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In five years, Martinez has accomplished what others said couldn’t be done. Without government support or grants, she and her group have developed a unique and self-sustaining bilingual healthcare service for uninsured or underinsured families. Open seven days a week without appointments, Martinez and her colleagues have developed a hybrid medical specialty combining family medicine, emergency care and obstetrics in South Nashville … and along the way, Medicos has eliminated economic, language and transportation barriers. Martinez decided on a career in healthcare when she was just 12 years old. “I probably would have gone into research, but I was absolutely determined that I could support myself on my own. “The specialty decision was made in medical school. I was looking for a specialty where I could do everything, and one where I would be useful in any rural or urban setting or even in other countries for mission work, if that was where I was heading.” Martinez has received international recognition for her travels to Latin American countries to provide a course in obstetrical emergencies. Since 2004, her group has provided this course for family medicine interns in Nashville. Over time, her definition of “medical mission” has been refined. “My dream has always been to be able to do mission work. When I was in school, I thought that meant traveling to third world countries. As I have progressed through the years, I have come to realize that there is as much need from people in our own country as in others. I don’t have to leave my family to care for people who desperately need it … I can do it here.” She noted, “The people of South Nashville are so diverse and hard working. The ability to care for these families –– for the mother during pregnancy, deliver the baby and then care for the baby afterwards –– is indescribable. I am blessed to be able to help them.” As passionate as Martinez is about her clinical work, she is equally as excited about teaching. “Students here from Vanderbilt and Meharry have no exposure to full-service family medicine anywhere in Nashville. Medicos is the one and only … plus it is bilingual. It is our mission to teach the skills necessary for mission medicine. Platoons of subspecialists and expensive emergency room care represent the norm in America. Medicos is a viable alternative.” When a financial advisor once asked when she would like to retire, Martinez said, “Never! I have too much fun doing what I do to retire.” Still, she often counsels young physicians to “get a hobby … have a life outside of medicine,” and it’s advice she follows herself. The mother of 12-year-old Michael and eight-year-old twins Christopher and Stephen, Martinez spends her off time on their nine-acre farm. “I call it El Ranchito … the little ranch,” she said. The family has horses, goats, chickens, guineas, cats and dogs. Her mother recently joined them and is planning a wonderful, large vegetable garden. “I think one of my goals is to feed these three boys … knock the edge off the grocery bill,” Martinez said with a laugh. In the next decade, her main priority is to see her children grow into happy, healthy young men. Professionally, she does hope to resume traveling to other countries to provide medical care at some point. For now, though, she finds her days incredibly fulfilling as she dispenses the high quality, point-of-service medicine so desperately needed by Medicos’ patients.

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