You trained for years to become one thing. Then the path bent somewhere you never planned for. Sound familiar, amiga?
Dr. Erika Cavazos started as a physician in Mexico. When she moved to Texas she landed in a public health department, and from there she kept following her curiosity into graduate school, into a hospital administration role, and finally into a field most people cannot even define: biomedical informatics. Today she teaches it as faculty at the same university where she once sat as a student.
In this Laredo conversation she explains what biomedical informatics actually is, how it brings specialists to communities that have few, and how she built all of it while raising three kids
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Biomedical informatics is using technology to improve human health. In practice it powers the appointment reminders you receive by text, the patient portals where you enter and read your own records, and the data systems hospitals use to spot patterns and make better decisions. People in the field act as translators between clinicians and technology vendors, asking whether a product actually meets a patient’s real needs.
Dr. Cavazos trained as a physician in Mexico, then moved into a Texas public health department after relocating. Wanting to keep growing, she pursued graduate education and discovered biomedical informatics through a single first class. That curiosity carried her into hospital administration and eventually into teaching. She calls becoming faculty her full circle moment, because she now teaches the subject that first hooked her as a student.
In a place like Laredo, where specialists are scarce, telemedicine connects patients to the expertise they need without waiting for a doctor to fly in. Cavazos gives the example of a stroke: connecting a patient to a specialist quickly through telemedicine can be the difference between permanent disability and recovery. A nurse line can also loop in a doctor to assess whether an emergency response is truly needed.
Cavazos is honest that growing a career alongside raising three children is fulfilling and hard, and she refuses to sugarcoat it. She leaned on strong time management and a real support system, and she protected her family as the constant priority. As a self described night owl, she used quiet late hours for graduate coursework, keeping her long term goal in view while handling the most urgent things first.
Anjelica: Hola, amiga, and welcome to the Latina Leadership Podcast, a podcast by Latinas for all women. Get ready, because today’s conversation is really special. And welcome to the second installation of Latina Road Trip, here in Laredo, Texas. Sitting next to me, I have Erika.
Erika: Erika.
Anjelica: I usually ask everybody this question right at the beginning of every interview. Who are you, and what do you do?
Erika: Well, thank you for having me today.
Anjelica: Thank you for coming.
Erika: Dr. Erika Cavazos Juarez. I am a mom of three, which is my biggest and best title. And I am also a health care professional that is currently on the teaching side of things.
Anjelica: So you’re really, so you’re an academic? What kind, back home? What is your specialty?
Erika: You know, when people think about careers, for the most part we think of linear paths, and mine has been everything but linear. So, I was originally trained as a physician in Mexico, where I’m from. And eventually, when I moved to Texas, I found myself doing public health in a public health department. Through my work in public health, I had the desire to continue growing my professional career, and that led me to seek graduate education. So I did that, and I ended up finding the field of biomedical informatics. And most people don’t really know what that is.
Anjelica: You see my face go, where? You’re like, what? What is it? Yes.
Erika: And that’s usually what happens. Biomedical informatics, in simple terms, is using technology to improve human health, especially now with, you know, AI and all of those things, machine learning. I was working in a very real community back then. Back in 2016, I found myself facing challenges to be able to deliver the work that I wanted to do in the community. So that led me to seek graduate education in biomedical informatics. And that led me through this path because I found it so interesting. I’ve always liked technology, but that was a great avenue to do something that I enjoy, which is using technology to help the community or to help people. So that field has allowed me to grow in my professional career, as I intended, working later in a hospital. And then throughout that journey, I continued my education, and now I am on this other side of the coin. Now I am on the academic side. I became faculty for the university that I worked for, and in a way that has been my full circle moment, because I got so interested in the field by taking that very first class, and now I get to teach it.
Anjelica: Yeah.
Erika: So it has been that role for me in, you know, always wanting to do something that’s fulfilling and meaningful and with purpose. And I found that through public service and now through education.
Anjelica: Okay. So I tried to follow along with biometrics, right?
Erika: Yes.
Anjelica: Biometrics, okay. And it’s, in layman’s terms, it’s using information in healthcare, but in terms of technology. Correct?
Erika: Correct.
Anjelica: So when we talk about technology, is it like software technology, or are we talking about, yes. Okay. So what does that look like? Are we looking in terms of like monitors for diabetes and things like that?
Erika: Great. Okay.
Anjelica: That’s the specialty, right? And so what is your course, or what does that look like? What part of it do you do, basically?
Erika: You know, with biomedical informatics, I always ask people, depending on where they are coming from, their background, have you experienced health care as a consumer, you know, as a patient, or as someone that works in the healthcare field? So biomedical informatics is complex to describe, as you can imagine, but in simple terms it is basically, let’s say as a consumer, you try to schedule an appointment, and sometimes you will get a text message reminder, or you will experience a patient portal, which is a website or an application where you can enter information or receive information. So in biomedical informatics, we leverage those tools to help people get better outcomes. So through my own learning of the field, I was able to do my job better. For instance, in my role in a hospital as an administrator reviewing patient safety and medical records, my education helped me have a better understanding of what data we were capturing through those records to make informed decisions. What does that mean? If we notice a trend or a pattern, hey, maybe this may indicate that we need to change our processes. So it’s basically using those tools to improve outcomes. Another example would be in a community that is medically underserved like Laredo, we don’t have as many specialists providing services. And what that means is that sometimes leveraging technology will look like using telemedicine.
Anjelica: Yeah.
Erika: So having a biomedical informatics background can allow us to ask the right questions to vendors coming in and say, so what is a product that you have? Does it really fit what we need? You know, what do we need to serve the community? So people in our profession are able to communicate, kind of like a translator, with clinicians, but also with vendors, and find that middle ground to say your product sounds awesome, but does it really meet my needs?
