The Wright Center News

Members News

The Wright Center’s Dr. Mark Madhok Presents Study at a National Conference

Mark Madhok, M.D., Ph.D., FACP, associate program director of the Internal Medicine Residency at The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, recently made an oral presentation at the Digestive Disease Week: Discover. Comprehend. Advance. meeting in San Diego, California.

Digestive Disease Week is the world’s premier meeting for physicians and researchers in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery. It enables them to explore exciting new developments with leaders in their specialty field.

He presented, “Overall Polyp Detection Rate (PDR) from Screening, Surveillance and Diagnostic Colonoscopies Shows Excellent Equivalency with Screening PDR: A Study from the National Institutes of Health Repository of 298,920 Colonoscopies.”

Madhok’s research study identified the issue that lower-quality colonoscopies are linked to a higher incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer. The quality of colonoscopy varies widely among physicians performing colonoscopies and the Adenoma Detection Rate (ADR), which is the percentage of times a gastroenterologist detects a precancerous polyp during a colonoscopy. The 298,920 colonoscopies studied were performed by 421 gastroenterologists at 83 sites. Four groups of polyp detection rates were studied for each endoscopist: Screening PDR, Surveillance PDR, Diagnostic PDR and Overall (combined) PDR.

The study concluded the Overall PDR shows a high level of agreement with all three methods of polyp detection rates (screening, surveillance and diagnostic), regardless of the number of procedures performed by the colonoscopist. In addition, there is no difference in the ratio of benign tumors to cancerous polyps for the first and middle parts of the colon compared to the lower part of the colon by all 421 doctors in the study.

The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education offers residencies in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Internal Medicine, Regional Family Medicine, National Family Medicine and Psychiatry, as well as fellowships in the specialty fields of Cardiovascular Disease, Geriatrics and Gastroenterology.

A board-certified internal medicine physician, Madhok also is a primary care and internal medicine physician at The Wright Center’s Scranton and Scranton Counseling Center practices. In addition, he is a clinical associate professor of medicine at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine and an adjunct clinical associate professor of medicine at A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona.

For more information about The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education, please go to TheWrightCenter.org or call 570-230-0019.


The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education Presents Scholarly Work at the Beyond Flexner 2022 Conference

The Wright Center for Graduate Medical Education recently made seven scholarly presentations at the annual Beyond Flexner Conference, “Moving the Dial on Social Mission: Ensuring Health Professions Education Meets the Challenges of Today,” in Phoenix, Arizona.

The interprofessional forum focuses on advancing health equity and social justice through health professions education. The annual conference brings together leaders in change to share new strategies and tools, identify and address challenges, and organize to advocate for meaningful change.

Meaghan P. Ruddy, senior vice president of academic affairs, enterprise assessment and advancement, and chief research and development officer, made the oral presentation, “An Addiction Medicine Fellowship’s Innovative Approach to Patient Care.” Co-authors included Drs. Karen E. Arscott, a primary care physician, addiction medicine specialist and internal medicine faculty; Jumee Barooah, designated institutional official; and Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO.

Dr. Isaac Navarro, faculty physician in the Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency, offered the oral presentation, “Developing and Implementing an Advanced Education General Dental Residency Program during a Pandemic.” The presentation’s co-authors included Drs. Barooah and Thomas, and Ruddy.

The oral presentation, “Transformation Opioid Use Disorder Recovery in a Teaching Health Center: Healthy MOMS,” was presented by Ruddy. Co-authors included Maria Kolcharno, director of addiction services; and Drs. Lekha Yadukumar, an internal medicine resident, and Thomas-Hemak.

Drs. Barooah and Erica Schmidt, a psychiatry resident physician, made the oral presentation, “A Northeast Pennsylvania-Based Psychiatry Residency’s Innovative Training Program.” The presentation’s co-authors included Drs. Vinod Sharma, associate Psychiatry Residency director and psychiatrist; Barooah and Thomas-Hemak.

The workshop, “Teaching Health Center Programming Toolbox: Tools for Community Health Centers to plan for Physician Workforce Development,” was presented by Drs. Douglas Spegman, chief clinical officer of El Rio Health in Arizona; and Thomas-Hemak, and Ruddy.

Drs. Lawrence LeBeau, program director of the National Family Residency; Barooah and Thomas-Hemak, and Ruddy presented the research poster, “Development and Outcomes of a National Graduate Medical Education Safety-Net Consortium.”

The poster presentation, “Community Health Center-Based Training and Practice: Developing Master Adaptive Learners Through Integrate Care Quality Improvement,” was delivered by Drs.

Ray Wagner, assistant professor and regional director of medical education El Rio Health, and Valerie Sheridan, dean, A.T. Still University School of Osteopathic Medicine in Arizona (ATSU-SOMA); and Lisa Tshuma, assistant professor, ATSU-SOMA; Sue Dolence, a licensed clinical social worker, El Rio Health; Anna Tanguma-Gallegos, data informatics specialist, ATSU-SOMA; and Ruddy.