Who are our Primary Care Providers?
ALLAN S. “Chip” TEEL M.D., a Board-Certified Family Physician since 1988, has been practicing in Damariscotta for 30 years, and also worked as Medical Director of Innovation at Eastern Maine Health. Chip received his M.D. in 1985 from Vermont College of Medicine. He’s a world-recognized innovator in the field of independent senior living.
As a Family Doctor, Chip has delivered babies and treated people of all ages with ailments and injuries of all types. He particularly loves to work with our older patients, and with patients with complex chronic conditions. In 2020, he launched a Research Program, Reverse Cognitive Decline, for patients who would like to reduce their risk of Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
Chip has served as the Medical Director for both Cove’s Edge Nursing Home and Lincoln Home Assisted Living. He is the co-founder of ElderCare Network, which runs the seven “Greens” — small, home-like assisted living residences serving 60 people, mostly over 85, on state assistance. Chip is also the founder and CEO of Full Circle America, which provides remote video monitoring, telemedicine, and care coordination to seniors living in their own homes.
MELODY REES, RN, FNP-C, is a Family Nurse Practitioner who treats patients of all ages, with most conditions. Melody has been practicing medicine since 2010, first as an RN and then as a Family Nurse Practitioner.
Melody is a graduate of Simmons University School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Her clinical rotations included working at Mercy Primary Care in Falmouth, Waterville Pediatrics, Inland Primary Care in Waterville, Skyhaven Internal Medicine in Rochester, NH, Avesta Housing, where she did a special project on reducing CHF hospitalizations among residents, and at Portland Community Free Clinic. She has worked in skilled Rehab at Durgin Pines, in Kittery, ME; as a Case Manager at Beacon Hospice, Hospice of Southern Maine, and Compassus Hospice in Scarborough. She has handled Triage for Intermed, the largest, physician-owned primary care practice in Maine, and most recently, she has been doing Home-Based visits and Risk Assessments. And, she served as a summer camp nurse.
Christina Solak, FNP-C is a family nurse practitioner specializing in primary care. Christina began her career in medicine as a licensed clinical professional counselor in private practice. She also served as an Emergency Clinical Consultant to Boston Regional Medical Center and taught counseling at the University of Southern Maine through 2004. She then decided to become a nurse and graduated from the University of Southern Maine with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2006. She served as a professional RN until 2017 in Auburn, Lewiston, Brunswick and Westbrook, Maine, until she decided to specialize in Primary Family Care. She received her Masters of Science in Nursing from Purdue University in 2021. During her Nurse Practitioner internships, she interned at the Boothbay Region Health Center, as well as Rockland Family Planning, Convenient MD, and Pediatric Associates.
Christina is now a Certified Family Nurse Practitioner with a specialty in Primary Care. She also teaches nursing at Central Maine Community College. And she is a published author, with two wonderful books about her struggle dealing with Bi-Polar Disorder, Battling Bi-Polar Disorder, published in 2011, and Diary of a Mental Patient: A Journey Toward Acceptance published in 2014. Both are available on Amazon.
Christina’s first job as a Primary Care Practitioner was with Maine General. But after working in a large system for a year, she called us and asked if she could join our practice (which she knew well after interning with us), because she much prefers to work in an environment in which she can spend more time listening to and treating patients and not having to limit the time she spends with patients to 15 minutes. We were, of course, delighted to welcome her to our community health center. She will be joining Dr. Allan S. Teel and Family Nurse Practitioner Melody Rees to round out our current team of primary care providers.