Your first impression when meeting Dr. Elise Sylar, the newest addition to the Internal Medicine team at Sheridan Memorial Hospital, may be that she is sharp as a tack. But the more you get to know her, the more you’ll come to realize that her heart is just as strong as her intellect. And although she may be brand-new to SMH, it’s clear that Dr. Sylar is by no means new to loving and serving the people around her.
Elise’s interest in healthcare began when she started volunteering at Camp Wapiyapi, a summer camp for children who have pediatric cancer in Estes Park, Colorado. There, Dr. Sylar formed close connections with campers and had the opportunity to leave a lasting, positive impact on the lives of the kids she interacted with. The experiences and memories Elise got from Camp Wapiyapi stirred an even greater desire to help and make a difference in the lives of others. So, when the time came for her to head to new horizons, Dr. Sylar was intent on entering the medical field, with hopes of specializing in pediatrics.
Following her graduation from Kelly Walsh High School, Dr. Sylar packed up and headed from her hometown of Casper to Laramie to attend The University of Wyoming, where she graduated with a degree in Physiology and a minor in Neurology. Before moving on to Med school, Dr. Sylar took a year to get some hands-on experience at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, researching CAR T-Cell Therapy in an Oncology Lab working to find a cure for Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Dr. Sylar then applied and was accepted into the University of Washington School of Medicine, and thanks to the WWAMI program, Dr. Sylar got to complete her first year of med school in Laramie. During her attendance at Med School in both Laramie and Seattle, Dr. Sylar was given the opportunity to study and practice in all fields of medicine. When the time came to decide what she was going to specialize in, she decided against her original idea of pediatrics. Dr. Sylar explained, “I always thought I was going to go into pediatrics, even when I finished studying at UW. I was certain I wanted to become a Pediatric Oncologist. Still, the longer I studied at the University of Washington, the more I realized why adult medicine was a much better fit for me. My favorite part of healthcare is to form that connection between physician and patient. It’s empowering to see people become more knowledgeable and further involved in their healthcare thanks to the advice and resources that I can provide them. The problem I had with becoming a pediatrician was I knew forming a good connection with a child would be a much more difficult process than with an adult. I also wouldn’t be able to see my patients take an active role in their health because they simply don’t have the ability to be independent the way adults do.”
Dr. Sylar finished up Med School with a focus on Internal Medicine, and now, and after finishing her 3-year residency at the University of Arizona, she’s excited to get started building relationships with her patients right here in Sheridan.
Dr. Sylar shared, “I was always planning on coming back to Wyoming after I finished my schooling, in part because of the WWAMI program, but more than anything, the reason I came back was that I wanted to give back. I felt like supporting rural healthcare was the best way I could give back to the state that has provided me with so much throughout my life.”
Sheridan became the ideal community for Dr. Sylar because it suited both her needs and her spouse’s needs. “Sheridan Memorial Hospital offers a very robust healthcare system, which surprised me considering how rural the community is, it houses lots of innovative technology and offers practices which you wouldn’t typically find in rural communities, like vascular surgery, for example. It feels like the perfect place for me to begin my career, and since Sheridan houses a reasonably sized airport, it provides my husband the opportunity to continue his career as a pilot,” she added.
Outside of her profession, Dr. Sylar loves to spend her time hiking, mountain biking, and road cycling. And with the Big Horn Mountains just a few miles outside of town, it seems like Sheridan truly is the perfect place for her and her husband Ken to both work hard and play hard.
“I’m so excited for the opportunity I have to make a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of the people here in Sheridan. And I’m even more excited to start building great relationships, not only with my patients but with all the kind and welcoming people here at SMH.”
Call 307.675.2650 and choose Option 4 to schedule your appointment with Dr. Elise Sylar in Internal Medicine today.