teach into a calendar already bursting at the seams is a genuine sacrifice. Our dedicated community faculty say they do it for love — of both medicine and students. To a preceptor, our clinical faculty describe Geisinger Commonwealth students in glowing terms, like curious, bright, empathetic, idealistic, kind. Even the best student, however, can’t become a skilled and caring clinician without effective role models. Geisinger Commonwealth is fortunate to have preceptors who not only teach the science of medicine, but also provide a sterling example of the personcentered, compassionate care that has become a hallmark of our school. Here are four who embody that spirit.

South Campus: Scott Muir, DO Other than his career in medicine, Scott Muir, DO, lists becoming an Eagle Scout among his proudest achievements. “Pledging to be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind and honest has helped me be a better doctor,” he said. “As the Boy Scout law suggests, we have tough days but we have to do the right thing, all of the time, every day.” This is a lesson the Clarks Summit native has passed on to his twin sons, age 22 and also Eagle Scouts, and to the Geisinger Commonwealth medical students Dr. Muir teaches.

“I’ve been a preceptor ever since the school opened,” he said. “I also take King’s College PA students and CRNP students.” Dr. Muir said his deep, personal commitment to teaching stems from his medical school days at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences. “I had many terrific rotations in Kansas City,” he said.

“But there were a few that were lackluster. I thought this was unfair to the students, so I made a deal with myself. I promised that when I was an attending, I would give my students the best experience possible.”

Since striking that bargain, Dr. Muir said he has received just as much as he gives. Dr. Muir, who practices with Lehigh Valley Physician Group–Hazleton, is an OB-GYN. It’s a branch of medicine that he describes as a “very personal specialty.”

“You are obligated to become part of your patients’ lives, and sometimes you have to be ready to have some very uncomfortable talks and to open some boxes — domestic abuse, sexual history — that no one else wants to,” he said. “It’s so rewarding to see when a student gets that,” he added. “It’s especially great when they learn how to gain patients’ trust. They take this with them and remember it. I’ve even converted some to OB-GYN. I think the depth of the experience is why I stay close with many of my students. They share their lives with me and keep in touch after they graduate. It lets me know they thought this experience was valuable.”

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North Campus: Tim Welby, MD Tim Welby, MD, admits to a certain apprehension when he’s asked to describe when and how he knew he wanted to be a doctor.

Many of his colleagues have striking stories of a loved one saved by medicine or of a life-changing experience that prompted a vow of service. In Dr. Welby’s case, he said he’s just always known, without the dramatic epiphany. “In a way, it’s made my life simple,” he said. “Even in high school at Scranton Prep, I knew I wanted to be a doctor — a pediatrician. So when my friends were nervous and wondering what to do, which career to choose, I didn’t have that anxiety.”

Dr. Welby’s cheerful demeanor is undoubtedly the result of being so comfortable and confident in his choices. And he feels blessed to have worked with many similarly positive, principled people — particularly his first employers, Denny Dawgert, MD (now a faculty member at Geisinger Commonwealth), and the late Thomas Zukoski, MD. “While I was still a resident at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, they contacted me and said they’d heard great things about me. They took me to dinner one night and asked me to join their practice and I agreed. I worked with them for years without having a contract,” he said, laughing. “But I never worried because I knew they would keep their word. They were just fantastic guys.”

Once the junior member of the team, Dr. Welby is now head of the Dickson City practice, since renamed Pediatrics of NEPA, which has 5 doctors, 2 physician assistants and 10,000 patients.

In addition to maintaining a busy practice, Dr. Welby said he’s been a preceptor for Geisinger Commonwealth students “since the beginning.”

“I enjoy teaching and I do it because somebody taught me. It’s my duty to pay it forward,” he said, adding he realizes he can’t “make every student a pediatrician.” Instead, he believes his job is to be a role model for how to treat patients and families. “There’s an art to medicine,” he said. “You have to sometimes coach the patient to do the right thing — and in pediatrics, we have two patients.

I want my students to see that every parent wants what’s best for their child and they deserve to be treated respectfully. Each individual patient may be just a tiny part of the student’s day, but to patients, that visit is the most important thing they’ll do that day. When I observe students with families and I see them drawing out a teen who won’t say three words or calm a child who is nervous, I know I played a role in modeling that skill. It’s neat to see and very rewarding.”

From left: Third-year medical student William Preston (MD Class of 2019) with Tim Welby, MD

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Guthrie Campus: Maninder Singh, MD Maninder Singh, MD, says he chose medicine because it allows him to “make a difference in people’s lives” and is a “noble profession.” The fact that medicine is dynamic and challenging didn’t hurt either. “I enjoy the fact that medicine is constantly evolving. It never feels stagnant,” he said.

The regional education coordinator/clerkship director of medicine and assistant professor of medicine in the Department of Clinical Sciences at Geisinger Commonwealth’s Guthrie Campus, Dr. Singh is also a practicing cardiologist.

As a student at the prestigious Armed Forces Medical College in Pune, India, Dr. Singh said he settled on cardiology as his medical specialty for many of the same reasons he was initially drawn to becoming a doctor. “My role model in medical school was a cardiologist and I was so impressed by his depth of knowledge. I saw cardiology as one of the most progressive and rapidly evolving fields. I like that it requires knowledge of so many things, like medicine, surgery and radiology. I am never bored,” he said.

From India, Dr. Singh moved on to Singapore, where he met his wife Anuradha, now a practice administrator at Guthrie.

“Living in Sayre after Singapore, you get to know how nice living in a small town can be. For instance, my wife and I walk to work together. Also, my professional satisfaction is high because my team is so excellent and amazing. In the end, you don’t miss the big-city things,” he said.

One of the things Dr. Singh appreciates most about his work at Guthrie is that he can teach residents and medical students — something that appeals to his love of an intellectual challenge.

“You learn as you teach. Students ask questions that make you think. Together, everyone is learning,” he said. “When I see students struggling with a difficult concept and I can help them to understand it, that moment when you see them grasp it — now they understand it. That moment makes me smile.”

Dr. Singh said having students on his team also results in better patient care. “Most of my patients love the students because they take the time to sit and talk and connect on an emotional level. I see so many patients really open up to the students,” he said. “That’s something residents don’t often have time to do.

