DR. JOSÉ E. LÓPEZ

Dr. José E. López was born in San Juan as the only child of Mr. José E. López, former Sub-Auditor of Puerto Rico, and Mrs. Conchita Rodríguez, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) in Rio Piedras.  Dr. López attended Elementary School at the model School and also received High School Education at the UPR.  All the time he was an outstanding student.

He obtained a Bachelor in Arts at Amherst College in Massachusetts.  As a college student he was a brilliant baseball player but he preferred to study medicine rather that playing baseball at the major leagues.  He graduated from the School of Medicine from the University of Puerto Rico.

During a student trip to Europe, prior to entering medical school, he met Miss. Maria Stella O´Neil with a Bachelor in Arts from Chicago whom he eventually married on July 4, 1955 after finishing his year of internship at the University Hospital of the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

Product of this happy marriage they have had four children, José Alberto (Joui), Roberto Luis, Gisela Maria (Gise) and Iris Margarita.  The four of them are bonafide citizens that maintain close family bonds with their father specially after the loss of their mother.  Dr. López is a proud grandfather of 10 grandchildren.

With the help of his wife Maria Stella, known to all of us as Chela he did his training in Internal Medicine in the University Hospitals of Madison Wisconsin from 1955 to 1957 and from 1959 to 1960 as he served in the Armed Forces from 1957 to 1959 in the General Hospital in  Frankfurt, Germany.  During a lapse of seven months (January to July 1960) he had Postgraduate Cardiology Training at the University Hospital of Wisconsin.

Since 1962 he has had a professional life in the Department of Medicine and its Section of Cardiology of the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, its University Hospital and since 1992 including the Cardiovascular Center of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean (CCPRC).  He directed the Medical Department of CCPRC for six years from 1993 to 1999. On a sabbatical leave from the UPR, he served as Chairman of the Department of Medicine of the San Juan City Hospital from 1979 to 1983.  Dr. José E. López is a Diplomate of the American Boards of Internal Medicine and of the Subspecialty in Cardiovascular Diseases.

To enumerate the deeds, accomplishments and contributions of Dr. López in the last 45 years to medical students, residents in internal medicine, cardiology fellows, cardiology peers, in his devoted service to patients, in his participation and contributions to voluntary organizations where he has been a leader and innovator, in his identification with permanent education and in maintaining himself updated in the most recent advances in cardiology is not easy to include in this biographical sketch (profile).

Dr. José E. López is member of the Alpha Omega Alpha, Honorary Medical Society.  He has been, with devotion, an excellent director, coordinator, lecturer and administrator of the Physical Diagnosis course in the School of Medicine of the UPR for which different classes and groups of medical students have recognized him as the outstanding teacher of the year (at least 10 times).  We are not aware of any physician that have been recipient of so much admiration by the medical youth of Puerto Rico.

He is a member of 14 professional societies.  He presided the Puerto Rican Society of Cardiology, the Section of Cardiology of the Puerto Rico Medical Association, the Section of Internal Medicine of the Puerto Rico Medical Association, the Puerto Rico Heart Association and the Alumni the School of Medicine of the UPR. He has been Vice-president of the Local Chapter of the American College of Physicians and Governor of the Puerto Rico Chapter of the American College of Cardiology.

He has attended over 60 postgraduate courses and seminars in Puerto Rico, United States, Canada, Chile, Austria and New Zealand.

He has contributed, with dedication and commitment, in over 40 committees or commissions with different assignments such as selection of Heads of Departments and Chancellor of the Medical Sciences Campus of the UPR.  He served for 25 years as member of the Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico Heart Association and for more than 15 years in its scientific committees.

He has collaborated with distinction in the Scientific Committees of the Puerto Rican Congresses of Cardiology and the two Interamerican Congresses of Cardiology held in Puerto Rico.

He has participated in scientific presentations as lecturer, moderator or organizer in more that 50 educational activities conducted in Puerto Rico in the last 25 years.  He masters all aspects of cardiology with special predilection for the arrhythmias and complex congenital heart diseases in the adult.  The presentations and cases discussions by him or with visiting professors have been masterly.  His mastery in expressing himself, the clarity of his delivery, both in English and Spanish associated to his profound knowledge of cardiology makes him a highly respected lecturer.

The intensive and productive life of José Eugenio reflects a personality committed to an incondicional service to his patients, the persecution of the truth, a dedication to pre and postgraduate education in medicine and cardiology, accompanied by an intensive daily work starting at 7:00am and ending at 9:00pm.  His work continues on Saturdays and Sundays, with the exception of his regular attendance to mass on Sundays.  He has been and is the personal physician of family members of hundreds of physicians which not only appraise his knowledge, but also his human identification with his patients.

The Puerto Rico Chapter of the American College of Cardiology has pride in having Dr. José Eugenio López as one of its most devoted Fellows and in dedicating this Seventeenth Annul Convention and Scientific Program to him.