Sean A. Whelton

Sean A. Whelton, MD, is a rheumatologist and associate program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital (MGUH). In addition, he is an associate director for Ambulatory Electronic Health Records at MedStar Health, and he serves as an associate professor of medicine in the division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. 

Dr. Whelton has been chosen to participate in the MedStar Teaching Scholars program, a limited enrollment 2-year curriculum focused on scholarship in medical education. His clinical practice is focused on inflammatory autoimmune conditions. Patients consult him for a variety of conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, gout, sarcoidosis, IgG4-related disease and vasculitis. He previously served as the clerkship director for internal medicine student programs at Georgetown University School of Medicine. 

As an expert in innovative medical education, living well with lupus, and diagnosis of rheumatic conditions, Dr. Whelton is frequently invited to speak for audiences of physicians and educators. He is interested in medical education at all levels. Among his many honors, he has received four Golden Apple teaching awards, and he has been inducted into the Golden Orchard.  He serves on the Academic Internal Medicine National Committee on the transition from medical school to residency and on the National Board of Medical Examiners’ Step 1 test writing committee. 

Dr. Whelton is a fellow of the American College of Rheumatology and the American College of Physicians. He is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the Gold Humanism Honor Society, the Lupus Foundation of Greater Washington, the Arthritis Foundation, and the District of Columbia Rheumatism Association. He is certified in internal medicine and rheumatology.

His medical degree is from Tulane University School of Medicine. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at MGUH, where he also completed a fellowship in rheumatology.

Research Interests

Dr. Whelton’s research interests include

Medical education                                               CommunicationsCognitive load in the outpatient clinic environmentPsoriatic arthritisElectronic medical recordsAmbulatory care. 

Selected Research

Psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis in African-American patients

Dr. Whelton collaborated in this research to investigate clinical disease characteristics of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis in African-American and Caucasian patients. This research was published in Clinical Rheumatology (2014;34:1753-9). 

View Dr. Whelton’s publications on PubMed.