Mendez was born in
La Paz, Bolivia and immigrated with his family to Canada as a teenager. He obtained a BSc degree from the
University of Toronto and then an
M.D. from the
University of Western Ontario (UWO). He did a neurosurgical residency training in London, and was certified in Neurosurgery from the
Royal College of Physician and Surgeons of Canada in 1994 and from the American Board of Neurological Surgery in 1996. He became a fellow of the
American College of Surgeons in 1998 and became a member of the College Board of Governors in 2015. His interest in regenerative medicine led him to obtain a PhD in Anatomy and Neurobiology from the UWO his PhD thesis was on "Neurotransmitter Interactions in Nigral Grafts". He did a postdoctoral fellowship at the
University of Lund in Sweden under the supervision of Anders Björklund. In 2014,
Saint Mary's University (Halifax) in Nova Scotia awarded Mendez a
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) degree for his contribution to Neuroscience and he was inducted a Fellow to the
Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In 2016, Mendez received the
Government of Canada Public Service Award of Excellence for the use of remote presence robotic technology to improve healthcare in the Canadian North. In December 2022, Mendez was appointed an officer of the
Order of Canada for his pioneering work in the use of remote telemedicine and robotics to revolutionize the delivery of health and patient care in Canada and worldwide. Dr. Mendez is the Director of the Virtual Health Hub. == Scientific contributions ==