The students make our patients feel important.”

“You learn as you teach. Students ask questions that make you think.

Together, everyone is learning. When I see students struggling with a difficult concept and I can help them to understand it, that moment when you see them grasp it — now they understand it. That moment makes me smile.”

— Maninder Singh, MD

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From left: Brytanie Marshall, MD, with third-year medical student Kasondra Hartman (MD Class of 2019)

Central Campus: Brytanie Marshall, MD As a college student at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Brytanie Marshall, MD, took a service trip to central Mexico that changed her life. “I delivered several babies there as an undergrad, and it rocked my world,” she said. Dr. Marshall has known since age 5 that she wanted to be a doctor, ever since a kind physician in her native Los Angeles area stitched up her injured hand.

“I still recall that care,” she said.

“But I wasn’t sure what specialty I would choose until my experience in Mexico.”

Dr. Marshall remained in Texas for medical school at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and OB-GYN residency at Baylor Scott & White Memorial Hospital, where she jokes she experienced another sort of transformation: “I met my husband Kyle in undergrad and, over time, essentially converted to Texan-ism.” Kyle Marshall, MD, an emergency medicine physician, subsequently matched into a clinical informatics fellowship at Geisinger Medical Center and the family — which includes two children, ages 3 and 1 — now has its roots planted firmly in Danville.

Danville offers a duality that big-city hospitals can’t match, she said. “We enjoy taking our kids to see local farms and appreciating where their food comes from. We even have a garden they love to tend. I really like that they can be a part of this small community,” Dr. Marshall said. “At the same time, we have this huge institution with a high volume of acute cases and interesting pathologies.”

Since arriving in Danville, Dr. Marshall discovered one more thing about Geisinger that appeals to her: serving as a preceptor for Geisinger Commonwealth medical students. “They make the care you give more comprehensive,” she said. “They bring fresh eyes to a case and their zeal is infectious. I like to tailor what my students see to what they want to do. So if they like surgery, I’ll emphasize that aspect, but if they like family or internal medicine, we’ll focus on the primary care. But the thing I love most is when students learn to appreciate women’s health and can incorporate it into the care they will provide their patients in the future, no matter their choice in specialty. They can feel my enthusiasm; I’m high-energy and I like bringing that to work.”

When she talks about her choice of pursuing a career in medicine, she jokes, “If I weren’t a doctor now, I’d probably be a rock star, but I’m not that great of a singer — so here I am!

Seriously though, I love women’s health and I haven’t regretted choosing medicine, not even for a minute.”

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Center of Excellence

for Diversity and Inclusion Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine was awarded a $3.4 million grant by the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to establish a Center of Excellence (COE) for Diversity and Inclusion.

The COE proposes a multifaceted, longitudinal approach to expand the pool of both qualified faculty and applicants to medical colleges in support of underrepresented-in-medicine (URM) medical students. An important COE goal is to improve on-time graduation rates and help students from URM communities effectively compete for residencies. Over the next five years, the COE will develop a replicable model for a “leakless pipeline” that enables URM individuals to succeed in their medical and scientific careers by growing the number of URM physicians to care for all communities in northeast and central Pennsylvania.

Part of the COE’s strategy to make the leakless pipeline built at Geisinger Commonwealth replicable in other communities is to develop a body of scholarly work produced by students under the mentorship of faculty. The research focuses on areas that directly impact health equity. A good example of the scholarly aspect of COE is research that master of biomedical sciences (MBS) student Charles Bay is undertaking under the supervision of Ida L. Castro, principal investigator, Geisinger Commonwealth’s vice president for Community Engagement and chief diversity officer.

The research, entitled “Becoming Familiar with Northeastern

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Pennsylvania’s Invisible Populations,” has revealed that community health needs assessments, taken at regular intervals as directed by the Affordable Care Act, do not take an effective look at significant populations — minorities, immigrants and homeless, for example. Ongoing research will examine the needs of these “invisible populations” in northeast Pennsylvania.

“The team will try to identify health data relevant to populations served by Geisinger Commonwealth and our healthcare footprint, as the data can then be used to inform a number of branches within the School of Medicine and Geisinger as a system. The information we produce is meant to educate and inform the public, researchers and care providers, who can take what we’ve learned and spark programs and initiatives to the benefit of all,” Charles said.

As for specific research, he said, “The health data project pertaining to marginalized populations in northeastern Pennsylvania was a first step toward filling a data gap.

‘Becoming Familiar with Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Invisible Populations’ allows residents, researchers, community organizations and health professionals — anyone — to better to understand and identify ways to improve the mental/physical/ social health of these populations. Combining the experiences of the individuals and communities we serve with relevant data enables us to better address social determinants of health with objectives informed by lived experiences, as well as clinically and epidemiologically relevant data.”

This project is/was supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number D34HP31025, Center of Excellence, for $3.4 million.

This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. government.

COE initiatives: Create opportunities for URM high school students and improve their ability to attend and succeed in their chosen health-related professions through: 10-day summer school for grade 9 Out-of-school-time programs, grades 8–12 Shadowing and community service Mentoring

Create opportunities for URM undergraduate students and improve their ability to attend and succeed in their medical careers through: Six-week undergraduate summer

research program

MCAT preparation Mentoring Community-based research projects

Create research opportunities for URM students and physicians to advance knowledge in areas directly impacting health equity and health risk factors, including: Eight-week summer research program for

pre-matriculate students

Scholarly work – community-based research projects Mentoring Professional development USMLE Step 1 preparation

“The health data project pertaining to marginalized populations in northeastern Pennsylvania was a first step toward filling a data gap. ‘Becoming Familiar with Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Invisible Populations’ allows residents, researchers, community organizations and health professionals — anyone — to better understand and identify ways to improve the mental/ physical/social health of these populations.

Combining the experiences of the individuals and communities we serve with relevant data enables us to better address social determinants of health with objectives informed by lived experiences, as well as clinically and epidemiologically relevant data.”

