Biography

Dr. Caridad Hernandez is a general internist and clinician-educator who received her medical degree from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and completed a residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She joined the University of Florida (UF) Department of Medicine in 2000, served as Chief of the Hospitalist section and Associate Director of the Master Educator Fellowship Program, and directed the Clinical Diagnosis course for second year medical students. During her tenure at UF, Dr. Hernandez completed the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill Faculty Development Fellowship. Prior to joining UCF, she was on faculty at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine as an Associate Professor.

The College of Medicine welcomed Dr. Hernandez in June 2011. Dr. Hernandez serves as a Director for the Practice of Medicine courses for first and second year medical students and is responsible for developing didactic and clinical skills and simulation experiences, as well as performance-based assessment. Since arriving at UCF, she has worked closely with other M1 and M2 module directors to successfully integrate clinical skills and foundational sciences content.  She also teaches in several of the systems modules, is a core faculty for ultrasound instruction, and is a regular participant in the Knights Student Run Free Clinic.

Dr. Hernandez has served as Chair of the Program Evaluation Subcommittee and vice-Chair of the MD Program Curriculum Committee since 2013. She is currently the co-chair for the LCME 2017 self-study task force and serves on a number of other UCF COM committees.

In 2015, Dr. Hernandez helped establish the Chapman Humanism in Medicine Initiative at the UCF College of Medicine in order to create educational programs to foster students’ wellbeing and promote humanism in medicine. She also serves as co-faculty advisor for the Chapman Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society at UCF COM.

In 2013, Dr. Hernandez was selected to serve on the National Board of Medical Examiners USMLE Step 1 Standard Setting Panel to participate in the ongoing evaluation of Step 1 pass/fail standards. Since 2014, she has served on the USMLE 2CS Content Development Committee. She is a member of the Society of General Internal Medicine, American Academy of Communication in Health Care, Association of Ultrasound in Medicine, American College of Physicians, and the AAMC’s Southern Group on Educational Affairs.

Publications

1. Cendan JC, Castiglioni A, Johnson T, Eakins M, Metcaf D, Verduin M, Asmar A, and Hernandez CA. Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of the Impact of Adoption of a Mobile Application for the Assessment of Professionalism.  Academic Medicine. Accepted (#2675506); 4/13/2017.
2. Alexandraki, I., Hernandez, C.A., Torre, D.M. et al. Interprofessional Education in the Internal Medicine Clerkship Post-LCME Standard Issuance: Results of a National Survey.  J Gen Internal Med (2017). Published ahead of print March 10, 2017.  doi:10.1007/s11606-017-4004-3.
3. Wilson E,  Kibble J, Bellew C, Hernandez C,  Castiglioni A,  Khan A, Kamin C, Riordan A,  Dauner S,  Lorens D,  Gangopadhyaya A, Rajagopal N, Gaglani S,  Haynes R,  Lineberry M. Challenges with initial implementation of an intelligent formative assessment system. The FASEB Journal. April 2017 31:576.48.
4. Kovalskiy A, Ismail R, Tran K,  Desai A, Imran A, Hernandez C. (February 23, 2017) Evaluating Student Attitudes: Perceptions of Interprofessional Experiences Following Participation in a Student-Run Free Clinic. Cureus 9(2): e1053. doi:10.7759/cureus.1053
5. Tran K, Kovalskiy A, Desai A, Imran A, Ismail R, Hernandez, C. (February 23, 2017) The Effect of Volunteering at a Student-Run Free Healthcare Clinic on Medical Students’ Self-Efficacy, Comfortableness, Attitude, and Interest in Working with the Underserved Population and Interest in Primary Care. Cureus 9(2): e1051. doi:10.7759/cureus.1051
6. Brown A, Ismail R, Gookin G, Hernandez C, Logan G, Pasarica M. (January 09, 2017) The Effect of Medical Student Volunteering in a Student-Run Clinic on Specialty Choice for Residency. Cureus 9(1): e967. doi:10.7759/cureus.967
7. Mankbadi M, Goyack L, Thiel B, Weinstein D, Simms-Cendan J, Hernandez C. Dermatologic simulation of neglected tropical diseases for medical professionals. MedEdPORTAL Publications. 2016;12:10525. https://doi.org/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.10525 Published: December 31, 2016
8. Del Prete A, Giordano C, Castiglioni A, Hernandez C. Medical Students’ Attitudes Toward Non-Adherent Patients Before and After a Simulated Patient-Role Activity and Small-Group Discussion: Revisited. Cureus 8(4): e576. doi:10.7759/cureus.576
9. Gorman L, Hernandez C, Asmar A, Castiglioni A, Cendan J, Harris, D. (2015). Using Preclinical High Fidelity Medical Simulations to Integrate Pharmacology with Physiology and Clinical Sciences. Medical Science Educator 25(4); 521- 532.
10. Gorman L, Hernandez C, Castiglioni A. (2015). Second Year Medical Students’ Perceptions of Self-directed versus Cued Learning of Pharmacotherapeutics in a High Fidelity Medical Simulation (HFMS). The FASEB Journal, 29(1 Supplement), 928-8.
11. Cendan J, Hernandez C, Castiglioni A.  AM Last Page: Using Visual Radar Graph Representation of Learner Achievement to Complement the RIME Framework. Academic Medicine: July 8, 2014 – Volume Publish Ahead of Print – Issue doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000360.
12. Hernandez C, Lewis A, Castiglioni A, Selim B, Cendan J. OSCE Standards-setting Procedures Facilitated by Digital Technology. Medical Education. 2013; 47: 1132.
13. Roth E, Purnell C, Shabalov O, Moguillansky D, Hernandez CA,  Elnicki DM. Perioperative Management of a Patient with Recently Placed Drug-Eluting Stents Requiring Urgent Spinal Surgery. Journal Gen Intern Med. 2012; 27(8):1080–83.
14. Mirsu-Paun A, Tucker CM, Hernandez CA. Validation of a Provider Self-Report Inventory for Measuring Patient-Centered Cultural Sensitivity in Health Care Using a Sample of Medical Students. Journal of Community Health 2010; DOI 10.1007/s10900-009-9212-2.