Dr. Satya Upadhyayula, a board-certified general practice dentist at The Wright Center for Community Health, recently received a faculty appointment to NYU Langone Dental Medicine, enabling him to share his oral surgery and dental treatment know-how with dental residents who are training locally.

The Wright Center became a dental training site and welcomed its first two residents in 2021 through a new affiliation with NYU Langone Dental Medicine. The Brooklyn, N.Y.,-based organization operates the world’s largest postdoctoral dental residency program of its kind, training about 400 residents annually at partner sites including community health centers, hospitals and other affiliates in nearly 30 states.

Known to many of his patients and colleagues as “Dr. U,” Upadhyayula is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine. Prior to joining The Wright Center, he completed an oral and maxillofacial surgery internship at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

He becomes the second faculty physician based at The Wright Center to support the Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) residency, joining site director Dr. Caitlin McCarthy. Faculty physician Dr. Isaac Navarro, who is based in California, was instrumental in the program’s startup at The Wright Center and remains critical to its success, leading grand rounds virtually each month.

The dental residents train at The Wright Center’s Scranton Practice, 501 S. Washington Ave., Scranton, and its Mid Valley Practice, 5 S. Washington Ave., Jermyn. Each site has a state-of-the-art dental clinic that offers the public access to oral care services including check-ups and cleanings, fillings, X-rays, extractions, emergency services, oral cancer screenings and denture care.

NYU Langone Dental Medicine’s residency program, which is fully accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation, complements The Wright Center’s existing educational activities.

For more than 45 years, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education has been a provider of residency training in Greater Scranton, helping to build a pipeline of medical professionals to meet the needs of the region and the nation. Today it offers residencies in internal medicine, family medicine and psychiatry as well as fellowships in cardiovascular disease, gastroenterology and geriatrics.

Two Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education-endorsed students have been accepted into the collaborative Hometown Scholars program and will attend medical school at A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Mesa, Arizona (ATSU-SOMA).

The Wright Center’s Hometown Scholars program, in partnership with ATSU-SOMA and the National Association of Community Health Centers, recruits future physicians, physician assistants and dentists from Northeast Pennsylvania that want to serve as aspirational examples for young people in the region who aspire to practice medicine and make an impact in a community health setting that provides patient-centered health care.

The program helps regional high school and colleges students who are considering a career in medicine and want to serve their hometown communities as a clinician. Wright Center executives endorse the applications of qualified students who exemplify compassion, civic-mindedness and commitment to serving individuals with limited access to high-quality health care.  

The training and education hometown scholars receive at ATSU-SOMA is distinctive compared to other medical schools, as it intentionally brings students back to Northeast Pennsylvania to care for the underserved and rural communities. Medical students in the ATSU-SOMA program are assigned to one of 16 select community health center partner sites across the country and introduced to the clinical setting earlier than traditional medical schools. Wright Center hometown scholars return to the region during their second year of graduate medical school and begin rotating at clinical sites with preceptors while continuing their academic education through in-classroom and distance-education experiences. 

The students begin their studies at ATSU-SOMA in July. Other Wright Center-endorsed Hometown Scholars included Grace McGrath of Dunmore and Moriah Bartolai of Pittston.

Public can get test kits at events in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties

The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement will host two drive-thru distribution events of free at-home COVID-19 test kits for the public on a first-come, first-served basis on Saturday, Jan. 29 and Sunday, Jan. 30 in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties. Each vehicle will receive five test kits while supplies last.

In conjunction with Luzerne County Community College (LCCC), The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement will distribute test kits on Saturday, Jan. 29 beginning at 6 p.m. on the main campus of LCCC, 521 Trailblazer Dr., Nanticoke, until supplies are depleted. The public is asked to enter campus off Kosciuszko Street and proceed to the Educational Center.

Volunteers for The Wright Center for Patient & Community Engagement will also hand out at-home COVID-19 test kits on Sunday, Jan. 30 at The Wright Center for Community Health’s Mid Valley Practice, 5 S. Washington Ave., Jermyn, at 4 p.m. while supplies last.

For complete and up-to-date information about The Wright Center’s community distributions of at-home COVID-19 test kits, please follow the organization’s social media on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or go to TheWrightCenter.org, where updates will be posted at the top of the homepage. The Wright Center is respectfully asking the public to refrain from calling and going to clinical locations during normal business hours to ask about at-home test kits. Call volume and clinician capacity are reserved to address primary health services. 

For more information about The Wright Center for Community Health, go to TheWrightCenter.org or call 570.230.0019.

Dr. Jumee Barooah, The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education’s designated institutional official and a primary care physician, recently earned board certification in lifestyle medicine – an approach that uses small lifestyle changes to treat and potentially reverse chronic disease and prevent illness.

One of the fastest growing fields of medicine, lifestyle medicine differs from mainstream medical approaches by emphasizing non-pharmaceutical, non-invasive treatments such as wellness, resiliency, movement and a nutritious diet. Patients are empowered to take their well-being into their own hands by making improvements through manageable changes in daily activities.

The Wright Center introduced a lifestyle medicine service line in 2020 to address community needs in Northeast Pennsylvania, including the prevalence of diabetes and hypertension. The Wright Center also wove lifestyle medicine into the curriculum of its graduate medical education programs, aiming to appropriately prepare the next generation of physicians to spare patients the needless suffering and expense of certain serious, long-term illnesses.

Lifestyle medicine represents her fourth board certification. Barooah also is certified in internal, addiction and obesity medicine. She sees patients at The Wright Center’s Mid Valley Practice in Jermyn and the Scranton Practice.For more information or to schedule an appointment at The Wright Center for Community Health’s Mid Valley Practice, go to TheWrightCenter.org or call 570.230.0019.

Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, recently earned board certification in obesity medicine, better preparing her to help patients manage obesity and its many comorbidities and to lose weight. 

Obesity – the nation’s most prevalent chronic disease – is associated with many of the leading causes of preventable, premature death, yet physicians and patients sometimes struggle to directly address the sensitive topic and tailor plans that allow for long-term success.

Under her executive administrative leadership, The Wright Center for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education consistently strive to respond to community health and health care workforce needs. Its health care providers, for example, have been at the forefront of confronting challenges such as the ongoing opioid crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Increasingly, The Wright Center’s health care providers emphasize prevention to improve health outcomes among Northeast Pennsylvania’s residents. In 2020, The Wright Center introduced both a lifestyle medicine curriculum in its graduate medical education programs and a corresponding lifestyle medicine service line for the benefit of patients. 

Lifestyle medicine, one of the fastest growing fields of medicine, encourages individuals to avoid or potentially reverse chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes by focusing on six pillars of health: nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress management, relationships and the avoidance of risky substances. A Wright Center for Community Health dietitian and behavioral health counselors are available to meet individually with patients to develop and empower plans for healthier lifestyles and weight management.

For more information or to schedule an appointment at The Wright Center for Community Health’s Mid Valley Practice, go to TheWrightCenter.org or call 570.230.0019.

Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, has been elected governor-elect for the eastern region of the American College of Physicians’ Pennsylvania Chapter (PA-ACP). 

Beginning in April, she will serve one year as governor-elect concurrently with Dr. Lawrence H. Jones, governor of the eastern region whose term expires in 2023. Her four-year term as governor begins April 2023.

Founded in 1915, the American College of Physicians is a national organization of internists, who specialize in the diagnosis, treatment and care of adults. It is the nation’s largest medical-specialty organization, with more than 161,000 members, of which more than 7,800 are members of the PA-ACP chapter. The PA-ACP chapter has three regional governors that represent the eastern, western and southeastern regions of the commonwealth.

The 87-member board of governors is an advisory board, featuring representatives from Alabama to Alberta, Bangladesh to Brazil and Ontario to Pennsylvania. Collectively, the elected board members act as an advisory board to the college’s policy-making body, the board of regents. The board of governors implements national projects and initiatives at the chapter level and represents member concerns at the national level.

Born and raised in Northeast Pennsylvania, Thomas-Hemak received her undergraduate degree from The University of Scranton. After graduating as a Michael DeBakey Scholar from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and completing Harvard’s Combined Internal Medicine/Pediatrics Residency in Boston, Massachusetts, she returned to the region to practice and teach primary care. She joined The Wright Center in 2000 and became president of The Wright Center for Community Health in 2007. In 2012, she was named president and CEO of both The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education.

Concurrent with her responsibilities as an executive, Thomas-Hemak is also board certified in internal, pediatrics, addiction, and most recently, obesity medicine. Her favorite professional responsibilities are to teach and provide comprehensive primary health services to multigenerational families served by The Wright Center for Community Health’s Mid Valley Practice in Archbald and Jermyn, her hometown community where she was born, raised and currently resides with her husband and three children.

For more information about The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education, go to TheWrightCenter.org or call 570.343.2383.