The Foundation for the Future of Health of Puerto Rico will provide $319,586 to cover the stipend of neurosurgery resident Adriana Vázquez-Medina at the University of Puerto Rico's Medical Sciences Campus through 2032. Vázquez-Medina is training in the UPR School of Medicine's Neurosurgery Residency Program; the Puerto Rico Department of Health covered her first year of funding, and the foundation will finance her stipend from the second year through completion of her residency. The arrangement follows the 2025 reopening of the program after it met Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education standards.
Chancellor Myrna L. Quiñones-Feliciano said the partnership would help train needed specialists and free resources for additional residency positions amid a shortage of specialists and limited graduate medical education funding. Foundation executive director Edna Marín said the agreement could serve as a model for preserving and creating residencies in other specialties, calling for partnerships among nonprofits, government agencies and universities.
School of Medicine dean Débora H. Silva-Díaz, citing Association of American Medical Colleges data, said Puerto Rico ranks second among states and territories in the share of residency graduates who remain to work locally, and urged other foundations and organizations to support similar efforts.