Doctor of Medicine | MD Program
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 clerkship and block rotations......................................................... 10 Regional campus model...................................................................14 Regional impact...................................................................................16
Year 4: The continuum: ready for residency Year 4 curriculum............................................................................... 22 Match maker........................................................................................24 GME enriches the UME experience.............................................28 Faculty...................................................................................................30 MD Class of 2022 profile................................................................32 Apply......................................................................................................33 Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine educates aspiring physicians and scientists to serve society using a communitybased, 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.
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 address the systemic societal and environmental causes of disease, and to be ready to render compassionate care in the way Geisinger’s CEO, David Feinberg, MD, says it should be delivered: one patient at a time. For this reason, in addition to the MD, Geisinger Commonwealth offers a master of biomedical sciences degree and is developing several new master’s degree programs. We also have more than 400 trainees in 55 residency and fellowship programs, ranging from primary care to addiction medicine to vascular surgery. 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 Commonwealth 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 both for their brilliance and their caring — for authentic empathy coupled with superior clinical skills and knowledge, all enriched by an unparalleled ability to connect with patients. If this is the future physician you’d like to be, Geisinger Commonwealth 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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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 centuryold 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 to which students can continuously return to replenish their mental and spiritual reserves, and something
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that will keep them connected 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.
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 that are 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.
Community immersion: The view from 30,000 feet During their first two years of medical school, Geisinger Commonwealth students have a chance
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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
The humanities & medicine Students choose medicine because they want to help people, but sometimes the rigors of medical education put distance between that idealism and the immediate demands of passing
May
June
July
Neuroscience
Patient-centered Medicine Vacation & Other Activities Physician & Society
Case-based Learning 1
“ The ideal modern doctor should be neither paternalistic nor informative but rather interpretive, helping
exams and fulfilling academic requirements. At Geisinger Commonwealth, we acknowledge
patients determine their priorities
the importance of keeping the altruistic flame alive in our students. One way we do this is by
and achieve them.”
threading humanities throughout the curriculum. Our students are called upon to write and reflect frequently. They are also invited to read and discuss books like Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal.
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April Experiential Learning in the Community
Patient-centered Medicine
December
Spring Break
Orientation
Cellular & Molecular Basis of Life
November
Experiential Learning in the Community
October
Winter Break
September
Experiential Learning in the Community
August
—T he New York Times’ Sunday Book Review of Atul Gawande’s Being Mortal, Nov. 6, 2014
“ The mission and goal of Geisinger Commonwealth is to prepare
Fast fact:
students to be doctors who are not only better care providers, but who
Geisinger
are happier, more fulfilled professionals characterized by resiliency and
Commonwealth
a passion for lifelong learning. We want enriched individuals who take
students completed
joy in their practice.”
13,723 hours of
–W illiam F. Iobst, MD, FACP Vice President for Academic and Clinical Affairs Vice Dean for Medical Education
service in academic year 2017–2018. 5
Year 2
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 decision-making in today’s socio-economic and cultural environment.
Year 2
The Art & Practice of Medicine
Case-based Learning 2
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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
CB L2
April
May
June
July
Mind
The Art & Practice of Medicine
Case-based Learning 2
Vacation & Other Activities
Year 3
Gastrointestinal
January
Experiential Learning in the Community
Dermatomusculoskelatal
December
Spring Break
Systems I
November
Experiential Learning in the Community
October
Winter Break
September
Experiential Learning in the Community
August
Genomics Geisinger’s research theme is to personalize healthcare by discovering ways to empower doctors to discern unique differences among 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.
Elliott Cha, Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine MBS 2017, MD Class of 2021, has worked in the lab of Sarah Pendergrass, PhD, for the past 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,” said Elliott. 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 is set to 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. 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 results to patients in a way that will improve their care. So my exposure to precision medicine has been priceless. It’s put me ahead of the curve. No matter what specialty I choose, bioinformatics will be a big part of it.”
Fast fact: Geisinger Commonwealth students have a pass rate of 0.98 for the STEP 1 exam. The national average is 0.96.
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From the bench to the bedside The research of Sonia Planey, 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. Planey, associate dean for Research and Scholarship and associate 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. Planey and her colleagues have developed a method that 8
uses advanced technology to specifically detect and measure APF in the urine in less than 30 minutes, 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 approved, 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.”