– Charles Bay, MBS Class of 2018

Create professional development opportunities for physicians participating in COE through: Scholarly work Faculty appointments Professional development

Expand the pool of URM matriculants at Geisinger Commonwealth with: Fast-track MBS-to-MD program Affiliation agreements with historically black colleges and

universities and Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities institutions Expanding diverse admissions Health equity group composed of URM physicians and scientists who will: Mentor Serve as preceptors Serve as lead researchers/scholarly workers Serve as community faculty members Serve on committees at Geisinger Commonwealth

(e.g., Admissions, Curriculum)

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Precision with a heart:

MyCode teaches the action in the exome with a person-centered approach As a technology, precision health is advancing rapidly. Some Geisinger geneticists believe that in as little as five years, most patients will have some sort of genetic information — perhaps even a fully sequenced exome — in their medical charts. The question is: Will doctors be fluent in the language of precision health and ready to use genetic data to tailor and guide an individual patient’s treatment?

These questions occupy the mind of W. Andrew (Andy) Faucett, MS, LGC, professor and director of Policy & Education in the Office of the Chief Scientific Officer. Based on his team’s work to date, he knows Geisinger doctors are and will be well prepared to effectively transform genetic codes into proactive, customized care plans. Since integration with Geisinger, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s priority is also to immerse doctors-in-training in the tenets of precision health in ways that will place them well ahead of their peers, both in terms of understanding the genome and communicating the implications of genetic changes to their patients.

“The MyCode project can be divided into two parts,” Mr. Faucett said. “The first is the actual biobank — the genome married to the electronic health record.

The second part consists of returning actionable results to individual patients.

We have an evolving list of conditions we are sure are tightly linked to certain genetic changes. Knowing they have one

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W. Andrew (Andy) Faucett, MS, LGC of these changes means patients and their doctors can tailor a treatment optimized for the individual, schedule earlier screenings for certain diseases or prevent the disease altogether.”

Each part of the project plays a vital role in medical education at Geisinger Commonwealth, where students have opportunities in both realms of MyCode: handling the data and acting upon it. The key to the latter lies not just in discerning the appropriate clinical action to take, but also in communicating capably and sensitively to ensure patients are true partners in their care. That’s where Geisinger Commonwealth students get the “Geisinger edge,” Mr. Faucett said, by learning precision health in a highly patient-centered model.

“In a traditional research model, it’s

the researcher who sets the parameters,” Mr. Faucett said.

“With MyCode, we ask patients to tell us what’s important. We want to know from them how to share results, even if we should share Tim Corcoran certain results. We have four patients on our eight-person Ethics Advisory Council now helping with questions like whether to return results on the BRCA-1 and -2 genes (implicated in breast and ovarian cancers) in children.”

Tim Corcoran, a second-year medical student, took part in research at the Geisinger Precision Health Center in Forty Fort this past summer.

He said his experience was a perfect blend of both parts of MyCode. “I was tasked with going through the electronic health records of Geisinger patients with a particular genetic

variant — familial hypercholesterolemia, or FH — that predisposes them to high cholesterol. My job was to determine what impact knowledge of their variant had on their care. Were their results helping their treatment? In addition to data mining, the research involved interviews with the patients and their perceptions of their MyCode experience.”

Tim said the patients overwhelmingly told him that knowing they had a genetic predisposition greatly relieved their sense of guilt, since most previously believed they had “done something wrong” and caused their condition.

“In my first year, we learned about FH, but nothing can replace actually talking to real people with FH and hearing about how it impacts their lives,” he said. “I feel primed for the future, for precision health — it’s where medicine is headed. Plus, I gained a lot of experience using Epic [a widely used electronic medical record software system], so that’s one less thing I’ll have to worry about in residency.”

Second-year student Warren Acker took part in research at the Geisinger Precision Health Center in Forty Fort this past summer. He worked with MyCode data that identified patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition causing an enlarged heart. He said his MyCode experience has given him “fluency, knowledge and understanding” of precision health. “From the MyCode research experience, I learned about genomics from an insider’s perspective.”

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Geisinger Commonwealth’s role in educating healthcare teams of the future is coming into focus One of the more challenging aspects of the past year of Geisinger Commonwealth’s integration is understanding the sheer scope and reach of the new educational enterprise.

With integration, Steven J. Scheinman, MD, president and dean of the School of Medicine, also became Geisinger’s chief academic officer, making him responsible for the full continuum of both traditional and developing educational activities. Under the dean’s direction, William Iobst, MD, vice president for Academic & Clinical Affairs and vice dean for medical education, is leading a team charged with integrating and transforming activities that span the continuum from undergraduate medical education (UME, or medical school) and graduate medical education (GME, or residency) all the way through continuing professional development (CPD).

Dr. Scheinman has also led discussions about integrating health professions education and the growth of the graduate school. This work is complex and those involved are only now beginning to understand the challenges and opportunities that come with transformation.

“We’ve spent the past year getting a better understanding of the full picture. Each piece of education was very different before integration. Now we are beginning to see how it will all come together and be innovative the way Geisinger is innovative,” said Nicole Woll, PhD, MEd, associate dean for Faculty Development and Continuing Professional Development.

Innovation in this sense means opening the borders between health professions and between stages of education, and obliterating the notion that a learner is ever “done.” For these reasons, a wide range of healthcare learners — not just medical

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students — will reap the benefits of integration.

“If we only celebrate the past year’s success at the UME level, we miss the full power of the integration,” said Dr. Iobst.

“Integrating UME with GME has brought positive change, but our ability to align it with CPD means we can facilitate education across the full continuum of healthcare providers’ careers.”

Dr. Woll observes that the continuum at Geisinger Commonwealth is not a flat, two-dimensional arc. It’s networked throughout the entire educational enterprise, so learning pathways intersect across professions and throughout educational stages, creating a learning “multiverse.” “Having the continuum under one umbrella is great, but what’s important is that it’s so connected,” she said.

Connectivity is already evident in the new symbiotic relationship between UME and GME, according to Michelle Thompson, MD, associate dean for Graduate Medical Education. “The purpose of medical school is to prepare students for residency, yet when we compare UME to competencies needed in residency, we see there are gaps,” she said. These gaps are formed by the necessary (but limiting) focus during medical school on tests that measure subject knowledge rather than more-difficult-to-assess outcomes like professionalism. “With integration, we now have UME curriculum conversations at both ends of the spectrum,” Dr. Thompson said. “We talk about the need for students to pass tests, but we also focus on competencies for GME and what learners must be able to do to provide quality patient care. This is how GME influences the UME curriculum and allows us to better assess student outcomes.”