Anjelica: Yeah, right.
Erika: So we can ultimately help the patient, because maybe it’s a great product, but it’s really not going to help us achieve what we want, to help the patients. So that’s just an example of how we can use technology to improve health.
Anjelica: Oh my god. So bringing the experts to middle America, right, places where the specialty isn’t there, or having the specialists fly in to see one or two patients, but actually being able to communicate not only with the doctors, but the patients themselves, with telehealth.
Erika: Yes. And one of the ways that I thought was so meaningful, imagine that you were having a stroke and maybe there are not many services around. So if we can connect you to a specialist via telemedicine, so you can receive the prompt attention, that makes a difference between having permanent disability and not.
Anjelica: Yeah.
Erika: And that matters, because that’s people’s quality of life, their loved ones. So it really is important for us, and for me now through these other avenues of education, to expand the knowledge of this field, because looking at our health care system, we really need to use our resources to help people.
Anjelica: You’re right, you’re right. Because, you know, some families are afraid to call the ambulance or whatever, and you can call the nurse line, the nurse can connect you to a doctor through telehealth to see if it’s really necessary, or what provisions the ambulance should have, so they know what they’re coming into, as opposed to just calling 911 and having the ambulance and the paramedics trying to figure it out, to get to the doctor, the doctors are good or bad, right? And by that time, permanent damage is already made.
Erika: Exactly.
Anjelica: That is amazing. Yes, that is amazing.
Erika: And, you know, it’s not just the specialties, it’s what actually is prompt to be able to use in real life scenarios.
Anjelica: In real life moments. Correct. That is amazing.
Erika: Yes, that is amazing.
Anjelica: Yeah.
Erika: And it’s wonderful because again, it’s a profession, but in our community this patient may be your neighbor. They may be your family member, your friend. And it matters to me and many people here that we do our best to keep our community healthy.
Anjelica: Oh my goodness. Okay. So now you’re teaching this whole side of things. Erika, I think you’re doing an amazing job.
Erika: Thank you.
Anjelica: Thank you for even considering that field of your work, for you to even know and understand the language and the culture of what the people in Laredo need.
Erika: Yeah. Thank you.
Anjelica: One of the things that you mentioned, you’re a mother of three. Yes. Are they all tiny, or they’re bigger?
Erika: They are ranging between 7 and 12.
Anjelica: Okay. Oh, they’re tiny. Tiny tiny. Okay. How has life been for you as a professional and as a mom?
Erika: It has been fulfilling but challenging. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. You know, growing in the professional career comes with sacrifice, and sometimes the challenge is balancing what’s got to give, right? Is it time with your family? Maybe it’s time at work, or working on a particular project and maybe spending late hours. So in my experience, my family, as cliche as it sounds, has always been the most important thing. And they will always be. But at the same time, I’ve always been very driven. And once I know what I want and what I want to get, I usually don’t stop. So what that looked like was late nights. I’m a night owl. So, you know, working full time, having three kids, doing graduate school, that was a night. And that was a quiet space that also helped. So that’s when I had peace and quiet, or at least quiet. So I had quiet, and that’s when I did my coursework and tried to learn. I think that was part of having really good time management skills, or as good as possible, to balance everything out. But it’s doable. And it’s one of those things that I’ve always had a really good support system. And my family has always taught me that you gotta go for what you want, and you gotta work hard, and I’ve never seen anything that didn’t point me in that direction. You know, work for what you want. No one’s going to give you anything. So that balance was about putting the most urgent things first, but also trying to just keep the end goal in mind at all times.
Anjelica: Yeah. Okay. Well, Erika, one last question. Wait, two last questions. And one is, kids will grow, biometrics will advance. What is next for Erika?
Erika: That’s a good question. I don’t think I had considered that, to be honest with you. Yeah, I don’t think I considered that, but I guess in general, I just hope that I can continue to grow. I love learning, okay? I love learning, and I’m always curious about what’s out there. And learning not only about the profession. I got into plants, you know, learning about different things. I just love that, and just being there for my kids as they grow. I think the one thing that excites me the most is watching them grow, go through their development, whether it’s careers, life, changing personalities.
Anjelica: Yes, yes.
Erika: Because they’re really fun to be around. So they’re funny, and they are everything to me. So outside of everything else, I hope to see them grow into their own very fulfilling lives, and hopefully being part of that. But watching them grow and learn.
Anjelica: Thank you. So my last question is, what advice would you give to young girls who are interested in getting into the medical field?
Erika: The advice that I will give them is, never let anybody tell you you cannot do it. Okay? You will always find naysayers, or people that, maybe even coming from a good place, will want to tell you that you shouldn’t do this because you look a particular way, or you’re too short, or you’re too this. And there will always be people telling you, don’t do this, or I don’t think that’s a good idea. But if it’s what you want at that moment in time, just go for it. I always like to think, when someone would tell me no, in my mind I would be like, challenge accepted. I will prove you wrong. So not just for the sake of proving someone wrong, but again, sometimes you will learn from your mistakes. Sometimes you will find out, but maybe that’s enough for you. Don’t let anyone else dictate what you want. So if you want to go into the medical field, just go for it, and find the right people that will mentor you. Maybe they’re not even in the same field, but find the right people. Not necessarily that will tell you what you want, but what you need to hear, you know. They will keep you centered and focused, because there are too many distractions.
Anjelica: So, don’t take no for an answer. Centered and focused. Yeah, I like that. I like that advice. Find people who are going to keep you listening and focused. Erika, thank you so much for coming on.
Erika: Thank you. Thank you for joining me today.
Anjelica: Thank you for having me. Thank you.
