Internist has starring role at RNC

During his day job, Ralph Alvarado, Jr., MD, deals with the same problems that all internists do: keeping patients healthy, meeting quality measures and wrestling with an electronic health record (EHR) system.

Tonight, he will deal with a different problem entirely: How to read from a teleprompter in front a massive arena crowd and a national television audience. Alvarado, a Republican state senator in Kentucky and a GOP delegate, has a 6-minute, prime-time speaking slot during the RNC convention Wednesday night (July 20).

 

Read more of our 2016 RNC coverage here

 

Alvarado, a 46-year-old internist and pediatrician, will not be discussing healthcare during remarks, and will instead focus on immigration issues. In 2014, Alvarado became the first Hispanic elected to state office in Kentucky, according to the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky.

“I’ve only got 6 minutes,” he told Medical Economics. “It’s probably going to be a little of my personal story. I’m an immigrant, and these are our values and how we reflect those values as Republicans. It’s about how the American dream is not being fulfilled.”

Alvarado says he wishes he had time to discuss healthcare, because he has plenty of thoughts on how he believes it has gone wrong for both physicians and patients. Once the owner of a small primary care practice in Winchester, Kentucky, Alvarado said he was forced to sell his practice in 2013 as reimbursements declined and government mandates made it more difficult for him to keep his practice, Winchester Medical Associates, financially secure.

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