March 2024 – Jose Daniel Medina Cabrita (Venezuela)

1. Tell us about yourself.

I am Jose Daniel Medina Cabrita, physician and postgraduate in internal medicine in Venezuela, university professor at the University of Los Andes and in continuous training with a view to completing a fellowship in various areas.

2. What are your research interests?

My favorite areas of research are the cardiovascular and infectious field, recently I have been interested in the relationship between COVID 19 infection and the development of cardiovascular complications, among which hypertension stands out.

3. What are you working on right now?

I am currently working together with one of my mentors in opening a specialized high blood pressure consultation in the hospital where I work, also including among the parameters to be evaluated, the presence of post-COVID 19 syndrome. Additionally, I am promoting the opening of a cardiometabolic unit to strengthen the academic training of future internists.

4. What do you hope to achieve in the field of hypertension over the next 5 years?

Carry out more in-depth studies on the post-COVID 19 syndrome as another determining cause in the development of de novo arterial hypertension, in previously healthy patients. This was my research work with which I obtained my degree as an internist, together with understanding other cardiovascular complications and consequences that the coronavirus infection left us. Additionally, the ethnic variables typical of Latin America that impact changes in the behavior of hypertension, especially in this particular situation.

5. What challenges have you faced in your career to date?

The academic experience that awaits me from now on in my barely 3 months as a specialist, it is said that an internist is just beginning to be one after 10 years of work, increasing my career and national and international experience will be one of my biggest goals.

6. Which of your publications are you proudest of and why (please include paper reference)

Unquestionably my first publication of the many that will follow from now on, an atypical presentation of human babesiosis in the form of respiratory distress, which we presented in a national contest and ended up in publication.

Medina J., Aranguren V., Mendez I., Quintero V., Escalante S. Síndrome de Distress Respiratorio Agudo asociado a infección por Babesia. Reporte de un caso. GICOS 9(1) 2024.

7. What is your favourite manuscript from a lab other than your own?

The article that I still keep in my mind is by one of the greatest cardiovascular physiologists this country has ever had and is the one published by Dr. Diego Davila Spinetti, a pioneer in the use of beta blockers in the management of heart failure, at that time, demonized for use in this condition, currently one of the four central pillars, in addition to their contribution to the Chagas cause.

Davila D, Donis J, Torres A, Gottberg C, et al. Beta-adrenergic blockers in chronic systolic heart failure secondary to Chagas’ disease. 2008. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcard.2008.01.001

8. What are your passions outside of work?

My passions are many, but the most important are three, the first is reading and writing, fantasy texts are my great companions in daily life and I have recently published my first fiction book on Amazon, and I am already writing the second one. The second is music, I read the articles listening to songs by Linkin Park and Led Zeppelin. Last but not least, what allows me to rest my mind is video games, strategy games help me speed up my mind, I was surprised years ago when the studies related to dementia prevention with video games came out.