Dr. Martha Medrano describes herself only as a community psychiatrist with a penchant to teach, but those who know her will attest otherwise. Dr. Medrano can be credited with an unwavering commitment to spending most of her career teaching medical students and other health professionals, and advocating awareness on the health effects within cultural beliefs and societal ritual. Because of her deep-rooted interest in health promotion and prevention, she decided to return to school and obtained her Masters in Public Health in 1996 from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, while continuing full-time faculty status.
The recruitment, retention and promotion of Hispanic medical students and faculty is the focus of Dr. Medrano's work at the Medical Hispanic Center of Excellence. She is working to increase Hispanic health information resources at the Dolph Briscoe Library and to expand the center's medical student summer research program. She has assisted in the development of cultural and linguistic competence teaching materials, case-vignettes and case simulation. Dr Medrano has developed the BELIEF™ Instrument teaching medical students how to ask patients about their alternative health beliefs and practices. She also has developed the INTERPRET™ Module teaching medical students about appropriate interpretation methodology with ad hoc interpreters. Dr. Medrano has partnered with the Department of Family Medicine to create Medical Spanish courses for second year medical students and a Spanish-Speaking Only Patient rotation for senior students.
Throughout her 26-year career, Dr. Medrano has become world renowned for her many accomplishments. Currently she is the Associate Dean of Continuing Medical Education, the Director of The Medical Hispanic Center of Excellence and a Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Family and Community Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology at UTHSC, San Antonio. Dr. Medrano is also a principal investigator for a multi-state consortium to develop a strategic plan to increase health care delivery along the U.S.-Mexico border. She also serves as the UTHSCSA representative for the National Advisory Board of Hispanic Serving Health Profession Schools. She has served as the Co-Director of the National Center of Excellence for Women’s Health; the South Central Regional Director for Redes En Acción, a multi-site grant funded by the National Cancer Institute, targeting cancer awareness, training and research within Hispanic communities; a founding member of the Minority Women Panel of Experts for the National Office on Women's Health; and the founding member of the National Advisory Board for the National Hispanic Medical Association. She was a founding member and former president of the UTHSCSA Hispanic Faculty Association at the Health Science Center.
Dr. Medrano has been instrumental in bringing the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health to the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She began planning with a number of women leaders in June of 2002. In October of 2004, UTHSCSA was awarded this designation and joins Harvard, Yale and other prestigious academic institutions with this distinction. The UTHSCSA is the first in Texas and second in the region to receive this designation (Tulane University being the first). The Center has a special emphasis on addressing health disparities needs of the women of San Antonio and South Texas.
Dr. Medrano was also co-investigator of the South Texas Partnership for Health Professions Education Program funded by HRSA in 1996. The purpose of this 5 year project was to create regional advisory boards in the six regional areas of South Texas (Upper, Mid and Lover Rio Grande Valley, Winter Garden, Costal Bend and Alamo) to develop a seamless pipeline of programs into the health professions field. Currently three of the six advisory boards continue to be active.
Dr. Medrano has been supported by the Aetna Foundation to develop an on-line Cross Cultural Communication Course for Health Professionals. Her current projects are the creation of On-line training in organizational self assessment of cultural and linguistic competent mental health services in South Texas. She is also developing a Post Partum Depression On-line Course targeted at primary care physicians and other health professions specifically addressing the health and mental health care needs of Hispanic women in South Texas. She currently serves on the Aetna Racial & Ethnic Equality External Advisory Committee.
As a co-investigator of the major nationwide initiative, Redes En Acción, she is working to create a national and regional infrastructure for collaboration among grassroots leaders, local communities, researchers and public health professionals to stimulate cancer control research, training and awareness for Hispanics/Latinos. She is also the principal investigator of the U.S. Mexico Border Center of Excellence Consortium that is developing a strategic plan for increasing the health care delivery and research workforce along the United States and Mexico border. Dr. Medrano is responsible for leading the four border-states (Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas) in developing a long-term strategic plan to impact nurse, physician, and dentist research workforce shortage on the US-Mexico Border. Through this contract, Dr Medrano has brought together all the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health on the US Mexico Border to begin to develop a Model Hispanic Women’s Health Curriculum, utilizing a Community Service Learning Model.
“My varied experiences have made being in the field of medicine extremely rewarding.”
— Dr. Martha A. Medrano
Admittedly a workaholic, she also serves on the Head Start policy committee for the City of San Antonio and the KLRN Women’s Health Conference steering committee.
“In my career, meeting people from diverse professions and building networks has been invaluable,” Dr. Medrano says.
“I believe this is how my work and community service symbiotically work together.” One day she feels she will be involved in child psychiatry again. Early in her career she worked with Dr. Fernando Guerra, director of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District, in the maternal substance abuse program. This program allowed her to address substance abuse with very young children and their parents. “My varied experiences have made being in the field of medicine extremely rewarding,” she says. “I’ve had so many opportunities. I have cared for individual patients, developed medical education programs, established a pipeline of students to pursue a career in medicine and assured that physicians have high-quality learning experiences via continuing medical education programs.” Obviously, the impact she has made on the field of medicine runs the gamut and will continue to grow for years to come.
In 2003, Dr. Medrano received a Recognition Award from The United States Border Health Initiative and the Latina Women in Action Award from the La Prensa Foundation. She also received the National Advisory Board Recognition Award from the National Hispanic Medical Association and the United Latin American Medical Student Association Appreciation Award.
Dr. Medrano has been recognized as the Distinguished Alumni for the UTHSCSA School of Medicine and the University of Texas at El Paso College of Science. She was recently awarded the Edgar C. Hayhow Award for her article published in the Journal for Health Care Management entitled “Self-Assessment of Cultural and Linguistic Competence in an Ambulatory Health System” during the 2007 American College of Healthcare Executives Annual meeting.
Her most recent awards include being selected as the Ford Motor Co. Salute to Education 2008 Lifetime Achievement Recipient; she was also recognized as one of the Most Influential Women Physicians by San Antonio Magazine and one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the United States by Hispanic Business Magazine. Dr. Medrano has been recognized for her work at the Medical Hispanic Center of Excellence and the Redes En Acción program as well as for her past research on the effects of childhood trauma on women addicted to drugs.
Dr. Martha A. Medrano was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, one of eight children. She obtained her undergraduate degree in 1977 from the University of Texas at El Paso where she graduated with high honors. Dr. Medrano attended the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA) Medical School, graduating in 1981. She entered Pediatric Internship at UTHSCSA in 1981 and completed a General Psychiatry Residency and Child Psychiatry Fellowship at UTHSCSA in 1985. Since 1986, Dr Medrano has served on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child Psychiatry and Alcohol and Drug Addiction.
When she’s not working her day job(s), she can be found fulfilling her role as vice president for Vito Enterprises, Inc. She and her husband have owned this company, which builds wine cellars and vaults for wine collectors, since 1984. Some of Dr. Medrano’s favorite hobbies and past times include playing tennis, biking, hiking, and photography.
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