Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine educates aspiring physicians and scientists to serve society using a community-based, patient-centered, interprofessional, and evidence-based education model committed to inclusion, promotes discovery, and utilizes innovative techniques.

Geisinger Commonwealth was established through visionary individuals' grassroots efforts who foresaw what a community-based medical school would bring to the region and worked to make it a reality. Their goal was to provide more physicians and improved healthcare resources for the northeast and central Pennsylvania people. The vision was to create a unique medical education experience that focused on caring for people in the context of their lives and their community.

The roots of Geisinger Commonwealth began in 2004 with the Founding Seven. This group included area physicians Charles Bannon, MD, Gerald Tracy, MD, Robert Wright, MD, business people, and community leaders Robert Naismith, Ph.D., and Gerald Joyce and attorneys Mark Perry and Michael Costello. The Northeastern Pennsylvania Medical Education Development Consortium was established by 2005. The consortium included business, medical, community, and government representatives. After acquiring funding from sources including the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and another state, federal and private philanthropic sources, the Commonwealth Medical Education Corporation was formed.

The Commonwealth Medical College (TCMC) was incorporated in 2008 and welcomed its first class of Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree students and Master of Biomedical Sciences (MBS) degree students in August 2009.

In April 2011, TCMC opened the 185,000-square-foot Medical Sciences Building in Scranton that houses the academic and research programs.

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education granted TCMC full accreditation on June 27, 2014, and the Liaison Committee for Medical Education granted TCMC full accreditation on July 7, 2014.

TCMC integrated with Geisinger on Jan. 1, 2017, and became Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.

Geisinger Commonwealth has administrative and educational space at hospitals in Scranton, Danville, Wilkes-Barre, and Sayre, as well as in Doylestown at the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center of Bucks County. Geisinger Commonwealth has relationships with more than 25 hospitals in the northeast and central Pennsylvania that provide students' learning environments. The college has four regional campuses: North, South, Central, and Guthrie, integral to its community-based education. Community engagement is part of the fiber of Geisinger Commonwealth. More than 1,200 volunteer clinical faculty members throughout the region provide students with early clinical experiences and training across the four years of medical education. Families throughout the region are generous in allowing students to follow them to appreciate the social context and the impact of illness on patients' lives. Students are required to pursue research projects in quality improvement and community health.

Geisinger welcomed national health care leaders to "From Crisis to Cure," a patient care symposium held at Geisinger Medical Center on November 8-10, 2017. Featuring former Sec. of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, MD Sen. Pat Toomey Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, Ph.D. Dean Ornish, MD Gail Wilensky, Ph.D., and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, leaders discussed the most pressing topics facing health care today and ways to cultivate innovative solutions.

Geisinger's institutes deliver a team-based approach for providers, scientists, researchers, educators, and other healthcare professionals at every Geisinger location, providing consistency and continuity of care — no matter where a patient enters Geisinger.

We are home to one of the region's largest teams of fellowship-trained cancer specialists. They use the latest care options every day, including national clinical trials, genetic testing, and many others.

Our approach is multidisciplinary, meaning that our team includes doctors, nurses, other cancer providers, and specialists from many other medical areas.

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine educates aspiring physicians and scientists to serve society using a community-based, patient-centered, interprofessional, and evidence-based education model committed to inclusion, promotes discovery, and utilizes innovative techniques.

Learn more about our programs:

• Residencies and fellowships
• M.D. program
• Master of Biomedical Sciences
• Rotations at Geisinger
• Continuing Professional Development

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine's (GCSOM) chapter of the Latino Medical Student Association (LMSA) recently participated in LMSA's Policy Summit held in October in Washington, D.C. Second-year medical students Jasmine Santos and Andres Rodriguez are co-presidents of GCSOM's chapter. Yoseph Aldras, who served as president in his second year, is now an external liaison for LMSA's National Policy Committee. In that position, he helped plan the summit, developed promotional materials, worked with invited speakers, and reviewed policy resolutions drafted by attendees at the three-day event.

The Office of Institutional Research, Planning & Effectiveness (OIRPE) facilitates the integration of accountability, assessment, planning, accreditation, and institutional research into a culture that strives for continuous improvement and an operationally efficient and effective environment essential successful student experience.

The office also serves as the central repository for official school statistics and information and supports project management and strategic initiatives across the school.

The financial aid office at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine helps students identify the financial resources needed to achieve individual educational goals. Through financial aid counseling, the staff is ready to help students find available resources to manage the cost of attendance.