Medical Faculty

Certified by the American Academy of Pathology since November 1998, Dr. Lozada studied at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine from 1987 to 1991. He completed his internship on Internal Medicine at the Veterans Hospital Administration from 1991 to 1992 and continued his combined residency in anatomical and clinical pathology at the School of Medicine of the University of Puerto Rico from 1992 to 1996. Dr. Lozada is the Director of the Clinical Laboratory at Ashford Presbyterian Community Hospital and HRPLabs Clinical Laboratory.

Dr. Billoch worked at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation as a Clinical Research Associate in New York from January 1998 to December 1998. Certified by the American Board of Pathology since November 2012, he studied medicine at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in Mexico and completed his residency at the School of Medicine of the University of Puerto Rico between July 2008 and June 2012, where he was chosen as chief resident (2011-2012).

He became part of HRPLabs pathology faculty in July 2012. Since 2017 he has been Assistant Medical Director in HRPLabs.  Dr.  Billoch is also part of the Fine Needle Aspiration medical faculty.

Dr. Ferrer worked as a Laboratory Technician and Assistant in the Department of Organic Chemistry of the University of Puerto Rico from 1987 to 1988. Certified by the American Board of Pathology since November 1998, he studied medicine At the School of Medicine of the University of Puerto Rico from 1989 to 1992. He completed his internship in Pathology during July 1, 1992 and June 30, 1993 at the School of Medicine of the University of Puerto Rico. Dr. Ferrer completed his residency in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology at this same institution between July 1, 1992 and June 30, 1996. From 1993 to 1996 he worked as a “Gross Anatomy Pathology Dissector” at Hato Rey Pathology Associates.  Then he became Professor Research Assistant at the Central University of the Caribbean School of Medicine (1997-1998). Between July 1, 1996 and June 30, 1997, he completed the sub specialty in Immunopathology at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, FL.

Dr. Ferrer worked as a pathologist from 1998 until 2001 at University Pathology, Inc. and as Laboratory Director at Las Marias Reference Laboratory.  He began working at HIMA Caguas Hospital as Director of Anatomic Pathology, Director of Clinical Laboratory and Transfusion from 2001 until present. He is currently the Technical Director of the Laboratory of Immunopathology division at HRPLabs.

Certified by the American Academy of Pathology since May 2012, Dr. García studied medicine at the Central University of the Caribbean School of Medicine between 1999 and 2004. She began her residency in Pathology on January 1, 2004 and culminated on June 30 June 2008.

Dr. García worked as a research assistant in the Department of Biochemistry at the Central University of the Caribbean School of Medicine from 2000 to 2001. From 2006 and until 2007, she worked as an assistant pathologist at Domenech Pathology and Associates. From 2008 to 2010 she worked as Assistant Professor of the Department of Pathology of the Ponce School of Medicine, evaluator of cases of anatomical and clinical pathology in Southern Pathology Services and as a Pathologist at Ponce Medical School. She became a part of the HRPLabs medical faculty in 2010.  She directed the Cytology department.

She is now head of the Research and Development Division and is also part of the Fine Needle Aspiration medical faculty.

Certified by the American Academy of Pathology since November 1999, Dr. Rosado studied at the School of Medicine of the University of Puerto Rico from 1990 to 1994.  She completed a combined residency program in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology at the School of Medicine of the University of Puerto Rico from 1994 to 1998. From 1998 to 1999 she did the sub specialty in Surgical Pathology at the University of Alabama and from 1999 to 2000 completed her second subspecialty in Gastropathology and liver disease at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Rosado has been a gastropathologist at HRP Labs since 2000. Since 2001, she has been a consultant in the Department of Gastroenterology at Veterans Hospital and since 2002 and serves as a member of the scientific committee of the Gastroenterology Association of Puerto Rico. She is currently the Director of the Department of Pathology at the Hospital del Maestro.

Dr. Torrellas studied medicine at the Central University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in 2005. Between July 2005 and in June 2006 she completed her internship in pathology at the University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine. She completed her residency at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in June 2010 and completed her sub specialty in Cytopathology at Tulane University of Louisiana School of Medicine in June 2011.

Dr. Torrellas joined the team of pathologists of HRP Labs in October 2014.  She is currently the Technical Supervisor of the Cytology Department.

Certified by the American Board of Pathology since July 2011, Dr. Arce studied medicine at the Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Mexico. She completed her transitional residency at the Damas Hospital in Ponce between 2006 and 2007.  During 2007 and 2011 she completed her residency in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology at the Medical School of the University of Puerto Rico, where she was chosen as chief resident (2010-2011). In 2017 she was appointed Technical Supervisor of the Histology Laboratory at HRPLabs.  She is also a part of the Fine Needle Aspiration Medical Faculty.

Certified by the American Board of Pathology since July 2016, Dr. Sepulveda studied medicine at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in Mexico. She completed her internship on Internal Medicine at New York Medical College in Valhalla from January 2009 to December 2009, and from July 2011 to June 2012 at the Oncology Hospital, Dr. Isaac González Martínez in Rio Piedras. She completed her residency in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology at the School of Medicine of the University of Puerto Rico. Dr. Sepúlveda joined the HRP Labs medical team in 2016.

