Profile: Ricardo Belmares, PhD

Biography

Ricardo Belmares, PhD, is the Director of Anatomy for Educational Affairs and Assistant Professor of the Department of Medical Education at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. He currently teaches anatomy to pre-clerkship medical students.

Dr. Belmares previously served as Assistant Professor at Texas Tech Health Science Center El Paso, where he taught anatomy to medical students at Paul L. Foster School of Medicine and dental students at William D. Hunt School of Dental Medicine. He was the program coordinator for the Distinction in Anatomy program, course director for the Surgical Anatomy elective, and co-course director of the second-year medical school pre-clerkship curriculum. Dr. Belmares also served on several committees such as Admissions, where he served as Chair, a voting member for Grading and Promotions committee, and served as a research mentor for over 30 medical students.

Dr. Belmares’ research is split between basic sciences and pedagogy. In basic sciences, he has broad interests in anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, and histology, resulting in top-tier journals such as Science and Nature. His latest focus has been investigating anatomical variation in border population, which has led to novel findings in coronary branching, course of maxillary artery in infratemporal fossa, and histological studies in deep vein valves and collagen distribution in trabecular meshwork and optic nerve head.

In pedagogy, Dr. Belmares has developed imaging modules to prepare medical students for clerkship rotations, introduced an individualized learning plan for anatomy instruction, and streamlined the pre-clerkship curriculum to better prepare students for STEP and clerkship.

Dr. Belmares has also been active in many on-campus outreach programs such as EP HEAT to educate the community regarding many important health issues such as dispelling common medical myths about vaccines, diabetes, high blood pressure, and diet.