GME is also undergoing “integration transformation.” Dr. Iobst describes the “thoughtful discussion” ongoing among educational leadership at Geisinger Commonwealth about reviewing and managing the growth of GME. “Integration has allowed a strategic assessment of GME. We’ve created a process to develop new residencies aligned with Geisinger’s mission to serve its communities,” he said. “It’s not just adding residencies. We are asking, ‘Which ones shall we add and where?’”

In that vein, Dr. Thompson described several new programs. A new family medicine residency with an emphasis on rural practice is in the accreditation process at Geisinger Lewistown Hospital. Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital, never before a teaching hospital, is poised to take 10 transitional-year residents in 2019. Transitional-year refers to the first “general” year of training required for individuals who will advance to specialty training.

An integrated plastic surgery residency is also rolling out at Geisinger Medical Center that embodies the new educational observance of competency-based rather than time-based parameters. “The trend in plastic surgery is moving away from the independent to the integrated model,” Dr. Thompson said, noting the integrated model is completed in six years — rather than eight or nine — because it eliminates the requirement for years of general surgery experience, instead building proficiency immediately in the learner’s chosen field.

Dr. Thompson also notes a “lack of GME” in the northeast region with opportunities to grow programs at Geisinger Community Medical Center and Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center. “Just as the rural family medicine program at Lewistown makes sense for that community, we will look at programs that meet the specific needs of the communities in the northeast,” she said.

Meeting the needs of the community is the overriding concern of the educational enterprise. “All of these accomplishments made over the past year since integration are examples of the concrete benefits made possible through Geisinger,” Dr. Iobst said. “The ultimate goal is a healthcare workforce with the best capacity to care for our neighbors.”

Dr. Woll concurs and expresses great optimism for the future. “The sky is the limit,” she said. “Geisinger innovations — being sophisticated in a rural setting, focusing on quality improvement, being proactive about population health with initiatives like the Fresh Food Farmacy™ — these things influence education and become our innovations, too.

Students become part of the mission. That’s how Geisinger education is unique.”

Get to know our Central Campus Geisinger Commonwealth’s reach, in terms of both educational programs and geography, is growing. The past year has seen significant changes and enhancements in degree programs and clinical venues. There’s even discussion about a potential presence in Atlantic City. The greatest success story of the past year, however, is undoubtedly the Central Campus and how quickly it has become an integral part of virtually every third-year medical student’s experience.

Janet Townsend, MD, regional associate dean for the Central Campus and professor of family medicine in the Department of Clinical Sciences, notes that the Central Campus is “not just Geisinger Medical Center (GMC).”

She said that while GMC in Danville provides quality clinical experiences, students are also getting superior training at hospitals like Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg and at Geisinger Holy Spirit in Camp Hill.

“The campus encompasses eight counties,” Dr. Townsend said. “At each site we have energized leadership, including nursing administration, who are excited to host our students.”

William Iobst, MD, vice president for Academic & Clinical Affairs and vice dean for medical education, is grateful for the warm welcome throughout the Central Campus venues, particularly Geisinger sites. “We are proud to note that, in just one year, we’ve quadrupled the number of Geisinger physicians engaged with our students. This was only possible through the enthusiastic support the medical students received at all levels.”

Dr. Townsend agrees that enthusiasm was the indispensable element to establishing the campus. The process is arduous and requires buy-in from leadership, along with a great deal of personal outreach to and training of preceptors, especially in the concepts of the longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC) — a training method most physicians did not experience in their own medical school years.

Despite the rigors of the task and tight time constraints, GMC at Danville, for example, now hosts a large number of students. “We have 12 — soon to be 20 — medical students at the Central Campus who began their rotations in July,” said Dr. Townsend. “They’ve worked with residents on block rotations and with attending physicians in the LIC, and are having a great experience.”

Resident teams, according to Dr. Townsend, bring an added dimension to the third- and fourth-year medical student experience. “They enrich learning.

Medical students enjoy being taught by ‘near peers.’ Residents tend to break some things down better for students and can offer practical tips.

This complements the experiences available in a community hospital where students get to work directly with an attending and have the chance to get more direct observation of their skills.”

In addition, at GMC, almost every third-year student will have a pediatrics rotation at Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital, the only children’s hospital among Geisinger Commonwealth’s clinical venues. Nicole Woll, PhD, MEd, associate dean for Faculty Development and Continuing Professional Development, notes that the children’s hospital “provides students the chance to experience complex cases, plus the advantage of attending pediatrics Grand Rounds and M & M (morbidity and mortality) conferences.”

Dr. Iobst notes that none of these things were available just one year ago.

“The progress has been remarkable,” he said. “Providing these enriched learning venues would not have been possible without integration and the warm support of our new colleagues.”

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Class notes Master of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) alumni Moe Ameri, MBS ’16 is completing his first year of medical school at the American University of the Caribbean, where he serves as vice president for student government.

Sagar Bhatt, MBS ’17 was recently promoted as a pharmaceutical research scientist at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson company.

Jackie Botello, MBS ’16 accepted a position doing research at Invitae in San Francisco.

Hayward Evans, MBS ’13 will graduate from Howard University College of Medicine in May 2018.

Christopher Karnicki, MBS ’17 accepted a position as clinical research coordinator at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey.

Ariana Kim, MBS ’17 works as a clinical research intern at the National Institutes of Health for the Undiagnosed Diseases Program. She has research posters being presented at the WORLD symposium in San Diego and the Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting in North Carolina this spring.

Noah Kirshner, MBS ’17 is completing his first year at Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine.

Tyler Narby, MBS ’12 currently serves as a surface warfare officer in the U.S. Navy.

Pratik Patel, MBS ’17 accepted a position as a pharmacovigilance scientist at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson company.

Joseph Lipat, MBS ’15 was commissioned as a U.S. Navy officer in December 2017. He is currently in his second year at NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University.