Since coming to Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine in 2016, Dr. Piper said he has experienced something unique to his new student body. “GCSOM 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, black-and-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. Since coming to Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, however, and embracing its community-focused mission, his research has branched 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, GCSOM’s vice president for Community Engagement and chief diversity officer. The population health project involves GCSOM 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 GCSOM 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.” 9
Regionally engaged, nationally relevant
Year 3 Year 3 curriculum: Longitudinal integrated clerkship and block rotations At Geisinger Commonwealth, third year is an innovative hybrid of inpatient block experiences and a six-month outpatient longitudinal integrated clerkship (LIC). This hybrid model provides for outstanding continuity of outpatient care with dedicated outpatient faculty, but also allows for intensive blocks of 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 clinical clerkship rotations, students also complete a block rotation of 80 hours of required emergency medicine experience and four weeks of electives and selectives.
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How does it work?
LIC
The year is divided into two halves. For half of the year, students complete the outpatient LIC, working in all six disciplines simultaneously. For the other half of the year, they complete blocks (primarily in hospital settings), selectives, electives and emergency medicine.
During the six-month LIC, students work one-on-one with attending physicians in outpatient settings. 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 LIC, students participate in six clerkships simultaneously.
Year 3 Longitudinal Curriculum (LIC) July
August
September
October
November
Blocks December
January
February
March
April
May
June
Outpatient Internal Medicine
Core Week
Inpatient Pediatrics
Electives
Selectives
Inpatient Psychiatry
Anesthesia
Inpatient Surgery
Inpatient OB/GYN
Outpatient Surgery
Inpatient Adult Medicine
Outpatient OB/GYN
Inpatient Emergency Medicine
Core Week/Orientation
Outpatient Family Medicine
Outpatient Psychiatry
Outpatient Pediatrics
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Inpatient blocks Block rotations primarily occur in hospital settings. These experiences allow for training with acutely ill, 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 or Clinical Problem-Solving/ Nutrition in Medicine. Students also complete a two-week elective in a discipline of choice, as well as 80 hours of emergency medicine during a block rotation.
“ The Geisinger Commonwealth curriculum embraces the basic concept that if you promote mastery learning, which occurs in the LIC through stable relationships between students and faculty, you get a more empathetic doctor who is a good communicator.” –W illiam F. Iobst, MD, FACP Vice President for Academic and Clinical Affairs Vice Dean for Medical Education Sample LIC schedule Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Morning
Internal Medicine
Psychiatry
Surgery
OB/GYN
White Space
Afternoon
White Space
Family Medicine
White Space
Pediatrics
Clerkship Education Day
Block rotations
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.
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Saturday
• • • • •
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 Clinical Problem-Solving/Nutrition in Medicine
2-week rotation
Sunday
Jessica Briscoe MD Class of 2020
Jessica Briscoe, a member of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s Class of 2020, has spent the past year 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’s) Medical Research Fellows Program. Jessica is presently working with Emery Brown, MD, PhD, Harvard’s Warren M. Zapol Professor of Anesthesia, on research that studies unconsciousness, especially as induced by various types 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 diagnosis of neuropathology in the brain, which resulted in an upcoming presentation on epilepsy diagnosis techniques and a paper, “Structural and Functional Network Dysfunction in Parkinson’s Disease,” published in the December 2017 edition of the journal Radiology. A paper based on the work she has done with Dr. Brown, studying how the brain recovers from general anesthesia, is 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 GCSOM with Dr. Ying-Ju Sung. 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 me, including Dr. Brown. It’s been an amazing experience.” Photo © Stanley Rowin stanstudio.com
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Regional campus model Geisinger Commonwealth offers a communitybased model of medical education with four regional campuses: North (Scranton), South (Wilkes-Barre), Central (Danville) and Guthrie (Sayre). In years three and four, medical students at Geisinger Commonwealth complete their clinical training at their assigned regional campus. All students are given the opportunity to rank order their preference of campus assignments via a form distributed to them after they visit each regional campus. Each student is provided a random lottery number and given a regional campus assignment based on their position within the lottery and indicated preference.
Tompkins Schuyler Steuben Chemung
Sayre
Susquehanna
Bradford
Tioga
Wayne Lackawanna
Scranton
Wyoming
Pike
Lycoming Clinton Columbia Montour
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. 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.
