Diego Canabal-Lopez, MD, MPH, MLS (ASCP)

An infectious disease specialist with a strong background in clinical practice, epidemiology, public health, and laboratory science pursuing an opportunity that presents professional challenges and leverages interpersonal skills, effective time management, and comprehensive patient care. Exhibit the capacity to diagnose, treat, and manage a range of infectious diseases using evidence-based practices and continue expanding medical knowledge via ongoing professional development.

Medical license in Puerto Rico (2022 - Present)

• Internal Medicine certification
• Infectious Diseases certification

Medical Technologist license in Puerto Rico (2004 - Present)

American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) - Infectious Diseases Certification. 11/2024

American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) - Internal Medicine Certification. 08/2022

American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP) - Medical Laboratory Scientist Certification. 09/2004

Research

• Sentinel Enhanced Dengue Surveillance System , Ponce, Puerto Rico, 10/2017 - 11/2017

The Saint Luke's Episcopal Hospital and Ponce Health Sciences Uhiversity Consortium implemented a Sentinel Enhanced Dengue Surveillance System (SEDSS) through a cooperative agreement with the CDC that serves as a model of enhanced surveillance and an effective research platform to conduct studies on dengue and other Acute Febrile Illnesses (AFI). As a medical student (MS4), I had the opportunity to participate in a research project conducting literature review and collecting data in order to evaluate the association of Dengue virus (DENV) and respiratory pathogen coinfection with patient demographic characteristics, dengue warning signs, symptoms, and disease severity. 

• UPR - Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 06/2010 - 09/2010

Participated in a cross-sectional design research project to estimate the prevalence of respiratory and skin diseases of a 21 to 64 years old population from Cataño. The results of this community-based research concluded that half of the study subjects suffered at least one respiratory disease at the time of the interview. Assumed the leadership role of the Epidemiology group and oversaw my fellow students, responsible for their regular attendance and their individual assigned tasks. Additionally, I had the assignment of contacting the community leaders, conducting a questionnaire and interview on selected houses, and analyzing the collected data using Epi-Info and SPSS statistical software. 

• UPR - Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 08/2009 - 05/2010

Collaborated as a graduate assistant research team member in a pilot population-based case control study on breast cancer epidemiology in Puerto Rico.  The research goal was to design and conduct a case control breast cancer study on an understudied population of adult Puerto Rican women evaluating adult and childhood factors in relation to risk of breast cancer. My responsibilities were to perform data management (processing, editing and coding), range checks during data entry, double entry with verification, and quality control utilizing Microsoft Excel and SAS software. Also executed routine cleaning and maintenance of questionnaires checking for order of records, missing, bad, or duplicate IDs and missing forms. 

• University of Puerto Rico, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, 08/2000 - 12/2000

As an undergraduate student, I had the opportunity to work in a research that consisted in measuring and comparing the concentration of chlorophyll-a from a bioluminescent bay and an oceanic station in Lajas, Puerto Rico. My duties were to obtain water samples from the surface of the selected site, filter seawater, extract the pigments with methanol, obtain the concentration of phytoplankton chlorophyll-a using a standard fluorometric method and correlate the concentrations using algorithms.

Publications

• Canabal-Lopez, D., Lemos-Ramirez, J., Soto-Pillich, G. Shoulder prosthetic joint infection with Penicillium species. Puerto Rico Health Sciences Journal. Volume 43, number 4. 12/2024.
• Rodríguez Vélez, J., Vando,V., Vazquez Nieves, R., Baez, P., Cantres Fonseca, O., Canabal Lopez, D. A suspected malignant lesion that ended up being a frequently neglected guest. CHEST. Volume 162, Issue 4, A583. 10/2022.

Poster Presentation

• Lozier, M.J., Canabal-Lopez, D.M., Torres-Velasquez, B., Perez-Padilla, J., Sharp, T., Alvarado-Domenech, L., Paz-Bailey, G.. "Coinfection as a risk factor for Dengue severity-Puerto Rico, 2012-2017". 6th PanAmerican Dengue Research Network Meeting/Galveston, TX, 04/2008
• Torres, C.R.; Bertrán, J.; Canabal, D.; Cuascut, F.X.; El Burai, S.; Felici, M.; Flores, F.; Li, J.; Morales, M.; Pérez, K.; Pizarro, L.; Santiago, E.J.; Sólivan, C.A.; Torres, A.; Vega, D.; Suárez, E.; Amaya, C.P.; Rosario, R. “Respiratory Diseases Prevalence in Two Sectors, Cataño, 2010”. 13th RCMI International Symposium on Health Disparities/San Juan, PR, 12/2012.

Oral Presentation

• Canabal-Lopez, Diego M. Pandemics: Past, present and future. VA Healthcare Caribbean. San Juan, PR, 02/2012.
• Canabal-Lopez, Diego M. Case presentation. SEIPR 2024: Preparing for the New Era. San Juan, PR, 06/2024.

Other Articles 

• Lozier, M.J., Paz-Bailey, G, Alvarado, L., Sharp, T.M., /Munoz, J.L., Adams, L.E., Perez-Padilla, J., Rivera, A., Torres-Velasquez, B., Guzman, Y., Lorenzi, O. D., Canabal Lopez, D.M.. (2021, July 02). Exacerbation of disease manifestations among dengue patients with respiratory pathogen coinfection, Puerto Rico, 2012–2017 .. Submitted for publication.