Doctor of Medicine (MD) alumni Alexandra Belcher-Obejero-Paz, MD ’15 has been named administrative chief for the 2019 academic year for the OB-GYN program at Boston University Medical Center. In November 2017, Dr. Belcher and her husband welcomed a baby boy, Giannis Pierre.

Hannah Canty, MD ’15 will finish her pediatric residency this June from OHSU and will be starting a Pediatric Critical Care fellowship at Stanford University’s Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.

Jeremy Celestine, MD ’13 has started serving as a community faculty member at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. Dr. Celestine is our first alumnus to be appointed as clinical faculty.

Jennifer Sayers, MBS ’16 is completing her first year at Saba University School of Medicine.

Amanita Setari, MBS ’17 accepted a position at Celmatix Inc. in biotech as a junior scientific curator.

Nicholas Thorneloe, MBS ’16 was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force as a member of the health profession scholarship program. He has not yet chosen which medical school offer to accept. He will welcome his first child, a boy, in March 2018.

David Verespy, MBS ’13 recently accepted a position in clinical support for YOH at Sanofi Pasteur in the Global Clinical Immunology Department.

Whitney Washington, MBS ’17 accepted a job offer as recruitment manager for Stewart Staffing Inc.

Kunal Dalal, MD ’15 published an article titled “Ayurvedic drug induced liver injury” in World Journal of Hepatology.

This summer, Dr. Dalal will start a GI fellowship at Cooper University Hospital in Camden, N.J. He and his wife are expecting a baby in May 2018.

Eleanor Gillis, MD ’14 has been selected as chief resident in her radiology residency program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She looks forward to specialized training in nuclear medicine in her fourth year of residency, followed by a Breast Imaging fellowship.

Gary Ihnat, MD ’14 has been named chief resident of his radiology program at University of South Florida College of Medicine for the 2018–2019 academic year.

Save the date: 12

MD Class of 2022 White Coat Ceremony Friday, Aug. 3, 2018

Igor Makhlin, MD ’15 was selected for the 2018 Housestaff Teaching Award

by Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and was inducted as the inaugural member of the new Johns Hopkins Physician Scientist Training Program.

Dr. Makhlin and his wife Nisha welcomed Anika Rae DheerMakhlin in December 2017.

In the coming months, Dr. Makhlin will have a manuscript published in JCI Insight titled “Germline Mutations in the Alternative Compliment Pathway Predispose to HELLP,” and he will start his fellowship in hematology/oncology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Annie Kate Misiura, MD ’14 and Joe Marascio, MD ’14 are engaged to be married in December 2018. They recently presented their research in oncologic imaging and radiation therapy at the Radiological Society of North America and the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meetings. Dr. Misiura’s research in oncologic imaging was also recently published in JAOCR and JSM Spine. Dr. Misiura is currently completing her residency in diagnostic radiology at Hahnemann University Hospital. Dr. Marascio is currently completing his residency in radiation oncology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

Jessica Pozzuto, MD ’15 will fulfill her National Health Service Corps scholarship as a pediatrician at Keystone Health in Chambersburg, Pa., starting in July 2018.

Nicole Pumariega, MD ’15 and Drew Wroblewski, MD ’15 were married in December 2017. They were surrounded by friends, family and a large group of fellow alumni.

Patrick Schofield, MD ’13 presented at ASE Echo Hawaii on “Transesophageal Echocardiographic Methods for Assessment of Right Ventricular Function.” This summer, he will start a fellowship at University of Michigan for Anesthesiology Critical Care. Dr. Schofield is organizing a team to run in the Scranton Marathon in October 2018 – email alumni@som.geisinger.edu to join him.

Lauren Stawovy, MD ’17 married husband Luke between graduation and the start of her residency at WVU School of Medicine in 2017.

Keri Ann Stevenson, MD ’14 will begin a fellowship in forensic psychiatry at Yale University in July 2018. Dr. Stevenson and fellow alumnus Matt Kongkatong, MD ’14 welcomed their baby boy, Max, in September 2017.

Sean Wallace, MD ’14 is in his fourth year of his integrated plastic and reconstructive surgery residency. He recently published “Diverticulitis Resulting in Brain Abscess: A Case Report” in The World Journal of Colorectal Surgery and coauthored a book chapter, “Finger Tip & Nailbed Injuries” in Introductory Atlas of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery: A Procedural Manual. He presented posters at several conferences this past year, “Diverticulitis Resulting in Brain Abscess: A Case Report” at The AMA Annual Research Symposium, “Diverticulitis Resulting in Brain Abscess: A Case Report” at The Keystone Chapter of the American College of Surgeons Meeting and “Extra-Pleural Solitary Fibrous Tumor on the Posterior Shoulder: A Case Report” at the Keystone Chapter of the American College of Surgeons Meeting.

Tadeusz Witek, MD ’13 will complete his general surgery residency in June 2018. In July 2018, he will start a Cardiothoracic fellowship at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Witek and his wife Jess welcomed their daughter, Zofia Marie, in October 2017.

Tell us your latest news! geisinger.edu/AlumniUpdate

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Spotlight on:

Leighton Y. Huey, MD Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine is pleased to announce that Leighton Y. Huey, MD, has accepted the position of associate dean for Behavioral Health Integration and Community Care Transformation, a position in which he will work collaboratively with community partners to integrate behavioral healthcare — traditionally held separate from physical health — into primary care and population health initiatives.

Medicine’s faculty, as well, on integrating behavioral health education throughout the curriculum, and will be an active teacher and mentor for students and residents from all disciplines. In addition, Dr. Huey will see patients at The Wright Center (TWC) and bear the title of codirector of Behavioral Health Integration, with responsibility for TWC’s innovative programs on integrating care.

A highly regarded national authority on how psychiatric systems function and how trainees learn within the larger behavioral healthcare spectrum, Dr. Huey advocates having behavioral health, physical health and public/community efforts integrated along a true biopsychosocial continuum. “Early identification of people at risk, education of and by communities, and improved, thoughtful, timely coordination of effort are components of a modern, efficient, effective system — one that individualizes care and strives to improve outcomes,” he said. Dr. Huey is particularly focused on new approaches to care integration throughout health systems to help individuals having problems with mood, substance abuse, psychosis and anxiety disorders.

