Cheryl Appel is a Board Certified Pediatrician specializing in comprehensive pre-teen and adolescent medical care of children 9 to 21 years of age. After 18 years in a traditional pediatric group, she started a solo practice in Tarrytown, New York, November, 2002. The practice was designed to create a new approach to address the biological, social, and emotional aspects of her patient’s health along with their traditional medical care. When addressing problems and medical issues in this age group, a team effort is often required to address different aspects of the patients’ needs.
After 1 year in practice, Dr. Appel formed a collaborative group with a nutritionist and an adolescent psychotherapist to create this team approach. In this model, medical problems as well as behavioral issues can be addressed with patients and their parents, while problems are still small and easier to solve quickly. Working together closely helps to recognize the unique circumstances in each teen’s life that leads them to risky behaviors and poor lifestyle choices.
The medical aspects of health care can also be addressed more thoroughly when taken in the context of the child’s complete life picture. This expanded view of adolescence highlights the need to understand the adolescent in all of their life circumstances; from their family unit to their friends, to their peer group and school environment. Her medical approach in this collaborative setting focuses on prevention, supporting self-reliance, and healthy lifestyle decisions. Acute and chronic medical problems are addressed directly with patients as well as with their parents to include the adolescent in the care plan. The ultimate goal is to help smooth the transition from total parental responsibility to shared responsibility, with an increasingly competent and independent adolescent. Dr. Appels’ philosophy motivates a sense of personal responsibility for wellness, as well as cooperation on medical issues that require their participation and compliance.
Dr. Appel completed her training at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, Schneider Children’s Hospital in Lake Success New York, and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami Florida. She is currently a Medical Director at the Andrus Children’s Center in Yonkers, NY. She is responsible for medical care of 75 residential children’s health, supervision of 3 psychiatrists and she is administrator of the health Center. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and maintains admitting privileges at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Westchester County Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of The Society of Adolescent Medicine and the North American Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology.