Dr. Jorge E. Rodriguez (“Dr. Jorge”) was born in Havana, Cuba in 1958 and is bilingual in English and Spanish. During his early years moving throughout the United States, Dr. Jorge could see and appreciate much of the country, from the socially volatile world of 1960s Detroit to the hustle and bustle of 1970s New York City, to the vast immigrations in South Florida. These were instrumental in forming his future views about medicine and society’s role in health care.

Dr. Jorge graduated magna cum laude from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL, with a degree in chemistry. He then attended the University of Miami School of Medicine, where he was Student Body President. It was in medical school in 1981 that Dr. Jorge treated his first patient with AIDS. He chose to pursue Internal Medicine and furthered his internship and residencies at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, FL and at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, LA. Dr. Jorge concluded his medical education with a fellowship in gastroenterology at Baylor School of Medicine in Dallas, TX.

Life and opportunity took Dr. Jorge to California, where he began practicing gastroenterology in 1988. At that time, the AIDS epidemic was exploding. It was then that he shifted gears from his chosen field of gastroenterology to general medicine and HIV. In those 20 years, he has developed an international reputation as a primary care physician and as a researcher in the war against HIV. He has been part of some of the most groundbreaking HIV research of the past two decades. He was one of the founders of the American Academy of HIV Medicine and former president of California Chapter of the American Academy of HIV Medicine, and former President of the Board of Directors of AIDS Services Foundation Orange County.

He is a frequent medical guest on national news and talk shows, discussing various health topics. Through 2007 to 2009, he was the popular host of the “One Hundred Years to Live” medical segments with Whoopi Goldberg on her nationally syndicated Sirius Radio Show, “Wake Up with Whoopi.” He has also appeared numerous times on CNN, The Doctors, The View and Good Morning America.

At his practice in Palm Springs, CA, Dr. Jorge shifted the focus of his practice to a “preventative medicine model.” Realizing that an individual is not just an individual with an illness, but a complete person, Dr. Jorge strives to unite all facets of health in his practice – physical, emotional, and spiritual. By caring for everything from asthma to AIDS, heartburn to heart disease, he is truly a “Marcus Welby” for the 21st century.