Selected Podcast
Dr. Martinez: Physician BioPod
Meet Dr. Hugo Martinez, director of Cardiovascular Genetics and co-director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Program at Le Bonheur. In this episode of the Peds Pod, learn more about Dr. Martinez, why he chose to become a doctor and what he likes to do when he’s not helping the children at Le Bonheur’s Heart Institute.
Featured Speaker:
Learn more about Hugo Martinez, MD
Hugo Martinez, MD
Hugo Martinez, MD is a Co-Director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Program at Le Bonheur's Heart Institute.Learn more about Hugo Martinez, MD
Transcription:
Dr. Martinez: Physician BioPod
Dr. Hugo Martinez: My name is Hugo Martinez. I'm an attending physician here at Le Bonheur for the service of Transplant Cardiology and Cardiogenetics. I am also a cardio-oncologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and I'm an Associate Professor for the Pediatric Cardiology Division and Genetics at the University of Tennessee Health and Science. I decided to go into the medical field during my years of high school, and this was probably as a result of shadowing other physicians in the city that I grew up, likely as a result also of having lots of encouragement from my family. And the reason I say that is that they were not only supportive, but I have a significant number of physicians in my family. And then finally, I think I realized that these profession would give me a great opportunity to alleviate people's illnesses. And that's where everything started.
The pathway of training in the medical field, it's quite lengthy. So from the very beginning, I completed medical school in Mexico, where I'm from originally. And then in the early 2000s, I went to Houston, Texas seeking for further training in cardiology.
So, I completed the United States Medical Licensing examination in the early 2000s, and I initiated some shadowing opportunities. that eventually helped me to join a residency program in Houston. And the last part of my training in transplant cardiology was completed at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. And from there, I eventually started working here as an attending physician at Le Bonheur and St. Jude's.
The two main attractions that I found at Le Bonheur were, number one, good leadership and will support opportunities for me to develop one of my passions, which is the academic medicine, researching, ending into publications and professional talks. And thus far, you know, I've been very pleased to share that Le Bonheur, the university and St. Jude have been very supportive in that particular aspect of my career. . The research opportunities, the great opportunity of working with people with heart failure, people with cancer, that was a big plus for me to come and join this practice.
So, the way I practice is, it's some sort of a simplistic way. I like to see my patients with an optimal and adequate and accurate diagnosis. I do believe that coming with the right answer about what is the illness will give me the tremendous opportunity to delineate an individual plan based on the disease of a particular patient. So, my philosophy is coming up with the adequate diagnosis, so we can individually tailor any specific plan based on what's published in consensus guidelines and why not to be applied for a particular patient.
I have my wife and two kids. So, life is busy with two toddlers. The social networks and the family interactions go around music events and food. We really like to eat as much as we can and outside of our house to explore what the city and the surroundings have to offer.
We also like to practice some sort of street photography. And it's just like I'm a really bad amateur, but I try every day. When it comes to some degree of physical activity, I like cycling. I have a stationary and a road bike. I like sports overall. In Mexico, where I grew up, soccer is, you know, some sort of a second religion. But as I spent close to 20 years in the US, I've become very acclimated to most of sports. So, basketball, baseball, football, and others have become passion of my wife and I. And we're trying to instill that on our kids, so they're active on those as well. And then, as you can imagine, just having two toddlers really take a lot of our time at home. And so, lots of activities around them so they can have fun. And I must say, I really love my kids, I shall say most of the time.
Memphis is a great city. It has given us a very, very pleasant experience. And the reason I say that is because I have the sense that sooner or later, people get to know each other. And I think, from that perspective is, it's very important for my family to have that type of environment where it's relatively easier to raise a family in that particular environment.
You know, I don't practice solo. I do have a team that has been very supportive with every activity that we do together. The success of our practice is that we don't take into our decisions based on a sole individual like me, but more of a consensus from the experience of all our team members. And that has given us the opportunity to provide optimal care with optimal diagnosis and eventually optimal treatments. And if that's something that we can offer to our patient population, then that's excellent.
Caitlin Whyte: Learn more about Dr. Martinez and Le Bonheur's Heart Institute at lebonheur.org.
Dr. Martinez: Physician BioPod
Dr. Hugo Martinez: My name is Hugo Martinez. I'm an attending physician here at Le Bonheur for the service of Transplant Cardiology and Cardiogenetics. I am also a cardio-oncologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and I'm an Associate Professor for the Pediatric Cardiology Division and Genetics at the University of Tennessee Health and Science. I decided to go into the medical field during my years of high school, and this was probably as a result of shadowing other physicians in the city that I grew up, likely as a result also of having lots of encouragement from my family. And the reason I say that is that they were not only supportive, but I have a significant number of physicians in my family. And then finally, I think I realized that these profession would give me a great opportunity to alleviate people's illnesses. And that's where everything started.
The pathway of training in the medical field, it's quite lengthy. So from the very beginning, I completed medical school in Mexico, where I'm from originally. And then in the early 2000s, I went to Houston, Texas seeking for further training in cardiology.
So, I completed the United States Medical Licensing examination in the early 2000s, and I initiated some shadowing opportunities. that eventually helped me to join a residency program in Houston. And the last part of my training in transplant cardiology was completed at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. And from there, I eventually started working here as an attending physician at Le Bonheur and St. Jude's.
The two main attractions that I found at Le Bonheur were, number one, good leadership and will support opportunities for me to develop one of my passions, which is the academic medicine, researching, ending into publications and professional talks. And thus far, you know, I've been very pleased to share that Le Bonheur, the university and St. Jude have been very supportive in that particular aspect of my career. . The research opportunities, the great opportunity of working with people with heart failure, people with cancer, that was a big plus for me to come and join this practice.
So, the way I practice is, it's some sort of a simplistic way. I like to see my patients with an optimal and adequate and accurate diagnosis. I do believe that coming with the right answer about what is the illness will give me the tremendous opportunity to delineate an individual plan based on the disease of a particular patient. So, my philosophy is coming up with the adequate diagnosis, so we can individually tailor any specific plan based on what's published in consensus guidelines and why not to be applied for a particular patient.
I have my wife and two kids. So, life is busy with two toddlers. The social networks and the family interactions go around music events and food. We really like to eat as much as we can and outside of our house to explore what the city and the surroundings have to offer.
We also like to practice some sort of street photography. And it's just like I'm a really bad amateur, but I try every day. When it comes to some degree of physical activity, I like cycling. I have a stationary and a road bike. I like sports overall. In Mexico, where I grew up, soccer is, you know, some sort of a second religion. But as I spent close to 20 years in the US, I've become very acclimated to most of sports. So, basketball, baseball, football, and others have become passion of my wife and I. And we're trying to instill that on our kids, so they're active on those as well. And then, as you can imagine, just having two toddlers really take a lot of our time at home. And so, lots of activities around them so they can have fun. And I must say, I really love my kids, I shall say most of the time.
Memphis is a great city. It has given us a very, very pleasant experience. And the reason I say that is because I have the sense that sooner or later, people get to know each other. And I think, from that perspective is, it's very important for my family to have that type of environment where it's relatively easier to raise a family in that particular environment.
You know, I don't practice solo. I do have a team that has been very supportive with every activity that we do together. The success of our practice is that we don't take into our decisions based on a sole individual like me, but more of a consensus from the experience of all our team members. And that has given us the opportunity to provide optimal care with optimal diagnosis and eventually optimal treatments. And if that's something that we can offer to our patient population, then that's excellent.
Caitlin Whyte: Learn more about Dr. Martinez and Le Bonheur's Heart Institute at lebonheur.org.