David Johnson
Service has been a theme of David Johnson’s life, a theme he intends to carry into his future as a family medicine practitioner. He is presently using the Jennifer A. Sidari, MD ’13 Global Health Award he recently won to help defray travel costs of a four-week rural family medicine sub-internship at the Karolyn Kempton Hospital in Tsiko, Togo.
“I’ve been anticipating this trip to Togo for some time,” he said, adding that he has worked at the hospital before. In 2008, as an undergraduate at Grove City College, he spent time in Africa utilizing his EMT training, assisting physicians and learning about global health. In addition, as a medical student, David has also served with Global Health Outreach in Nicaragua. Now, at the Karolyn Kempton Hospital for his sub-internship, David is doing a combination of adult and pediatric in-patient work, as well as obstetrics and minor surgeries. The work is similar to that of the career he envisions in his future. “I would like to be a family doctor working in central Pennsylvania. I’ve lived my entire life in Pennsylvania and would enjoy working close to my family, but I’d like to make it my lifelong theme to be engaged in medical mission trips. I love Africa, but I also love Central and South America, so I hope that my mission trips will be varied.”
David said his international travel is one way he expresses and lives the values that made him want to become a doctor in the first place. “I decided to become a doctor for the very purpose of serving a hurting world in a medical role. I hope to continue caring for under-served populations at home and abroad,” he explained.
As a doctor, David hopes to forge bonds of trust and mutual respect with patients at home and around the world. It was this desire for deeper connections that helped David choose Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine as his medical school. “Geisinger Commonwealth prepared me well for a role in primary care and emphasizes a meaningful, continual doctor-patient relationship,” he said.
“I’ve been anticipating this trip to Togo for some time,” he said, adding that he has worked at the hospital before. In 2008, as an undergraduate at Grove City College, he spent time in Africa utilizing his EMT training, assisting physicians and learning about global health. In addition, as a medical student, David has also served with Global Health Outreach in Nicaragua. Now, at the Karolyn Kempton Hospital for his sub-internship, David is doing a combination of adult and pediatric in-patient work, as well as obstetrics and minor surgeries. The work is similar to that of the career he envisions in his future. “I would like to be a family doctor working in central Pennsylvania. I’ve lived my entire life in Pennsylvania and would enjoy working close to my family, but I’d like to make it my lifelong theme to be engaged in medical mission trips. I love Africa, but I also love Central and South America, so I hope that my mission trips will be varied.”
David said his international travel is one way he expresses and lives the values that made him want to become a doctor in the first place. “I decided to become a doctor for the very purpose of serving a hurting world in a medical role. I hope to continue caring for under-served populations at home and abroad,” he explained.
As a doctor, David hopes to forge bonds of trust and mutual respect with patients at home and around the world. It was this desire for deeper connections that helped David choose Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine as his medical school. “Geisinger Commonwealth prepared me well for a role in primary care and emphasizes a meaningful, continual doctor-patient relationship,” he said.
