Dr. Elizabeth Dulaney-Cripe

If I go way back, growing up my mom was a registered nurse in the pediatric ICU. She worked long hours and would really get joy from connecting with her patients, their families, and seeing them ‘graduate’ from the ICU. She took really good care of her patients. I told her one day that I really wanted to be a nurse; I wanted to do what she did. She looked me square in my pre-teen eyes and said, “Absolutely not! You will get fired on your first day!” At that time, the medical hierarchy was strict. She already knew I challenged norms and fought for what was best, sometimes to a fault.

Fast forwarding, I was in medical school and wanted to “fix things”. I knew based on our experience in the medical school setting that I felt my impact would be greatest in surgery and fell in love with orthopedic surgery. We could take something literally broken and fix it. We could help people walk and move again. We could take away pain.

In practice, I learned that with those things did not feel that I was doing enough. I wanted to understand why fixing something worked really well in one person and another did not recover the same way. I wanted to understand alternative ways of healing, pain control, the effects of our metabolism, our mindset, and our strength on our healing. This brought me to my fellowship in integrative medicine and lifestyle medicine certification.

I really loved integrating those parts into my practice. Then, due to unforeseen circumstances, I realized operating was not going to be a long term part of my career. It was an absolutely wonderful time to pivot. An opportunity with Anchor Wellness became available; an opportunity that allows me to utilize my musculoskeletal knowledge and my whole person belief of health, so I went for it. This September Valivera Health will open. I am excited to provide conservative musculoskeletal care, evaluation and treatment plans that involve the whole person including hormonal health. The focus is not just treating the injury anymore, but how do we make changes now to influence our health and longevity moving forward.

I am fairly local. I grew up in Northwest Ohio and went to University of Cincinnati for my undergraduate degree. I studied Exercise Science for my bachelors degree and stayed at the University of Cincinnati for my medical degree. I then went to Wright State University for my orthopedic surgery residency during which I was able to do a year of research. I looked into utilizing PRP to aid in the healing of rotator cuff tears in animals. After residency, I spent a year doing general orthopedics in Georgia before returning to the Dayton area. My practice in Dayton was with Far Oaks Orthopedists for ten years. During that time I completed a fellowship with the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona and became certified in Lifestyle Medicine with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. I recently completed the coursework on hormone replacement therapy and tested for the Menopause Society certification (results pending).

I have had multiple different mentors along the way. I worked in a neuroscience research laboratory in college. My senior lab instructors expected excellence. They instilled that even small details matter. The work we were doing influenced the diagnosis of hemorrhagic stroke and had a direct influence on patient care. In medical school I spent a Summer in the laboratory at Cincinnati Children's in the orthopedics department. It changed my view on what orthopedics is, what can be done, and the passion that can come within your job. Throughout medical school and residency I saw what setting goals and working hard provides when you know what you want and can chart a path to get there. I also learned in residency how much relationships matter. Senior residents can take you under their wing, even when you are not in their specialty. Attendings can mentor through the challenges. Eventually attendings become practice partners and nurture your growth as a colleague.

I think overall it was instilled that even small, consistent changes can make a difference over time when working toward goals, but to remember that who you are and how you connect with people is important as well.

I love the ‘a-ha!’ moments; when something clicks and the knowledge that a patient can be an integral part of their own recovery or health is amazing. Seeing people be instrumental in their success is so rewarding. Sometimes all they need is a guide; sometimes they needed a surgery. The success after a collaborative effort is amazing.