New fellow keeps Performing Arts Medicine at UNT Health Clinical Practice Group and TCOM hitting the high notes
Ricardo Fuentes, MD, isn’t your prototypical fellow. He is from Colombia, graduated
from the Escuela Colombiana de Medicina, has specialized in internal medicine and
rheumatology, has practiced in Atlanta and Puerto Rico, and completed his residency
in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Montefiore Medical Center in New York.
Oh, and did we mention he’s also a classically trained opera singer? This makes Fuentes exactly what the UNT Health Clinical Practice Group and the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine were looking for in the new Performing Arts Medicine Fellow.
His dual passions for medicine and performing arts have landed him in Fort Worth for the year, where he is looking to learn, teach, and continue to grow the success of the fellowship. Fuentes, while also a practicing physician, is an assistant professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York.
“I am coming to this fellowship with a different mission,” Fuentes said. “I’m here to develop the high-end skills within the care of performing artists, the administration, and the teaching. That is something that Dr. Sajid Surve and Dr. Yein Lee have done so well – develop these relationships with the local community to become so ingrained in the care of these artists. I want to take this higher level of understanding and bring that to New York to serve the community there, where this type of system doesn’t exist.”
So, how exactly was Fuentes able to fuse these two passions of his into successful careers in both? Well, since the age of five, he’s wanted to be in medicine.
“I’ve always felt the body was such a perfect machine,” Fuentes said. “I was always curious about how it worked. It was very inspiring and it still ignites a lot of passion in what I do.”
While medicine was a goal, in high school, Fuentes started singing, and not just in the glee club, but operas. His voice was so strong, in fact, that he earned a scholarship, and soon he was singing with the Chorus of the Colombian National Opera (Coro de la Opera de Colombia) in 2012 in Bogota. He even recalls that his first performance was Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8.
The education system in Colombia is set up differently from the United States, so
Fuentes had already started his medical school education after high school while he
was singing, and admittedly, he was torn.
“There were a couple of moments when I said I’m going to quit medicine and do this,” he said. “I’m very happy that I didn’t because I love my profession dearly. I’m so glad I found this that allows me to merge both passions.”
Following his graduation from medical school, Fuentes spent a couple of years practicing internal medicine and rheumatology before doing an internship at the University of Puerto Rico. After that, he landed a residency in PM&R at Montefiore Medical Center. It wasn’t just PM&R that he loved; he also gravitated toward the osteopathic philosophy of treating patients.
“We are way too complex to just take care of the disease,” Fuentes said. “My best friend in residency was a DO, and her mom was a renowned DO as well. It was because of them that I became very curious about osteopathic manipulative treatment.”
Fuentes first heard about the Performing Arts Medicine Fellowship at UNT Health while applying for residency. He wanted to learn more and, through a few mutual connections, was able to spend a few weeks in Fort Worth in 2023 shadowing the PAM team to soak up as much as he could.
“Dr. Fuentes has a personality that’s ideal for performing arts medicine,” said Yein Lee, DO, MMS, FAAPMR, TCOM’s chair of the Division of Performing Arts Medicine. “He has a clear goal for his career and is already quite experienced as a physician because physical medicine and rehab is his second career. He also has a strong passion for caring for the performing arts patients and demonstrates incredible empathy and compassion for this underserved population. He is a scholar and has an extraordinary interest in research as well.”
Fuentes brings an invaluable element to the fellowship and patients he will be treating.
He’s one of them.
“It’s very rare that someone who has similar experiences as them knows their psyche and their social stressors like I do,” Fuentes said. “Performers are very complex, and when they know I’m a performer myself, they open more, and we can share different approaches to their condition.”
“It is highly beneficial that Dr. Fuentes is also a performing artist himself,” said Lee. “He understands the challenges of the performance industry firsthand, which fosters empathy and compassion when he interacts with our patients. Often, illnesses and injuries of performing artists can be difficult to understand from a conventional medicine perspective. However, as a performing artist, he has an extra layer of understanding and can use his creativity as well as empathy to connect and develop personalized solutions for each performing artist who comes to see us.”
He’s hit the ground running. Fuentes has already provided lectures to students at the UNT College of Music in Denton on preventive education, along with teaching medical students and residents at the UNT Health Clinical Practice Group. In the coming months, Fuentes will work with the Fort Worth Youth Orchestra, the UNT College of Music, and the TCU departments and dance studios, while also continuing to work with the Texas Ballet Theater. He has also started consults services at the James L. West Center for Dementia Care with podiatrists.
“It’s just wonderful, and that’s what makes this field wonderful,” Fuentes said. “If you were an athlete and I did sports medicine as a former athlete, we could connect in the same way. It’s that passion that drives it, and the patient relationship in any field is wonderful when you share passions, and it’s greatly enhanced by that shared love for the arts.”
The statistics vary on knowledge about access to health care for performing artists. Fuentes thinks the figure could be as high as 80% who don’t know this is out there for them; the fellowship is allowing him to help his fellow performers.
“Part of the fellowship that comes with this amazing opportunity is to observe and learn about all of the artists,” he said. “As a profession, the more you know about their art, the better you can treat them.”
Those aren’t just empty words from Fuentes either; he backs up what he says. While shadowing at UNT Health two years ago, he saw how important the care of dancers was, so he started taking ballet classes so he could understand what they were doing.
“I became enamored with the technique, with the music, and with the process of becoming a dancer,” he said. “It has made my thinking so much better in how to treat them. It’s a great opportunity to become better as a physician, but also as an artist myself.”
Ballet aside, his singing career has followed his medical path every step of the way. Fuentes humbly admits he’s a tenor and can reach C Sharp, which is a challenging high note for tenors. From Atlanta to San Juan and New York, a pianist friend from Colombia has come to each city with Fuentes to perform a duet and recital each year. He’s even planning a spring recital somewhere in the Dallas/Fort Worth area if his schedule allows it.
“Singing is like a sport, and you have to train, but I’m a physician, so I can’t really train that much,” he says with a laugh. “I always do a theme for each recital, so this year I want to try and do music from Spain.”
Recital or not, Fuentes and the performing arts medicine team will do their best to make sure the artists are healthy enough to train while educating them about the health care access that is available to their entire profession.
“We want to spread the word about this,” Fuentes said.
One (doctor’s) note at a time.
To schedule an appointment with Dr. Fuentes, please call 817-735-2455 or schedule online by visiting www.unthsc.edu/patient-care/