Union
Wilkes-Barre Luzerne
Danville
Northumberland
Monroe
Carbon
Schuylkill
Doylestown
Dauphin
Cumberland
Ocean
York
Atlantic
Cape May
Campus locations:
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Tioga
Regions:
Guthrie
North
South
Central
North Campus
Central Campus
Campus location: Medical Sciences Building in Scranton Counties: Lackawanna, Monroe, Pike, Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming
Campus location: Geisinger Medical Center in Danville Counties: Clinton, Columbia, Cumberland, Dauphin, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Union, York
South Campus
Guthrie Campus
Campus location: Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre Counties: Carbon, Columbia, Luzerne, Schuylkill
Campus location: Guthrie in Sayre Counties: Pennsylvania – Bradford, Tioga; New York – Chemung, Schuyler, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins 15
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.
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“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 real-world 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
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“Being a teaching hospital, 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.” – Thomas Martin, MD Thomas Martin, MD, is Geisinger Commonwealth’s founding education director in pediatrics and the founding assistant chair of clinical sciences in pediatrics. Dr. Martin practiced at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville for more than 27 years, serving as chair of Pediatrics for 20 years. During that time, he built a small department of five pediatricians into the fourth-largest pediatric department in Pennsylvania. In addition, he started Geisinger’s Neonatal Unit, developed residencies in pediatrics and medicine-pediatrics (combined internal medicine and pediatrics), and established the first children’s hospital — Geisinger Janet Weis Children’s Hospital — to be built in a rural area in the United States. Dr. Martin currently serves as a professor of pediatrics at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.
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Community well-being As a system, Geisinger has devoted significant resources to examining the unique health needs of the communities it serves and proposing radical solutions to be applied locally, but transferred globally. From Springboard Healthy Scranton to the health system’s revolutionary Fresh Food Farmacies, 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 focus begins with grade school. Our REACH-HEI 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
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longitudinal program helping 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 seven-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.
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“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.” – Leighton Y. Huey, MD Associate Dean for Behavioral Health Integration and Community Care Transformation
Fast fact: Approximately 1,385 physicians and healthcare professionals in northeast and central Pennsylvania serve as Geisinger Commonwealth volunteer community faculty members.
David Eisenberg, MD ’18
Matched into psychiatry residency at The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education
David Eisenberg, MD, a member of Geisinger Commonwealth’s Class of 2018, knew psychiatry was his calling following his third-year rotations. “It’s the thing I looked forward to the most,” he said. “I love how real the connection with your patient is, how you can create a relationship in just 30 minutes. You get down to the core pretty quickly.” Dr. Eisenberg also learned just how progressive GCSOM is in terms of psychiatry during the four years he served as the MD Class of 2018’s OSR — the student elected to represent his classmates at the American Association of Medical College’s Organization of Student Representatives.
“As an OSR, I got to communicate on a national scale about issues affecting students, and a big one was burnout. At GCSOM, we have a lot of programs aimed at student wellness. Many other schools are starting to build such programs, but ours is already well-developed. We are a good example for others. The fact that we are bringing a dedicated professional to campus just to focus on students’ mental well-being is also a really novel idea.” GCSOM’s unique focus on behavioral health ended up playing a significant role in Dr. Eisenberg’s future. He just began his psychiatry residency at The Wright Center, a program that GCSOM’s signature Behavioral Health Initiative helped to create. “I look forward to forging close relationships with my attendings and fellow residents,” he said. “I think this particular program fosters that kind of closeness and will support my learning. In addition, GCSOM has a big emphasis on community, so I like that The Wright Center does too. I like the community-based model. You don’t get the same intimate feeling at a big center. It’s difficult to manage and track patients because you often don’t see the same patient twice. I look forward to the long-term relationships with the patients I’ll have in my residency.”
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The continuum: ready for residency
Year 4 Year 4 curriculum Fourth year is focused on the inpatient setting. 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
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• Mock interviews • Rank order list assistance • Peer mentoring by alumni
Core week Students are required to participate in one core week at our North Campus in Scranton to emphasize preparation for residency.
Year 4
Electives: Student Choice
Subinternship: Student Choice
Acute Care
Subinternship: Medicine
November
December
January
Electives: Student Choice
February
March
April
May
Senior Seminar Break Graduation
October
Interprofessional Selective
September
Electives: Student Choice
August
Match / Core Week
July
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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
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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 2018, 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
General surgery
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York • University of Chicago Medical Center, Illinois • University of Virginia, Virginia
• Rutgers–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Jersey • Temple University Hospital, Pennsylvania
Dermatology
• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, California • Christiana Care, Delaware • Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, New Hampshire • Marshfield Clinic, Wisconsin • Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Florida • Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Arizona • Morehouse School of Medicine, Georgia • Naval Medical Center San Diego, California • NewYork-Presbyterian/Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, New York • Palmetto Health Richland, South Carolina • Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania • Rutgers–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Jersey • Temple University Hospital, Pennsylvania • Thomas Jefferson University, Pennsylvania • University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Ohio • University of Texas Medical Branch, Texas • UPMC Medical Education, Pennsylvania • Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Virginia
• University of Rochester/Strong Memorial, New York
Emergency medicine • • • • • • • • • •
Arnot Ogden Medical Center, New York Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia Geisinger, Pennsylvania Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, New York Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania Reading Hospital Medical Center, Pennsylvania University of Florida College of Medicine – Shands Hospital, Florida University of Massachusetts Medical School, Massachusetts UPMC Medical Education, Pennsylvania West Virginia University School of Medicine, West Virginia
Family medicine • Abington Memorial Hospital, Pennsylvania • Drexel University College of Medicine/ Hahnemann University Hospital, Pennsylvania • Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia • Guthrie/Robert Packer Hospital, Pennsylvania • New Hanover Regional Medical Center, North Carolina • University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas • York Hospital, Pennsylvania
Internal medicine
Medicine-pediatrics • Geisinger, Pennsylvania • Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania
Medicine – preliminary • • • • •
Albert Einstein Medical Center, Pennsylvania Allegheny General Hospital, Pennsylvania Flushing Hospital Medical Center, New York Lankenau Medical Center, Pennsylvania The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Ohio
Medicine – preliminary/neurology • University of Maryland Medical Center, Maryland
Fast fact: 50% of Geisinger Commonwealth’s Class of 2018 matched into a primary care specialty.
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Medicine – primary • University of Rochester/Strong Memorial, New York
Neurology • Geisinger, Pennsylvania • Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, Florida • Thomas Jefferson University, Pennsylvania • University of Maryland Medical Center, Maryland
Obstetrics-gynecology • CMSRU/Cooper University Hospital, New Jersey • Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina • Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina • University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, Colorado • York Hospital, Pennsylvania
Ophthalmology • The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Ohio • Temple University Hospital, Pennsylvania • University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Ohio
Orthopaedic surgery • Emory University School of Medicine, Georgia • Geisinger, Pennsylvania • New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, NYU School of Medicine, New York • Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania
Pathology • University of New Mexico Medical Center, New Mexico • Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Virginia 26
Pediatrics • Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, D.C. • Jefferson Medical College/duPont Hospital for Children, Pennsylvania • Lehigh Valley Hospital, Pennsylvania • Montefiore Medical Center/Einstein, New York • NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, New York • St. Christopher’s Hospital, Pennsylvania • University of Rochester/Strong Memorial, New York • University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Texas
Physical medicine & rehabilitation
• New York Medical College–Westchester Medical Center, New York • Temple University Hospital, Pennsylvania
Surgery – preliminary • Monmouth Medical Center, New Jersey • University of Vermont Medical Center, Vermont • UPMC Mercy Hospital, Pennsylvania
Surgery – preliminary/urology • University of Louisville School of Medicine, Kentucky
• Madigan Army Medical Center, Washington • San Antonio Military Medical Center, Texas • Stony Brook teaching hospitals, Mather Hospital, New York
Urology • University of Louisville School of Medicine • University of Vermont College of Medicine, Vermont • Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Maryland
Transitional • Blake Medical Center, Florida • Colorado Health Foundation, Colorado
• Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, New York • Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Maryland
Plastic surgery (integrated) • UCLA Medical Center, California
Psychiatry • Jersey Shore University Medical Center, New Jersey • Rutgers–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Jersey • University of New Mexico School of Medicine, New Mexico • The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, Pennsylvania
Radiation oncology • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York
Radiology – diagnostic • Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, New York • Maimonides Medical Center, New York
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GME enriches the UME experience
In addition to undergraduate medical students, Geisinger Commonwealth also counts more than 470 graduate medical students — resident and fellow physicians — as its learners. Geisinger Commonwealth has 27 accredited residency programs in a variety of specialties and subspecialties, from anesthesiology to urology, as well as 19 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, MD, a thirdyear 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.” This simple but powerful insight, coupled with time-management skills Dr. Bashaw attributes to Geisinger Commonwealth’s longitudinal integrated clerkship, 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. – Sarah Bashaw, MD ’15, matched into general surgery residency at Geisinger Medical Center 28
Max Vogel, MD, a member of Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine’s Class of 2018, has just begun his residency in orthopaedic surgery at Geisinger Medical Center. As the son of a carpenter and a registered nurse, this native of Aliquippa, Pa., said he was raised to fix things and thus gravitated toward medicine, 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. She played volleyball. 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 schooling,” he said. “The experience has been even better because I got to go to GCSOM. It has such a family feeling. Everyone there is on your side. Everyone is there to help. Being on a first-name basis with faculty and staff, as I was, is unique and impressive,” he said. Dr. Vogel said he expects that warm family feeling to continue at Geisinger Medical Center (GMC). “One thing that is consistent across both GCSOM and GMC is the focus on community. Geisinger was, of course, founded by Abigail Geisinger, who wanted to help her community. GCSOM was founded by the community itself. I think the result is that there’s a close-knit
feeling. At GMC, I already get that same sense. Everyone — nurses, PAs, students, doctors — shows up to department events. We just had a cookout for doctors graduating the residency program, and everyone was there. It was really nice. That sense of family, I think, is the overarching theme.” – Max Vogel, MD ’18, matched into orthopaedic surgery residency at Geisinger Medical Center
Fast fact: Geisinger Commonwealth has more than 470 graduate medical students/resident physicians, 27 residency programs in a variety of specialties and subspecialties and 19 accredited fellowships.
