{"id":133011,"date":"2024-07-23T19:58:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T23:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=133011"},"modified":"2024-07-23T19:58:43","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T23:58:43","slug":"st-lukes-networks-first-female-colorectal-surgeon-is-home-grown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=133011","title":{"rendered":"St. Luke\u2019s Network\u2019s First Female Colorectal Surgeon is \u2018Home-Grown\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julia Tolentino, MD<\/a>, is rooted in the history of\u00a0Temple\/St. Luke\u2019s School of Medicine at St. Luke\u2019s University Hospital<\/a>, and now, as St. Luke\u2019s Colon & Rectal Surgery\u2019s first female colorectal surgeon, she is welcoming patients in the Network that educated her.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Tolentino graduated with the School of Medicine\u2019s first class\u2014the Lehigh Valley\u2019s only four-year medical school\u2014and then also spent her five-year general surgery residency with St. Luke\u2019s. She is a prime example of St. Luke\u2019s remarkable efforts to train and recruit doctors and specialists amid a national physician shortage. The Temple\/St. Luke\u2019s School of Medicine is the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school. In addition to the medical school, the Network\u2019s medical education program includes 50 fully accredited graduate medical education programs, with more than 500 residents and fellows.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very excited to have [Tolentino] back,\u201d said Carrie Lewis, the director of operations for colon and rectal surgery, infectious disease and rheumatology. \u201cIt is always an honor when someone who trained here returns in some capacity, especially someone so well respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, Tolentino practiced in New Jersey after spending a year in Salt Lake City for her colorectal fellowship. Back at St. Luke\u2019s, she has re-established meaningful connections. \u201cThese physicians, specialists, and surgeons are people whom I\u2019ve known since medical school and residency,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to work with them now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tolentino said she wanted to become a surgeon after her overwhelmingly positive experience at the Temple\/St. Luke\u2019s School of Medicine\u2014and particularly thanks to her excellent mentors at St. Luke\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The fact that she is a woman will make it more comfortable for some colorectal patients to come to her with their concerns, she said. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the reason I went into colorectal surgery. It\u2019s a delicate topic, and you have to have a good rapport with patients for them to talk about things that could be sensitive or embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Female colorectal surgeons are in high demand nationally. Tolentino\u2019s areas of expertise include everything related to the pelvic floor \u2013 an oft-overlooked problem area, especially for women \u2013 as well as other colorectal health issues such as cancer-related complications, fecal incontinence, rectal prolapse and anorectal conditions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872,\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.\u00a0 With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus.\u00a0 It also operates the nation\u2019s oldest School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 52 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 500 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s\u00a0five-star<\/em>\u00a0ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.\u00a0 It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades\u00a0Top Hospital<\/em>\u00a0and a Newsweek World\u2019s\u00a0Best Hospital<\/em>.\u00a0 The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the\u00a0100 Top Major Teaching Hospital<\/em>\u00a0designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0 In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was identified as one of the\u00a015 Top Health Systems<\/em>\u00a0nationally.\u00a0 Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the\u00a0Most Wired<\/em>\u00a0award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. \u00a0The Network is also recognized as one of the state\u2019s lowest-cost providers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Julia Tolentino, MD, is rooted in the history of\u00a0Temple\/St. Luke\u2019s School of Medicine at St. Luke\u2019s University Hospital, and now, as St. Luke\u2019s Colon & Rectal Surgery\u2019s first female colorectal … Continue reading St. Luke\u2019s Network\u2019s First Female Colorectal Surgeon is \u2018Home-Grown\u2019<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Julia-Tolentino-MD.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/133012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}