Melissa Schiffman

Aug 19, 2024 | opmed.doximity.com | Lauren Grawert |Nishant Pandya |Melissa Schiffman

When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, it expanded access to health insurance and preventative health care services for millions of Americans. Two of the most popular and most utilized aspects of the bill include extension of health care coverage to age 26 for dependents and complete coverage of 22 key preventative health care services without any copayment or deductible.

Aug 19, 2024 | opmed.doximity.com | Nishant Pandya |Melissa Schiffman |Giulia Faison

Patient rooms are rarely quiet at the urgent care office. The sounds of children yelling, families talking, and restless siblings making balloons from medical gloves serve as the background to our workdays. Entering a bustling room is a manageable challenge. It’s one of my responsibilities to join the fray and kick off a conversation. I like finding the right wavelength to match the room’s energy. Compared with a noisy room, I find it more challenging to communicate with the distracted family.

Aug 19, 2024 | opmed.doximity.com | Nishant Pandya |Melissa Schiffman |Giulia Faison

My earliest encounter with appendicitis was when I was in medical school, but not via textbooks and CT scans, in the way that you would expect. I had stayed up late studying and decided on Taco Bell for a late-night snack. For some reason, half an hour after eating, I ended up on the treadmill, maybe to work off those excess calories. A few hours later, I had abdominal pain unlike anything I’d ever had. I'm not prone to abdominal pain. And yes, it was periumbilical.

Aug 15, 2024 | opmed.doximity.com | Melissa Schiffman |Giulia Faison |Aditya Jain |Jordan Frey

Thoughts of Love for Prior Authorization Staff, and other Meditations for the Modern Physician For mental health awareness month, my work offered a meditation challenge on a popular app. Hoorah: a job-approved procrastination! I downloaded the app and tried it for a few five-minute sessions. A whispery woman told me to banish negativity and let in more light. She dragged out her s’s like a snake. Ssssshe told me to breathe. And so I did. I breathed in. I breathed out.

Apr 9, 2024 | opmed.doximity.com | Lauren Grawert |Joseph Philip Zucchi |Melissa Schiffman

She’s the reason I pee when I sneeze. She’s the reason I fart when I walk. And yet, I would give birth to my daughter again, a thousand times over. And that, I think, is the crux of the cross we bear as mothers — the bearing of children and, specifically, bearing down. As a resident, I attended the Pelvic Floor Symposiums held by my institution. They were fascinating discussions led by mostly surgeons who were women, but these symposia were completely ignored by most other surgeons.