Raised in family of healthcare workers, Binghamton student finds unique way to follow in their footsteps

Almost anywhere you look in Eric Galinkin’s family, you’ll find a healthcare professional. His father is an infectious disease doctor. His mother is a dietician. His grandfather is a retired pediatrician.

Galinkin always wanted to follow in their footsteps but was determined to find a unique way to make it happen.

Enter the COVID-19 pandemic. For months, the anguished look on his father’s face in the midst of increasing numbers of seriously ill patients and dwindling medical resources said it all.

“I would hear about all the inefficiencies in the hospital, everything that was going wrong with not having the proper personal protective equipment for my father to do his job and treat patients,” said Galinkin, a Long Island native and senior business administration major in Binghamton University’s School of Management (SOM). “And even though I don’t want to go the clinical route, I still feel like I could be a huge asset in improving the patient experience and making sure that anyone who is sick gets the best possible care.”

Once he became a student at SOM, he was eager to explore the areas where he could make an impact. That included investigating patient access challenges through a research project with Dean Shelley Dionne and Associate Professor Rory Eckardt, which focused on addressing workforce development issues.

This summer, he gained an inside perspective on how to address such complex obstacles and broaden his knowledge about the business of running a healthcare organization through an internship at New York Cancer and Blood Specialists on Long Island and his shadowing the vice president of administration at Mather Hospital.

Beyond a desire to learn about successful organizational strategy, Galinkin was also interested in New York Cancer and Blood Specialists’ expansion beyond hematology-oncology to include primary care, urology, nephrology and radiology, among other specialties.

While he spent half the internship shadowing different professionals, the rest involved a range of hands-on projects, including one automating coding work and extensive use of Google Sheets. One of his standout projects was creating a presentation evaluating a company partnership, which was reviewed by executive leadership.

Throughout the internship, Galinkin built upon the leadership and organizational skills he’d been honing through his experience in the EY Student Leaders Program at SOM.

“This internship really increased my understanding of project management, which might sound simple from an outside perspective, but there are so many different departments in healthcare and also so many regulations you have to make sure are being followed properly,” Galinkin said. “I learned how to use company-derived data to make business decisions to create the best outcomes for patients and the company.”

Galinkin was already familiar with New York Cancer and Blood Specialists and its CEO, Jeffrey Vacirca, MD, FACP, for his level of personal commitment after seeing the treatment he provided his grandmother.

The internship experience reinforced why Galinkin chose to explore this facet of healthcare: Without strong leadership and organizational structures, the kind of business expertise he’s been growing at Binghamton, people won’t receive the medical help they need when it’s needed most.

Now, he’s looking forward to discovering where this journey will take him next.

“If you have your mind set on something you’re really passionate about, it might not be as traditional a path in business as accounting, finance or a role in marketing, but you should go for it and create opportunities for yourself,” Galinkin said. “For me, it’s about helping people in healthcare.”