BISD trustee, county candidate not certified doctor

A longtime school board member and candidate for county commissioner who for years has listed his credentials as "Dr." and "M.D." is neither a medical doctor nor a Ph.D., The Brownsville Herald has found.

A trustee of the Brownsville Independent School District since 2003, Enrique Escobedo Jr., who is seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for Cameron County Pct. 2 commissioner in March, has used the "Dr." and "M.D." designations with his name since at least 2002, the Herald investigation shows.

Escobedo maintains that he obtained his medical degree in 2000 from the Universidad del Noreste in Tampico, Mexico.

He emphasized that he decided not to practice medicine and instead take the academic route, and that is why he is not registered with the Texas Medical Board.

"I don’t practice medicine and I don’t want to," he told The Herald.

But Escobedo said he is indeed a doctor and holds a medical degree, or "titulo." However, he refused to show The Herald his diploma or provide a copy of it.

"I’m not a liar," Escobedo said.

A search of course offerings at the university in Tampico, along with interviews with university staff, showed that he could not have obtained a Ph.D. and did not complete medical school.

Escobedo on Monday admitted that he did not obtain a "Doctor of Medicine Degree," as his Web site, voteescobedo.com, states.

In prior interviews with The Herald and on Escobedo’s Web site, he has cited the following credentials:

• Taught eight different courses as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College’s Department of Biological Sciences.  UTB-TSC confirms he was a part-time adjunct professor from September 2000 through December 2003.
• Served as a faculty associate of medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio’s School of Medicine, Department of Environmental Medicine in Harlingen.
• Also served as epidemiologist and later as grant writer with the Cameron County Health Department.
• Currently serves as chief of medical affairs for RioMed 21, a home health agency in Brownsville.

On RioMed 21’s Web site, "MD" follows Escobedo’s name.

Escobedo’s Web site carries the notation that he "obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree." In the portion of the Web site translated into Spanish, it says that Escobedo "obtuvo un título de Doctor en Medicina."

"DR." and "M.D."

In fact, the Herald investigation shows that Escobedo has used both the Dr. prefix and the M.D. suffix liberally throughout his career.

The resume UTB-TSC has on file for Escobedo notes that he is a "Physician Surgeon (MD)."

The UT Health Science Center has not yet provided the public records requested by The Herald concerning his educational background and possible certificates. However, "M.D." appears after his name in several studies he participated in with UT Health Science Center doctors and others. One study, which is available online at http://tinyurl.com/ykqbvma, concerned pesticide exposure and antioxidant status during pregnancy among Hispanic women at the U.S.-Mexico border.

A written statement provided Wednesday by Health Science Center spokesman Will C. Sansom says: "Enrique Escobedo Jr. did not participate in patient care or evaluation for research in the course of his job as a faculty associate with the environmental medicine program.

"According to human resources records, he was an employee from 2005 until 2008 and left in good standing. His hiring conformed with approved standards of the university," Sansom’s statement says.

Cameron County records show Escobedo was hired as a county epidemiologist (a scientist who studies diseases and their relationships within communities) from 2003 through 2005. The resume the county has on file for Escobedo notes that he is a "Doctor of Medicine."

RioMed 21’s CEO Joe Jimenez and RioMed 21’s Chairman of the Board of Managers Michael Bumgarner did not return requests for comment.

And the BISD’s Web site identifies Escobedo as a "Medical Doctor."

"I can remove that," Escobedo offered, referring to the "Medical Doctor" notation on the BISD Web site. The designation remained on the Web site until Tuesday, when it was changed to "Dr. Enrique Escobedo Jr. … Healthcare Professional."

Doctor of Medicine, Médico Cirujano

Escobedo said he never intended to give anyone the impression that he was a "practicing" doctor and stressed that he has never practiced medicine.

He insists, however, that he is a doctor.

In a Herald interview in 2003, in which he announced his candidacy for the school board, Escobedo said that after obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College, he then earned a doctorate of medicine from the Universidad del Noreste in Tampico, Mexico.

And in 2006, during his re-election bid to the BISD board, Escobedo told The Herald he earned a doctorate in medicine from the Universidad del Noreste, archives reflect.

During several conversations between The Herald and Escobedo over the course of two days, he continued to claim that he obtained a doctorate degree from the university in Tampico.

However, the Universidad del Noreste’s medical school does not offer, and in fact has never offered, a doctoral program and does not award the degrees "Doctor in Medicine" or "Doctor of Medicine," university staff confirmed.

Confronted with the information that the university does not offer doctoral programs, Escobedo explained that he is a "médico cirujano."

Had he said from the beginning that he is a médico cirujano, he said, it would have caused confusion because the literal translation is "physician surgeon."

The Tampico university does offer a six-year curriculum for médico cirujano, which according to university staff is similar to a general practitioner in the United States.

However, to obtain a title as a médico cirujano from the Tampico university, one must complete four years (or eight semesters) of study; an additional year of internships; an added year providing medical services in community hospitals; and an exam — for a total of six years, according to Verónica Olvera, assistant to Dr. Jesus Ramirez Martinez, director of the Health Sciences Department at the Universidad del Noreste.

Escobedo completed only the four years of academic coursework.

"It took me many years of hard work," Escobedo said of his four years of study at UTB-TSC and four years of study at the Tampico university.

"I was happy to walk the aisle (to get my certificate as a médico cirujano). I was proud to take the Hippocratic Oath. It took a lot of effort," he said, adding that his family was present at his graduation in 2000.

Escobedo last Friday initially agreed to provide a copy of his certificate or diploma from the Universidad del Noreste. However, he changed his mind on Monday, saying that to show it would be "like those years of hard work aren’t taken seriously."

Olvera confirmed that Escobedo did receive a diploma from Noreste, but it says only that he completed and passed eight semesters, or four years, in the médico cirujano course of study. That diploma merely allows him to continue, as a student, to the internship phase.

"That’s the only thing," Olvera said of his four-year academic requirement. She confirmed that Escobedo did not fulfill the added requirements to obtain the degree, or título, of médico cirujano."

"No, no, no. No está titulado (He is not degreed)," Olvera said, noting that Escobedo had not received the medical Título de Médico Cirujano because he did not complete medical school.

Escobedo did show The Herald a ring he carries that he got upon finishing the eight semesters of study in 2000. It carries the year, the medical school’s logo, and the inscription "Medical Doctor" in English.

According to Olvera, everyone who gets a diploma can get a ring. The rings carry the university’s logo and the year the diploma was received, she said, but students are free to inscribe whatever they want.

Like "pre-med"

The Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, a non-profit foundation established by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates whose mission, it notes, is to improve world health through education, states on its Web site that the Universidad del Noreste’s school of medicine requires a four-year course study, a one-year internship, one year of community service, and a professional examination for the award of the final medical diploma, the "Título de Médico Cirujano."

Escobedo, who admitted he never did the internships or the servicio social in community hospitals, points to his eight years of study — four at UTB-TSC and four in Tampico.

He likened his four years at UTB-TSC to preparation for a medical degree.

"That is pre-med," Escobedo said.

Asked if Escobedo can call himself a doctor, Noreste’s Olvera said, "Not in Mexico."

"As far as we are concerned, and if he were to return (to the university) he would continue to be a student," Olvera said Wednesday.

Olvera said it is not unusual for foreign students to call themselves doctors and MDs even though they have not completed medical school. "But they really are not," she said.

"In Mexico, we are very clear about this: We are not licenciados (professionals with bachelor’s degrees) or doctores if we don’t have the título," she added.

A spokesman for the American Medical Association said that a doctor with a medical degree from Mexico or another country can call himself, or herself, a doctor or MD in the United States because the degree is an academic degree. But it would have to be a valid degree, with all of the requirements completed.