“Dr. Huey’s role is truly one of collaboration and synthesis,” said Steven J. Scheinman, MD, president and dean of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine and executive vice president for Geisinger. “His work will be emblematic of BHI’s core mission of convening community to address social and behavioral health issues that affect the well-being of the entire population of northeastern Pennsylvania. We look forward to helping him achieve his goals of creating new models of clinical delivery, particularly those that reinforce continuity of care.”

Dr. Huey, who will assume his role in March, will also have a faculty appointment as professor of psychiatry at Geisinger Commonwealth.

To read more about Dr. Huey, visit geisinger.edu/LeightonHuey.

AllOne Foundation’s generous support of Geisinger Commonwealth’s Behavioral Health Initiative (BHI) helped recruit Dr. Huey. John Cosgrove, the foundation’s executive director, said, “Dr. Huey is a major figure in the effort to integrate behavioral health. We are pleased that a leader of his stature will now work to improve care delivery to our friends and neighbors in northeastern Pennsylvania, and we are proud to support the work of the BHI.” Among Dr. Huey’s key tasks will be to collaborate with Ida Castro, Geisinger Commonwealth’s vice president for Community Engagement. He will also partner with Geisinger’s Brian Ebersole and lend his expertise in integrating behavioral health into Geisinger’s Springboard Healthy Scranton program, which addresses behavioral issues in the community and the social determinants of health. He will work closely with the School of

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geisinger.edu/LeightonHuey

From left: Keith Loughney, administrative assistant for the Behavioral Health Initiative (BHI); Terri Lacey, RN, executive director of the BHI; Ed Shoener; Sarah Shoener; Jane A. Kanyock, MBA, CFRE, director of Corporate and Foundation Relations; Sarah Schreiber, MD Class of 2020; Patra Sayani, MD Class of 2020; and Katya Malykina, MD Class of 2020

Donor spotlight:

The Katie Foundation When Ed Shoener’s only daughter, Katie, died by suicide in the summer of 2016, the grief-stricken father had one overwhelming thought: He would not allow Katie’s death to be chalked up to a personal failing on her part. Instead, he wanted — in a very public way — to place the blame squarely where it belonged: on the stigma that attaches to mental illness and on our society’s insistence on separating mental-health treatment from all other healthcare issues.

Just days after Katie’s death, Ed wrote a heart-wrenching obituary that read in part, “People who have cancer are not cancer, those with diabetes are not diabetes. Katie was not bipolar — she had an illness called bipolar disorder — Katie herself was a beautiful child of God.” Ed’s words struck a chord. The obituary went viral, shared countless times by people moved by his message. The Washington Post interviewed Ed. He even saw an Italianlanguage version of Katie’s story. “I heard from people from across the country and around the world,” Ed said. “I think that speaks to a broad need to talk about mental illness. The response to the obit is what motivated me to join the cause to remove the stigma and get care for people who have been longing for this kind of understanding.”

Ed’s desire to “shine a light on mental illness,” coupled with the determination of Katie’s friends to honor her memory, gave birth to The Katie Foundation. “Katie’s friends laid the groundwork for the foundation in 2016 with a 5K run they

planned to host around Katie’s birthday — Oct. 31,” said Sarah Shoener, Katie’s sister-in-law and treasurer of The Katie Foundation. “We agreed to help them. Then the obit went viral and we realized that this is so needed. There is so much good we can do.”

In addition to the 5K race, the foundation raises awareness in the community through innovative social media campaigns and high-profile events like appearances at RailRiders baseball games. The foundation also supports the efforts of the Behavioral Health Initiative (BHI) at Geisinger Commonwealth to bring mental health treatment out of the shadows and into primary care clinics where it belongs.

“This is why I like the affiliation with the medical school,” Ed said. “Mental illness is like any other illness, and Geisinger Commonwealth deals with it that way — it doesn’t place it apart from other healthcare. Plus, the school emphasizes interprofessional education. In Katie’s case, I don’t think the hospitals, therapists, psychiatrists and general practitioners communicated amongst themselves as well as they could.”

Sarah said she believes working with medical students will further Katie’s message in ways other foundation work can’t.

“The students are young and know what it’s like to live in a world where people feel they have to be perfect. If this generation will be open about mental illness and share, we can do great things together. We can change the world.”

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Gala 2017: Black Ties For White Coats

David Feinberg, MD, Andrea Feinberg, MD, William E. Sordoni and Jennifer Sordoni

Geisinger Commonwealth hosted its ninth annual Black Ties for White Coats Gala in October 2017 in the Keystone Grand Ballroom of the Mohegan Sun Pocono Convention Center in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The 2017 gala grossed just under $510,000 in support of student scholarships. The black-tie–preferred event included a cocktail reception and silent auction, followed by a gourmet dinner and dancing to live music by “Into the Spin.”

Each year, Geisinger Commonwealth honors prominent members of the community who embody important aspects of the School of Medicine’s founding principles: community, wellbeing and innovation.

This year’s community honoree was Susan Sordoni, MD, and Volunteers in Medicine (VIM). Dr. Sordoni founded the Wilkes-Barre VIM clinic nine years ago. Since 2008, the free clinic has treated 15,000 uninsured patients, thanks to the volunteer work of 9 doctors and 13 dentists.

The wellbeing honoree was Louis DeNaples Jr., MD, who, along with his colleagues at Emergency Services PC, has improved emergency medical care in the region by introducing strict quality measures, along with new proprietary software that tracks patients throughout an ER visit, enhancing their safety.

Sana Chughtai, MD Class of 2021, U.S. Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. and Shradha Chhabria, MD Class of 2021

The innovation honoree was Robert W. Naismith, PhD. Dr. Naismith founded a series of successful financial, healthcare and digital companies throughout the years and played a key role in founding Geisinger Commonwealth in 2008.

Erin Connolly, MD Class of 2020, shared her story with the crowd, emphasizing the importance of student scholarships.

