First Posted: 9/23/2014
Home is where the heart is for Dr. Tina George. It is also where she will check on other people’s hearts.
George, 30, has opened a family medical practice in Avoca, the town where she grew up, in a building where she was once a patient of Dr. Lewis Druffner. It was those visits to Druffner that inspired George to enter the field of medicine and one day open her own family practice.
“I saw Dr. Druffner as a patient since I was born,” said George. “Seeing his practice in the community in Avoca is what motivated me to pursue family medicine. I knew I wanted to be part of a community like that and take care of my home town. It means so much to have my practice in the same location in West Avoca.”
It was a long journey for George before she would return to Avoca.
After graduating from Scranton Prep High School and earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Scranton in 2006, George went on to earn her M.P.H. in Health Policy at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. and then earn her M.D. from Harvard University in Boston, Mass.
During her time at Harvard, George had the opportunity to experience fast-paced hospital life and, while she enjoyed the experience, she always had her heart set on family medicine.
“When I went away to medical school in Boston, I loved the fast-paced, big-city academic hospitals, but I knew I wanted to come home and be a small-town doctor,” she said.
After finishing her schooling, George returned home to go through a three-year residency program with Geisinger Health System in the Wyoming Valley from July 2011 until June of this year. She served as a chief resident for the last 11 months of her residency where she also worked part-time as an administrator for the program.
With her residency over, George is now independently licensed in the specialty of family medicine.
One thing standing in her way of returning home was bills but, thankfully, George received a handful of scholarships to help her pay off loans more easily and open her practice much quicker.
“It means a lot. I feel like I benefited a lot,” said George. “For undergrad, I got the Horvat Scholarship, named after Dr. (Arthur J.) Horvat who was a family doctor in Duryea, so he funded it for people in the (Greater Pittston Area). That kind of made a lot of this possible. The scholarships I got along the way are what allowed me to choose to go into Primary Care. Medical school students today are coming out with over $300,000 in debt and it’s hard to go into Primary Care because it’s not the highest paid field. For me, getting scholarships was a huge part of what allowed me to come back, but it means so much.”
Other scholarships and honors George received include the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, the Jack Kent Cook Award, USA Today Top 20 College Students award, Morris K. Udall Scholarship and the Emma Gildersleeve Lane Fund Scholarship.
With her medical school studies done and her professional career underway, George is ready to start helping people in her community and getting to know people all over again.
“I just think when you take care of people in the community, where they live, you know what their life looks like,” said George. “You know what the challenges they face are and you know what health care looks like for them. I think it’s harder when you’re disconnected.”
George will specialize in family care as well as infants, children, adolescents, adults and geriatrics. She will also help new moms with breastfeeding and lactation support.
George’s office will be located at 822 McAlpine St., Avoca, in the same building where Druffner’s office was prior to his retirement in 2000. The office, however, will not be ready until sometime in November.
In the meantime, she is at the Physicians Health Alliance offices in Old Forge.
