Nolan Perez, M.D., was in the first group of medical residents to receive clinical training through the Regional Academic Health Center. He recently returned to the Valley to practice medicine.
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When Nolan Perez, M.D., a Port Isabel native, opened a gastroenterology office in Harlingen this July, he joined the ranks of the fine physicians who practice in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

The opening was especially significant for another reason. With Dr. Perez’s return to his home area and people, the Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio truly has come full circle.

The RAHC’s charter goal of educating home-grown physicians for the Lower Rio Grande Valley is now a wave that is building in momentum with every class of RAHC medical students and residents.

Among first medical residents in the RAHC clinical training program
Dr. Perez, a 1998 graduate of the Health Science Center School of Medicine, practiced for four years in the U.S. Navy Medical Officer Corps before entering the RAHC internal medicine residency program in the summer of 2002. He was in the historic first group of residents at the RAHC, and found it to be the perfect fit.

Faculty members including James Hanley III, M.D., RAHC residency program director, taught the art of listening to the patient, physical diagnosis and evidence-based medicine.

Thankful for Kleberg research funding
The RAHC Kleberg Medical Scholars Program, made possible by the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation, enabled Dr. Perez to conduct clinical research on the prevalence of hepatitis C in Mexican Americans.

“The Kleberg support was instrumental for me,” he said. “It was an introduction to scholarly research.”

Accepts prestigious fellowship at Wayne State University
In 2004, after completing his RAHC residency, Dr. Perez was accepted to a highly competitive gastroenterology (GI) fellowship at Wayne State University in Detroit. “When I went on to my fellowship, I had that Kleberg research experience with me,” he said. “I also had a scholarly mind-set from Dr. Hanley that questions why physicians do what they do.”

Produces six peer-reviewed journal articles
During his three-year GI fellowship, Dr. Perez produced six publications in peer-reviewed journals. He credits the Kleberg research experience and Dr. Hanley for his scholarly success.

This year, he returned from the fellowship as a specialist in gastroenterology. “I always knew that I would come back home,” Dr. Perez said.

Excellent Valley hospital and clinic factored into his decision to return
One of the chief factors in his decision to return was the RAHC’s excellent clinical partners, which include Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen, where he has privileges, and Su Clinica Familiar. “I knew the reputation of Valley Baptist, that in the whole Rio Grande Valley, it is known as a technological and academic leader,” he said.

Now he is part of RAHC volunteer faculty
Dr. Perez, 36, is now a volunteer faculty member with the RAHC, giving back to the program. He wants to inspire young people in the Valley to seek medical careers.

Dr. Perez’s return to help others completes the circle
“All around there is cause for rejoicing,” said Leonel Vela, M.D., M.P.H., regional dean of the RAHC in the Health Science Center School of Medicine. “Here is a young physician from the Valley who goes to our School of Medicine, serves his country, is in the first group of RAHC residents, does a prestigious fellowship, and, among all the opportunities he has around the country, decides to return to the Valley, to his home.

“He not only is serving his community but also is a RAHC faculty member, playing a part of that continuing drama that is unfolding, in which students train here, become physicians and become faculty teachers themselves.”

For more information, please contact Will Sansom at (210) 567-3579.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $536 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $14.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields.