{"id":25206,"date":"2024-11-07T14:36:35","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T14:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=25206&post_type=story"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:00:46","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T20:00:46","slug":"community-care","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/community-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Community Care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Richard Henriquez \u201912<\/strong> was a senior at UCF when he took a medical mission trip to the small town of Sumpango, Guatemala, that changed his life. He recalls thousands of people waiting patiently in line to see healthcare providers, after they had already waited six months since the last mission trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a patient who walked 18 miles with her twin babies on her back,\u201d Henriquez says. \u201cAnd this would be the only time she would be able to have access to any type of doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n

He describes the experience as a light bulb moment that changed his career path from psychology<\/a>, in which he earned his bachelor\u2019s, to medicine. Even as he pursued a medical degree from the Ross University School of Medicine, he kept going on these mission trips because of his desire to help people in need.<\/p>\n

Now an attending physician at the Orlando Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Lake Nona, Henriquez continues to care for populations in need, particularly people struggling with substance use disorders.<\/p>\n

Between his Doctor of Medicine studies in the Caribbean, clinical rotations in New York and the start of his professional career in Central Florida<\/a>, Henriquez made another impactful journey that changed his overall path: completing an internal medicine residency through the UCF-HCA Florida Healthcare Graduate Medical Education (GME) Consortium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I found out I matched at UCF, it was literally one of the happiest moments of my life,\u201d says Henriquez, who was also a chief resident for the Greater Orlando\/Osceola GME Program. \u201cIt was a full-circle moment. For everything that UCF has given me, I wanted to give back to UCF, to the medical school<\/a>, to the faculty<\/a>, to all the patients in Orlando.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attracting Future Doctors<\/h2>\n

Medical school graduates cannot practice medicine independently until they finish residency training, which takes three to seven years, depending on the specialty. During their fourth year of medical school, students interview with residency programs and then rank their choices. Residency programs do the same. Then a computer matches the two. Some students may also choose to pursue fellowships after this training for further specialization.<\/p>\n

When Henriquez made the trip back to Orlando for his interview, he says there was a different feeling here than other programs he interviewed with.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like home,\u201d says Henriquez, who is now a faculty member in the GME program\u2019s inaugural internal medicine residency.<\/p>\n

He was also impressed by UCF\u2019s facilities and the leadership of the program\u2019s director, Abdo Asmar, a professor of internal medicine who helped found UCF\u2019s inaugural residency program 10 years ago. UCF now has 29 residency and 11 fellowship programs in varying specialties across the state, including more than one-third in the Greater Orlando area. With around 650 residents, it\u2019s one of the fastest-growing GME programs in the state.<\/p>\n

That growth is critical as Florida is No. 5 in the nation for a shortage of healthcare professionals, according to Kyruus Health. More than half of medical residents stay and practice in the region where they completed their residency, the Association of American Medical Colleges states.<\/p>\n

\u201cInternal medicine and primary care are the pipeline for all healthcare and subspecialties to branch from.\u201d<\/p>\n