Dr. Melissa Moore
Dr. Moore is proud to call the Grand Strand Home!
Dr. Moore celebrating being named a nember of The Boys and Girls Club Top 40 Under 40! Dr. Moore wants to make sure that tomorrow’s doctors have the start they need!
Wife and Mother are Dr. Moore’s two most important job titles!
As a “Hidden Gem” of the Grand Strand, Dr. Moore was recognized as a pillar of the community and was able to support the Friends of the Waccamaw Library. One of Dr. Moore’s biggest desires is not just to check a few boxes at each visit, but to give her patients true health literacy so they understand why their body does the things it does.
For the Moores, medicine is a family affair and who better to help with PT exercises than your own personal trainer. Joshua also made many clnic appearances in the Ergo and has been seeing patients with mom most of his life!
Advanced Gynecologic care delivered with a personal touch
Dr. Moore is a board certified OB/GYN and the only certified Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgeon in the Grand Strand. She grew up in South Georgia and jokingly refers to herself as the only person who moved north to get to Myrtle Beach. After attending Spring Hill College on a full academic scholarship and obtaining degrees in Biology and History with a minor in chemistry, Dr. Moore went on to study medicine at the Medical College of Georgia. MCG is one of the largest medical schools in the country and has the necessity of serving a large population over a large geographical area. This provided Dr. Moore with the opportunity to see multiple practice models and work with alot of different providers. While learning the principles of medical ethics as a first year, it was stressed that patient autonomy should be at the center of our care. She was also strongly influenced during this time by two off campus groups - Medical Campus Outreach and Spirit and Truth. They filled in the “why” of medicine - because every person deserves care. This is also where she met the love of her life, James.
Dr. Moore then completed her residency at the UF College of Medicine Jacksonville. As a hybrid academic/community program, there was a lot of cutting edge care, but also an emphasis on taking care of whoever walked in the door. There were challenging groups of patients and the program made a strong effort to reach out and find a way to work with patients even if hospital care wasn’t their desired outcome. It was the goal of the entire program to meet the patient where they were and accompany them on their journey. Things that are now routine - putting baby up on mom’s chest immediately after delivery, early skin to skin, and delayed cord clamping were groundbreaking at the time. She also found a love of reproductive endocrinology. The clinic she trained at placed a huge emphasis on improving metabolic health to improve reproductive health and had great success in helping women achieve pregnancy using noninvasive techniques like ovulation induction. These doctors were also amazing surgeons and were doing great things in understanding and correcting pelvic pain and endometriosis.
Dr. Moore then returned to South Georgia to practice. “I have always loved the South - the accents, the smiles, and the fact that there are more peanuts than people in town.” There were things about the care model that were great - like delivering hundreds of babies a year and getting to take care of generations of women in the same family. The job was very surgery heavy and was almost like doing a fellowship in minimally invasive gynecology - though the certification would come later. It was also here that Dr. Moore welcomed her first child. Her pregnancy was handled by an excellent midwife and she was delivered by a close friend/OBGYN. It’s an experience of medicine that few people get. “I knew everyone in the room. I delivered with my family and my work family. Every woman deserves to be cared for by a provider who has taken the time to get to know them.”
After becoming a mom (and the grandparents leaving the area), priorities changed and a new chapter opened in Murrells Inlet. Dr. Moore joined a private practice and set about building a new patient base. Starting from scratch at 35 was a lot different than starting from scratch at 30, but what didn’t change was a dedication to good patient care. Dr. Moore’s desire to just be a great doc quickly helped her build a practice. She also received the amazing blessing of her second child. Once again delivering with a team of favorite midwife, close personal friend/OB-GYN, and a room of other colleagues - including an amazing tech/birth photographer who captured the memories. “I delivered with my husband and my work family. I was confident in the skills of every member of my team.” Dr. Moore also fiercely advocated for her patients insisting that no woman should be forced to deliver alone. The birth of a child was too imporant to let a pandemic get in the way.
Given the changing healthcare landscape of COVID, the practice ultimately ended up forming a partnership with a hospital. Suddenly, there was an extra layer of administrators between doctor and patient.
As a long time advocate for putting as few barriers between a patient and necessary services, Dr. Moore found the new practice model highly constraining. The one thing it did afford was a little extra time for a long planned project. In 2024, Dr. Moore completed her certification for the Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgeon board. The extra piece of paper didn’t change the job, but was a huge validation of the time throughout her career it took to develop high level skills.
In 2025, Dr. Moore decided that she could provide better care to patients by opening her own practice. By going small, she can do it better, maket it personal and do it for a lower cost.