Theresa and Jeremy Celestine, MD ’13

From left: David T. Feinberg, MD, MBA, Geisinger president and chief executive officer; Robert W. Naismith, PhD, 2017 innovation honoree; Susan Sordoni, MD, 2017 community honoree; Louis DeNaples Jr., MD, 2017 wellbeing honoree; and Steven J. Scheinman, MD, Geisinger Commonwealth president and dean and Geisinger executive vice president and chief academic officer

Save the date: 10th Annual Geisinger Commonwealth Golf Classic • Monday, June 11

Steven Scheinman, MD, and Kelly Scheinman

Gala 2018: Black Ties for White Coats Saturday, Oct. 20 To watch honoree videos and to see more photos from the gala, visit geisinger.edu/gala.

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Founders Society In the early days of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, a group of individuals, organizations, corporations and foundations stepped forward to ensure the success of the Commonwealth’s new medical college through generous contributions for student scholarships and operations. We are sincerely grateful for their support and recognize them as members of our Founders Society.

Myer M. Alperin* Michael J. & Louise D. Altier Anonymous Pat & John Atkins Dr. & Mrs. Charles J. Bannon Benco Dental Company Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania Dr. Harmar D. & Leslie W. Brereton Alice Bulger, Dr. Weimin Chen & Louis Shapiro Geisinger Community Medical Center Geisinger Community Medical Center medical staff Drs. Louis DeGennaro, Anthony Brutico, Mark Frattali, Keith Pritchyk Delta Medix PC Dempsey Uniform & Linen Supply Inc. Fidelity Deposit & Discount Bank First Liberty Bank & Trust The Gentile family David & Carol Greenwald and Bruce & Melissa Saidman David & Ann Hawk, Gertrude Hawk Chocolates Beatrice T. Heveran, Esq. & Robert M. D’Alessandri, MD Martin Hyzinski, MD InterMountain Medical Group Eugene Joseph Kane Thomas F. & Flora K. Karam Lackawanna County Charlotte T. Schroeder Mack Margaret Briggs Foundation Richard C. & Sally W. Marquardt Family Foundation The medical staff of Mercy Hospital Cliff & Ruth Melberger Mercy Health Partners Kim & Rob Mericle Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs Barbara Monick Moses Taylor Health Care System Moses Taylor Hospital medical staff Morey & Sondra Myers Dr. Robert W. & Claudia B. Naismith Northeastern Eye Institute Northeastern Rehabilitation Associates PC The Oppenheim family Penn Security Bank & Trust Company The Roy W. Piper Charitable Trust PNC Pocono Health System PrimeMed PC The Quandel Group Inc. Radiation Medicine Associates of Scranton Radiological Consultants Inc. & Advanced Imaging Specialists Mr. & Mrs. Harold Rosenn Drs. David Rutta, Bharat Patel, Christopher Barbarevech, Alexander Lalos & Edward Sherwin Sanofi Pasteur Gov. & Mrs. William W. Scranton* Scranton Area Foundation Inc. Scranton Orthopaedic Specialists PC Mr. Andrew & Dr. Susan Sordoni Susquehanna Health Taylor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center Fund of The Luzerne Foundation Dr. & Mrs. Gerald P. Tracy Wayne Memorial Health System Wilkes-Barre General Hospital Steve* & Libby Wojdak Dr. & Mrs. Robert E. Wright The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education The Wright Center Medical Group

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*Deceased

Updates Geisinger Commonwealth launched the Campaign for Scholarships and Innovation at Gala 2015, where we also introduced three themes we believe define the School of Medicine: community, wellbeing and innovation. Those themes seem to have resonated. Our campaign has topped its goals twice already and we’re not done yet. With less than a year remaining, we’re making a final push to exceed initial expectations — again — by sharing stories of our students, the school’s true ambassadors of community, wellbeing and innovation.

The campaign’s name defines its purpose: We have and will continue to raise money specifically targeted toward student scholarships. We do so to support student aspirations, which are simultaneously simple and ambitious: to serve; to become doctors. By supporting student scholarships, donors acknowledge that while medical school is expensive, our students’ generosity of spirit is invaluable and worthy of investment. Here, meet three students who exemplify not only campaign themes, but also Geisinger Commonwealth’s unique emphasis on caring.

Marise Garofalo Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Community:

Evan Frigoletto MD Class of 2020

Wayne Memorial Health System Scholar

Whether he is raising money to fight cancer, encouraging healthy eating or supporting cultural and educational programming that enriches his hometown’s quality of life, Evan Frigoletto is all about community.

The Honesdale native said his desire to get involved is a family affair. His mother, Michelle, is a fourth-generation barber who operates Mick’s Barbershop, a Honesdale fixture since 1890. The shop’s longevity is due in part to the family’s community-centric philanthropy and volunteerism.

Philanthropy comes in the form of a cancer fundraiser the entire town gets behind. “Mick’s Barbershop holds a biennial ‘Buzz Off for Cancer’ fundraiser,” Evan said, “The whole community participates. The teachers at Honesdale High School even do it. They get their heads shaved in the gym in front of the student body. It’s pretty fun.” Since joining the Geisinger Commonwealth student body, Evan, a second-year medical student who also holds a master of biomedical sciences (MBS) degree from Geisinger Commonwealth, has also persuaded his fellow students to get a close cut for a good cause.

Evan also volunteers for The Cooperage Project, a Honesdale quality-of-life effort that “offers a range of instructive and entertaining activities that will engage, challenge and enlighten” in a converted barrel-maker’s building. “The Cooperage has an indoor farmer’s market and, through a grant from the United Way, they give out ‘Coop Cash’ vouchers that let people buy fresh, healthy food,” Evan said. “I demonstrate healthy recipes people can make using ingredients available at the market.” His most recent demonstration involved a kale and chickpea salad.

Evan is also president of Geisinger Commonwealth’s brand-new Cooking Club. Through the club, Evan, who enjoys good spicy Bolognese sauce and recently got his club members to sample a tasty lapin aux olives (rabbit with olives), encourages good health and camaraderie.

He said this and his Cooperage volunteer work promote healthy food combined with affordability. “I think doctors should set an example, and good nutrition is something anyone in healthcare can get behind,” he said.

Community

$23,216,087 raised from

the community for the campaign

2,331 individuals, organizations and foundations have made gifts

34 scholarships were formed The Journal

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Well-being: Wellbeing:

Shradha Chhabria MD Class of 2021

Sanofi Pasteur Scholar

Although Stroudsburg native Shradha Chhabria has a passion for global health, she believes the wellbeing of entire populations begins on a much smaller scale. “Change happens at the community level,” she said. “It happens one-on-one.”