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Faculty At Geisinger Commonwealth, students encounter excellent instructors and mentors, such as:
Joseph Bannon, MD
Associate Professor of Surgery Dr. Bannon is a colorectal surgeon with Geisinger. He serves as associate general surgery, program director GNE general surgery residency program.
Margrit Shoemaker, MD
Director of Clinical Competencies Assistant Chair of Internal Medicine Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Shoemaker had a clinical practice of endocrinology and metabolism in Williamsport until 2015.
Shubhra Shetty, MD
Associate Dean for North Regional Campus Professor of Medicine
Nabella Mian, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine Dr. Mian is a rheumatologist in Wilkes-Barre, affiliated with Wilkes-Barre Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
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.
Sonia Lobo Planey, PhD
Associate Dean for Research and Scholarship Associate Professor of Biochemistry
Mark Olaf, DO
Assistant Regional Dean for Central Regional Campus Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Olaf practices emergency medicine with Geisinger in Danville, Pa.
Dr. Planey’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.
William Zehring, PhD Professor of Biochemistry
James Scott, MD
Regional Education Coordinator/Clerkship Director of OB/GYN, Guthrie Campus Assistant Professor of OB/GYN Dr. Scott is an obstetrician/gynecologist at Guthrie Corning Hospital in Corning, N.Y.
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Dr. Zehring’s work focuses primarily on content in the areas of biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, and on methods of integrating these topics into clinical medicine. A scientific article published in the journal Cell, listing Dr. Zehring as first author, was recognized as a “key publication” by the Nobel Prize committee when awarding the 2017 Nobel Prize in Medicine. The prize went to three U.S. researchers - Jeffrey Hall at the University of Maine, Michael Rosbash at Brandeis University and Michael Young at the Rockefeller University for their decades-long work on the circadian clock.
Stanley J. Dudrick, MD Professor of Surgery
Medscape recently named Dr. Dudrick as one of the 50 most influential physicians in history for his role in the development of total parenteral nutrition (TPN). He was the first physician to successfully feed people through an IV, totally bypassing the normal digestive system. Prior to TPN, patients who could not eat or digest food routinely died of starvation. Today, more than 10 million premature babies and 20 million adults owe their lives to Dr. Dudrick’s brilliant invention.
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MD Class of 2022 profile • • • • • • • • • • •
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Number of applicants: 5,064 Class size (new students): 110 Pennsylvania residents: 79 Geisinger Commonwealth counties: 37 Men: 58 Women: 52 First-generation-to-college: 28 Underrepresented in medicine: 16 Average overall GPA: 3.62 Average MCAT: 32 Average MCAT 2015: 509
Apply Admission requirements
Application process
Interviewing
Students seeking admission to Geisinger Commonwealth’s MD program must:
Students interested in applying to Geisinger Commonwealth’s MD program should:
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)
1. Complete an application through the online American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS), the national application for U.S. MD programs
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 clinical or basic science faculty member and a current medical student in a conversational format.
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.
»» 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
Contact us 570-504-7000
admissions@som.geisinger.edu geisinger.edu/gcsom
»» 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.
185-738-8/18-HDAV/BF
525 Pine St. Scranton, PA 18509
570-504-7000
geisinger.edu/gcsom admissions@som.geisinger.edu