Certified by the American Academy of Pathology since November 1998. Dr. Pérez Berenguer studied at the School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba in 1977. He completed his residency in pathology at the Salvador Allende Hospital in Cuba in 1981. From 1987 to 1994 he was director of the department of Neuropathology at the Pathology National Reference Center of Hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras in Cuba. In 1989, he completed the second degree of Pathology at Hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras, Cuba.  From 1988 to 1991 he completed the subspecialty in Neuropathology and Brain Biopsy in Stereotactic Neurosurgery at the Sainte Ann Hospital in Paris, France. He completed his pathology training between 1996 and 2000 at the Orlando Regional Healthcare System, Orlando, FL.  Between 2001 and 2003 he completed his second subspecialty in neuropathology at the Medical College of Virginia.

He worked as a Pathologist at University Pathology. Today he is a Pathologist and Director of Neuropathology services at HRP Labs. He is Associate Professor at the San Juan Bautista School of Medicine, Pathologist and Neuropathology Consultant at the Veterans Hospital, ASEM Department of Pathology and The Institute of Forensic Sciences.

Certified by the American Academy of Pathology in August 2006 and recertified in 2016, Dr. Gutiérrez  studied at the Ponce Medical School, graduating in 2000. She served as a transitional resident at the Episcopal Hospital San Lucas Ponce, in 2001. She then completed his specialty in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus between 2002 and 2005.

Dr. Gutiérrez worked from January 2006 to February 2014 for the Caribbean Cytopathological Center at Episcopal Hospital San Lucas, Ponce, as part of the staff of pathologists in 2016 and later as director of department. She worked an instructor and then an assistant professor in the Department of Anatomy and Pathology at Ponce Medical School from 2006 to 2014.  Dr. Gutiérrez participated on the Bio Tissue Bank project at the School of Medicine, a project between PSM-Moffitt Cancer Center, NIH U54 grant and U56 grant, first as a volunteer in the tissue collection, then as a co-leader and continues to collaborate with this project. In March 2014 Dr. Gutiérrez began working at HRPLABS as part of the medical faculty of pathologists.  In march 2016, She became director of the  Pathology Department, Clinical Laboratory and Blood Bank of the Damas Hospital in Ponce.

Certified by the American Board of Pathology since 2013 in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology and certified since 2014 in the subspecialty of hematopathology.  Dr. Delgado studied medicine and completed her residency in pathology at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, School of Medicine. She later completed a sub-specialty in Hematopathology at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, CT in June 2014. She joined the medical faculty of HRPLabs and is director of the hematopathology department that includes a flow cytometry laboratory and an immunohistochemistry laboratory focused on this specialty.

Dr. Nicole Candelario graduated as a dermatologist in the Department of Dermatology of the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus. She served as Assistant Professor for the Department of Dermatology at the University of Iowa. She then completed a subspecialty in dermatopathology at the University of Texas Southwestern. Dr. Candelario is certified by the American Board of Dermatology and Dermatopathology and became part of the HRPLabs medical faculty in 2016, where she currently directs the Dermatopathology Division.

Certified by the American Academy of Pathology since May 2008. Dr. Matos studied medicine at the Ponce School of Medicine. She did her internship on Internal Medicine at the Veterans Hospital from July 1997 to June 1998 and completed her residency in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine.

Dr. Matos started working at HRPLabs in 2016.

Dr. José R. De Jesús Meléndez completed his medical studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in 2004, then made his residency in Anatomical Pathology and at the same year he became Board Certified in Anatomical and Clinical Pathology. Dr. De Jesus started his Fellowship of Breast Surgical Pathology from Moffitt Cancer Center and after completion, he returned to HRPLabs in November 2018.

Egresada de la Escuela de Medicina de Ponce. En el 2010 completo su residencia en Patología Anatómica y Clínica en la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Completó la subespecialidad en Patología de Genética Molecular en la Escuela de Medicina Johns Hopkins. Certificada por la Academia Americana de Patología (American Board of Pathology) y por la Junta Americana de Genética Médica. En el 2019 se unió a la facultad medica de HRPLabs. Sus áreas de especialidad son la genética del cáncer y medicina y terapia personalizada.

Egresado de la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad Central del Caribe. Completó su residencia en Patología Anatómica y Clínica en la Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto de Ciencias Médicas.

Certificado por la Academia Americana de Patología (American Board of Pathology) en el 1992, en ese mismo año se unió a la facultad medica de HRPLabs. Actualmente se desempeña como Patólogo y Director de Departamento de Dictado de Especímenes y está a cargo de la educación continua para los asistentes de patólogos.

Egresado de la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Completo su residencia en Patología Anatómica y Clínica de la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ciencias Médicas. Durante abril de 2017, visitó el Departamento de Patología de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad Johns Hopkins a través del programa para estudiantes de medicina minoritarios y residentes con poca representación, el doctor comenzara una sub-especialidad en gastropatología para el año 2021 en la Universidad de Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Simmons graduated from Central University of the Caribbean in 1987 and completed his studies in Clinical and Anatomical Pathology at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus in 1994.

Dr. Simmons began working at HRPLabs in 1992 and currently serves at HRPLabs as director of the specimen dictation department and is in charge of the continuing education for pathology assistants.