Shradha speaks from experience, having undergone a complete transformation by achieving greater personal wellbeing under the guidance of her revered guru during a year she spent living in an ashram in Haryana, India.

Shradha’s path from Stroudsburg to Haryana was forged by the stressful, frenetic pace of student life, first in a college-preparatory high school (Moravian Academy) and then at an elite university (Georgetown), made all the more grueling by being on the premed track. “In the U.S., most chronic noncommunicable diseases are lifestyledriven. We live life under tremendous pressure and lack coping mechanisms built into our culture. In other cultures, people would never eat in their car or at their desk for the sake of efficiency. Here it’s the norm,” she said.

By the time Shradha got her degree in global health, she was suffering a variety of stress-related ailments, from depression to obesity. She was foggybrained from the variety of medications she was taking. “I knew I needed to get my own health back on track,” she said.

So before tackling medical school, she decided to take a gap year in India.

At the ashram in Haryana, Shradha meditated, practiced yoga, received Ayurvedic (traditional Indian) medical care and received spiritual guidance from Guru Anandmurti Gurumaa.

Her relationships with food, with her body and with her mind were changed “dramatically.” She lost more than 50 pounds and no longer required daily medications. “The experience helped me understand how deeply interrelated physical and mental health are, and how every lifestyle choice we make affects both,” Shradha said. Meditation helped her to find a calm space in her mind that she can still reach now that she has returned to the U.S. and resumed a busy schedule.

Shradha said her gap year has given her insights into how she wants to practice medicine in the future. Her interest is in integrative medicine that infuses the Western focus on acute care and procedures with the Eastern concern for root causes. “Medicine should focus on prevention, starting with people’s dayto-day choices,” she said. “We should understand symptoms as the result of an underlying cause and educate and empower people to find their own solutions to lifestyle problems. I have great hope that my generation can bring these changes to medicine. The fact that my medical school welcomed a workshop on yoga nidra [a form of guided meditation] tells me there is a growing understanding of the power of integrative medicine.”

Wellbeing

110 alumni are completing or have

completed residencies in Pennsylvania

40,000

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volunteer hours were performed by our students

Innovation:

Douglas Wells MD Class of 2020 Doug Wells, a second-year medical student, doesn’t believe in ignoring problems in the hopes they’ll go away.

He likes to take action. So when he saw a pervasive problem in healthcare being largely ignored, he did something about it. He founded the Community Healthcare Advocacy Team for Individuals with Disabilities (CHATID) to raise awareness of the challenges that patients with disabilities face, and to improve the inequitable care that results from those barriers in the healthcare system.

“Imagine approaching a receptionist’s desk that’s so high you can’t see over it,” he said. Or arriving for a cancer screening, only to confuse staff who are unsure of how to properly lift you from your wheelchair. Or being deaf and having interpretive services that don’t speak the sign language to which you are accustomed, rendering the service virtually useless.

“These barriers are unacceptable,” Doug said. “Especially when they are encountered in healthcare.” Because his father copes with multiple sclerosis, Doug has firsthand knowledge of some of the difficulties people with disabilities face.

“They just want to be treated like normal patients,” Doug said — which is why he founded CHATID. CHATID is an advocate for improving the quality of healthcare for everyone with disabilities by expanding accessibility, effectively coordinating and making healthcare workers aware of community-based resources, and improving the efficacy of medical staff to communicate with and care for individuals with disabilities. CHATID’s goal is to provide patients with both knowledge of their healthcare rights and resources to ensure health equity, and to help physicians to understand how best to provide equal care for all using the knowledge and resources provided.

Doug also volunteers in areas other than CHATID. An avid athlete, he is coorganizer of the school’s annual “AlleyOop for Autism” basketball tournament.

And, inspired by his own “goofy, funny” childhood doc, he is community outreach chair for the school’s Pediatric Outreach Group for Students (POGS). His POGS innovation is “Mr. Rattlin’ Bones,” an entertaining lesson in anatomy the group offers to children at libraries throughout Lackawanna County.

Innovation

75% of our students hail from Pennsylvania

22% are first generation to graduate college

13% are from economically disadvantaged backgrounds The Journal

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525 Pine St., Scranton, PA 18509 geisinger.edu/GCSOM

Scholarship feature Kathy Snyder Northeastern Pennsylvania Health Care Foundation Scholar

MD Class of 2021 Kathy Snyder, a native of Dallas, Pa., has energy and determination that will make her an outstanding doctor. She said becoming a physician has been her dream since childhood, inspired largely by early exposure to the rigors and joys of caring for people. “My grandfather was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and, after my grandmother died, my family and I played a big part in his care,” she told me. “Seeing a chronic condition up close and being on the patient side, I wanted to do more for him. That’s what sparked my interest in being a doctor.”

As a student, Kathy has worked tirelessly to achieve her dream. As a firstgeneration-to-college student, she said she grew up watching her father work multiple jobs to care for his family and she followed his example.

“I started working at the local Gerrity’s supermarket, and through college I had two or three jobs, even when I was doing research. We never had enough money. I always feared that if I failed at my goal of becoming a physician, it would be because I didn’t have the money to do so.”

In the summer of 2016, she enrolled in Geisinger Commonwealth’s master of biomedical sciences (MBS) program to advance her scientific knowledge and continue the pursuit of an MD degree. She graduated at the top of the program and is now a member of the MD Class of 2021. Although her admission fulfilled a childhood dream, finances were still an issue.

Fortunately, she was selected to receive a substantial scholarship from the Northeastern Pennsylvania Health Care Foundation.

“Describing what this scholarship means to me is difficult. It means that, for once, academics can become my top priority,” she said, adding, “I don’t have a particular medical specialty in mind, but without hesitation, I hope to return to NEPA to practice medicine and serve my hometown community.”

To make a donation or for more information, contact the Office of Annual Giving at 570-504-9619 or visit geisinger.edu/GCSOMdonate.

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine is committed to non-discrimination in all employment and educational opportunities.