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FIT Spotlight: Jose L. Lopez, MD: "Exhaust Every Option and Never Give Up"
I was born and raised in the Dominican Republic (DR) and attended medical school at Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña in Santo Domingo. I completed my internal medicine residency at HCA Florida Aventura Hospital in Aventura, FL, and I am currently a third-year cardiology fellow and chief fellow at the JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, FL, through the University of Miami in Miami, FL. Outside of cardiology, I enjoy spending time outdoors, traveling and playing the electric guitar.
From the moment I entered medical school, I knew I wanted to train in the U.S., where there were opportunities in research and subspecialty care that did not exist for me at home in the DR. One of my biggest challenges was learning English while completing medical school in Spanish. I bought all my textbooks in English, watched online lectures and improved my listening skills by watching TV shows repeatedly, first with subtitles and then without, until I could "hear" every word. To work on my pronunciation, I practiced difficult words with a pencil under my tongue to improve articulation. It often took me three times the effort, but my experience learning English shaped the persistence and discipline I bring to my training today.
A moment that shaped me during residency happened in the middle of a code at the start of my intern year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. I was asked to find a blade for intubation and could not find it. I gave up too quickly and said to my attending, "I can't find it. What do I do?" He looked at me and said, "Jose, I need solutions, not more problems." It was a turning point. From that day forward, I made sure to exhaust every option and never give up. That mindset has carried into everything I do. Some other important lessons I have learned throughout my training include:
- Invest in yourself. Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
- Disrupt inertia. Things do not move forward unless you push them.
- Do not give up in the face of rejection. Learn from each experience and keep going. Always remember that rejection is redirection.
- Remember your "why." You are the one who started this story. Always keep your North Star in mind.
- Always pay it forward. Just as others helped you get here, offer that same hand to someone else.
During internal medicine training, we lacked formal research infrastructure, but remembering "solutions, not problems," I taught myself statistics, enrolled in courses such as the Harvard Medical School Foundations of Clinical Research program and learned manuscript writing independently. I even taught myself how to create manuscript figures using Adobe through YouTube tutorials and other courses. That initiative allowed me to connect with incredible mentors. To date, I have authored 30 peer-reviewed publications, with a focus on the intersection of electrophysiology and heart failure, and improving access to care.
Currently, I am applying for an electrophysiology fellowship where I hope to carry the mission "exhaust every option and never give up" forward.
This article was authored by Jose L. Lopez, MD, a FIT at JFK Medical Center in Atlantis, FL.
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