David Torres Barba, MD

“If there is anything I have learned in life, it is that there is no straight path to anything worthwhile.” 

At the age of eleven, I moved with my parents from Mexicali, Mexico to El Centro, California, a small agricultural town in the Imperial Valley. The move was a challenge, with a new language and culture, but hard work allowed me to graduate at the top of my class with an acceptance to the University of California system to pursue a path to medicine. Unfortunately, due to my immigration status and our family’s limited resources, my path took a detour that landed me instead at the local community college. During that time, I worked several jobs, tutoring, changing oil at a local auto shop, and surveying roads and water plants for a civil engineering company. I never refused the opportunity to face new challenges; something that would be key during my medical training and a standard I hold to this day. After a ten-year long wait, my immigration process was finalized and with aid of mentors I was able to find myself back on the path towards medicine.

I completed undergraduate training at San Diego State University and graduate school at Claremont Graduate University. Graduate school opened my eyes to the relevance and impact research can have on the health and lives of many, reinforced my commitment to purse medicine, and fostered an interest in cardiovascular physiology and pathology. That interest is even stronger now in the clinical realm, as I help patients deal with a heart attack or a heart failure exacerbation. My research experience during residency and fellowship continued to nurture my curiosity and interest and broadened my understanding of cardiovascular topics as I appreciate research and medicine through a very different lens than I did during my graduate school years. As I have gone through medical training, I have also made it a point to share my interest, passion, and love for medicine and research with interns, medical students, and undergraduates alike through my involvement in medical education and mentoring programs. These activities not only allow me to pay back education and mentoring I received during my own path, but also serve to learn and continue to be inspired by individuals with a similar passion for science, medicine, and patient care. I had the honor to have these efforts recognized with the "Dean’s Award for Excellence for Inspirational Resident/Fellow Mentorship" from the UC Davis School of Medicine and with the “Zipser Family Award for Clinical Excellence, Humanitarianism, and Teaching” from the UCSD Division of Cardiovascular Medicine.

My path to medicine has taken me through unimaginable detours providing invaluable experiences and lessons along the way. I consider myself fortunate to continue this path as a faculty member at the UCSD Division of Cardiovascular Medicine; an institution I was initially drawn to by its reputation for clinical excellence, its ethnically and culturally diverse faculty that happens to include a high percentage of Latino cardiologists, and most notably its commitment to serve the San Diego community and my native Imperial Valley. I look forward to contributing with patient care, clinical research, and educating the next generation of cardiologists. Most importantly, it is very rewarding seeing my path come full circle as I will be serving my native community in the Imperial Valley as part of my clinical duties at UCSD.