BPO

JEWELS
SARATOGA
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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Debut author Melissa Crickard set goals in early childhood to be a best-selling novelist and
physician. The daughter of an English and a Science teacher, Melissa attended Georgia Institute
of Technology and the University of Buffalo, and after being awarded two Bachelor’s degrees in
Physical Therapy and Chemistry, she advanced toward her M.D. degree from the State
University of New York at Buffalo, going on to become a diplomat of the American Society of
Anesthesiologists.
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While training as a resident, Melissa recognized not only the critical problems facing medicine
and society, but also the promise and limitless optimism that scientific advances and medicine
abound with potential. Additionally, her English professors at the engineering based Georgia
Tech examined countless works that raised questions of scientific ethics and the role of women in
the field, which remained a necessary inspiration for writing medical thrillers. These themes, as
well as her experience as a practicing Anesthesiologist, formed the basis for her fiction novels,
which she began writing fervently after the birth of her son, Roman. She is the author a textbook
chapter in the medical textbook, Complications in Anesthesia, and served as a contributing
journalist for general medical stories for WGRZ Channel 2 in Buffalo, NY, belonging to the
Association of Health Care Journalists. She holds a faculty position in the State University of
New York at Buffalo Department of Anesthesiology. She lectures to residents and students and
practices Anesthesia full time in western New York. She is currently a semi-finalist in the
international business competition, 43North, for her startup company, PneumaGlide, P.C. She is
currently C.E.O. of the medical device company and holds a utility patent for her invention. She
was recently awarded a 7.5K grant from National Grid and a 40.2K grant from the University of
Buffalo to promote the company.
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After completing her first mainstream fiction novel, Another Five Patients, a culmination of five
interwoven stories that address larger issues of the modern hospital, she immediately initiated her
second, plot driven commercial fiction novel, The Labrador Response.