Daniel Elmi’s decision to become a medical student was informed by his diverse experiences, including as a precocious pilot.

Now in his first year at the Temple St. Luke’s School of Medicine, Elmi started as an EMT the summer before his sophomore year at Lafayette College and then joined the school’s EMS Club.

“I was able to get involved in direct patient care at a younger age, which led me to take pre-med courses in college,” recalls Elmi, whose mother Aram Yousefi-Elmi, MD, is a St. Luke’s pediatrician.

An economics major, the 2022 graduate mixed pre-med courses into his schedule and did a capstone project on the disparities in healthcare faced by people who are not proficient in English. Elmi gained valuable insight into the U.S. healthcare system, which led to him becoming a medical scribe following graduation.

“In that position, I had the opportunity to work with great physicians in different specialties who are making a tremendous impact on their patients. Working with them motivated me to continue to medical school,” he explains.

Elmi, who lives in Nazareth, is very close with his family and has strong ties to his local community. He volunteers at a nursing home and with a local emergency shelter.

“It’s very important in my family to be close to and support one another. When I was applying to medical school, it was great to have an outstanding option here in the Lehigh Valley,” says Elmi.

In addition to volunteering, Elmi is an avid sports fan, particularly of European soccer team Real Madrid. He also worked hard for one of his childhood passions to take flight: Late in his high school career, he earned his private pilot’s license to fly small, single-engine planes.

“I considered a career in aviation, but I knew that if I went into medicine, I could continue flying on the side,” says Elmi, whose favorite trip is to New York City, flying low along the Hudson River and circling above the Statue of Liberty.

Obtaining his license required endless hours of studying and in the cockpit. Pilots, Elmi explains, have to be knowledgeable, prepared and detail-oriented because planes are complicated machines. As such, he is able to make a connection between flying and practicing medicine.

“There’s so much attention that goes into prevention and risk mitigation. Before you fly, you have to do a thorough pre-flight check to make sure all the systems are functioning properly. There’s a lot of that in medicine as well. Before starting an operation, the medical team goes through a checklist to make sure they have the right equipment, patient, medication and personnel.”

Elmi is excited to experience the range of specialties available through Temple St. Luke’s School of Medicine, and he is eager to begin practicing and provide quality care.

“Practicing medicine is rewarding because you have the opportunity to make a positive impact on people’s lives in some of their worst times,” Elmi says.

“This is something I’ve seen firsthand and that I greatly appreciate about this career.”

 

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network’s 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’s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s 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’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune/PINC AI 10 years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.  In 2021, St. Luke’s was identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  The Network is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest-cost providers.

 

Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy