CDM Class of 2019: Michael Schiff
As an aspiring oral surgeon, Michael Schiff seeks to combine his love of science with the work of his hands to improve patients’ lives. During his clinical training, he’s embraced a comprehensive approach to patient care. “Every patient is more than just the treatment plan that you write up for them,” he says. “They have a lot going on in their lives.”
For a patient whose self-esteem suffered due to missing teeth, that meant investing time in an extended follow-up call. “While describing her complex medical history, she described her life in depth, even mentioning the death of her son a year earlier, explaining that she’d been depressed and it hadn’t helped not being able to smile,” says Schiff. “I worked on gaining her trust and the change was palpable. She would arrive confident, knowing that we were working as a team.” When Schiff delivered her dentures, the pair took photos, smiling together. “She was over the moon,” he says. “She just hadn’t thought she would ever look good again and she looked great. I was ecstatic that I’d been able to do something to help her feel better about herself.”
What brought you to Columbia?
My grandfather was a professor here at Columbia and my mom went to Barnard. It’s always been a special place for my family and I knew that CDM would be more than just a place to teach me a craft or profession, it would be a place to comprehensively cover every aspect of the science behind what I’m doing—the history, the ethics and the values. Once I got here, I realized there’s something special about CDM. It has a family feeling; the deans and professors know you, are approachable, and care about helping you succeed professionally and personally. Tht makes this dental program very special.
As a Columbia undergrad you were dedicated to community service. What led you to intensify that commitment during your dental training?
During my first year at CDM, my girlfriend Daniella died tragically during a humanitarian mission in Honduras. She was, at the time, my greatest source of support and stability. After her death, my appreciation for the fragility, enormity, and sanctity of life led me to find deeper meaning in my medical studies and a new, reinforced drive to care for patients. Her work ethic and dedication to community service have become a part of who I am. I use her as a guiding light, emulate her spirit, and aim to carry forward her legacy.
How has that infused your approach to patient care?
I strive to treat everyone with dignity and respect. I had a patient who started showing up for her appointments hours late. She was in her eighties and she had a hard time seeing and moving about. It took her a long time to get to appointments coming by herself. I was concerned and asked, Is there anything we can do to make it easier? We were able to arrange transportation. Later, her Medicaid expired—so we connected her with the Medicaid office and a social worker and got that taken care of too.
How has community service affected you?
Soon after Daniella’s passing, I started visiting a nursing home on Saturday afternoons with a friend. It was something I could look forward to during the week. And then I found a bit of a niche on the American Student Dental Association community service board, generating creative ideas to bring dental and health awareness to local public schools and to the free clinic. I was raised on the value of Tikkun olam, the Jewish value of repairing the world. It was part of my identity. And yet it wasn’t until after Daniella’s death that I realized the power Tikkun olam could have on both the participants and the recipient.