{"id":16694,"date":"2025-09-03T15:10:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T15:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-health-welcomes-new-internal-medicine-physician-shahir-melhem\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:59:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:59:58","slug":"southwest-health-welcomes-new-internal-medicine-physician-shahir-melhem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/southwest-health-welcomes-new-internal-medicine-physician-shahir-melhem\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Health welcomes new internal medicine physician Shahir Melhem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=e5d8afe3-d77a-5ed6-a166-adc2b68cae5b&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"335\" height=\"372\" alt=\"Internal medicine physician Dr. Shahir Melhem is joining Southwest Health System. (Southwest Health System\/Courtesy photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Internal medicine physician Dr. Shahir Melhem is joining Southwest Health System. (Southwest Health System\/Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Southwest Health System has welcomed Dr. Shahir Melhem, an internal medicine physician specializing in adult preventive care and chronic disease management.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thrilled to welcome Dr. Melhem to Southwest Health System,\u201d said Joseph Theine, CEO of Southwest Health System. \u201cHis dedication to compassionate, evidence-based care and his deep appreciation for our community make him an exceptional addition to our team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Melhem, a native of Austin, Texas, earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in human biology from the University of Texas at Austin and a medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency at Harlem Hospital Center in New York City, affiliated with Columbia University, where he managed complex cases in both inpatient and outpatient settings.<\/p>\n<p>Before entering the medical field, Melhem spent more than a decade as a whitewater rafting guide on the Arkansas River in Ca\u00f1on City.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis love for the outdoors and connecting with people from all walks of life continues to shape his approach to patient care,\u201d SHS said.<\/p>\n<p>Melhem and his family relocated to Southwest Colorado for its tight-knit community and natural beauty. In his free time, he enjoys rafting, fishing, swimming, camping, hiking, gardening, cooking and spending time with his wife and two young children.<\/p>\n<p>Melhem is accepting new patients at SHS. For appointments or more information, call SHS at (970) 565-8556.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>specializes in comprehensive adult care<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,61,60,29,210,538],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-southwest-health-system","tag-southwest-memorial-hospital"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16694"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20340,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16694\/revisions\/20340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16694"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}