Forensic Sciences Institute Pushes Bill to Speed Up Hiring of Forensic Pathologists Amid National Shortage

The Puerto Rico Institute of Forensic Sciences (ICF) asked the House of Representatives this week to urgently approve a measure to speed up the hiring of forensic pathologists, as the agency faces what its executive director, Dr. María Conte Miller, described as a national shortage that is already hitting the island's operation directly. "The shortage is very large," Conte Miller said about the lack of specialists available to fill ICF vacancies ¹.

House Bill 1380 (Proyecto de la Cámara 1380), which did not receive public hearings, is among the measures the legislature was set to consider this Thursday in regular session. The bill seeks to give the ICF faster tools to recruit forensic pathologists at a moment when the entire United States is competing for a small pool of certified specialists in that medical subspecialty ¹.

The problem is not new, but it has become more urgent. For years the ICF has pointed out that forensic pathologist salaries on the island, which range from $150,000 to $210,000 a year depending on category, fall as much as $60,000 below what other jurisdictions offer physicians who are just starting out, while forensic chemists earn between $2,100 and $2,200 a month, a fraction of what private pharmaceutical companies pay ³. That pay gap, combined with the fact that training a forensic pathologist takes one to two additional years of specialized training after a general pathology residency, explains why the agency has spent more than a decade struggling to retain staff.

The ICF suspended its forensic pathology residency program for 14 years until, in July 2023, it recruited its first resident, Dr. Paola Luna García, under a $100,000-a-year training contract with the promise of a $200,000 salary upon completing training ⁴. That effort has started to pay off: by early this year the agency confirmed it already had candidates lined up to join as new pathologists in 2026 and 2027, after the program secured the accreditation needed to keep training specialists on the island instead of depending entirely on outside recruitment ².

Meanwhile, the ICF's workload keeps growing. The Human Identification Unit identified 352 of 368 people who arrived as unidentified bodies during 2025, a rate of more than 90% since 2020, using fingerprints, DNA, X-rays and forensic anthropology ². The agency also handled 1,931 hospital consultations in 2025, of which 944 were correctly reclassified as medical-legal cases requiring ICF intervention, part of 5,864 consultations logged since 2023 through January of this year ². The Crime Gun Intelligence Center (CGIC) evaluated 2,864 firearms and conducted 2,956 test firings in 2025, generating 351 investigative leads with the support of $700,000 in federal funding ².

What it means for you

Every case that passes through the ICF, whether a violent death, an accident or a death requiring an autopsy, depends on having forensic pathologists available to certify cause of death. When the agency operates with fewer specialists than it needs, families can wait longer for a death certificate, a document required for inheritance procedures, life insurance claims and court proceedings. The shortage also reduces the country's capacity to respond if a mass-casualty event occurs, such as a hurricane or a multi-victim accident, something Puerto Rico cannot afford to ignore given its recent history with natural disasters.

How to do it / Checklist

1. If you are waiting on a death certificate for a case under ICF investigation, call the agency directly at 787-765-0615 to confirm the case status before going to the Demographic Registry.
2. Have the full name, case number (if you have it) and date of death ready when you contact the ICF; this speeds up locating the file.
3. If the case involves an unidentified person, family members can provide DNA samples through the ICF's Human Identification Unit to speed up a possible match.
4. If you are a health professional or medical student interested in forensic pathology, contact the ICF about its residency program, which already has candidates accepted for 2026 and 2027 but is still looking for talent.
5. Track House Bill 1380 through the Legislature's Single Legislative Tracking System (sutra.oslpr.org) to check whether it was approved, amended or referred to another committee.

What's next

House Bill 1380 faces its first real test this week on the House floor, without having gone through public hearings, which could draw objections from legislators who would rather review it more carefully. If it passes the House, it would still need to clear the Senate before reaching the governor's desk. Conte Miller has insisted that every month of delay in hiring translates into more pressure on the ten pathologists currently sustaining the institute's daily operation, and more waiting time for families depending on their determinations. The agency also expects to confirm in coming months whether the candidate scheduled for July 2026 formally joins the team, and whether new budgeted positions emerge in the next fiscal year to close the pay gap that for years has pushed specialists to look for work outside Puerto Rico.

Sources

¹ El Nuevo Día — https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/legislatura/notas/escasez-de-patologos-forenses-icf-impulsa-legislacion-para-lograr-la-contratacion-de-estos-profesionales/ ² Metro Puerto Rico — https://www.metro.pr/noticias/2026/02/04/proyecto-de-ciencias-forenses-impulsa-identificacion-de-cientos-de-cuerpos-desconocidos/ ³ Primera Hora — https://www.primerahora.com/noticias/gobierno-politica/notas/ciencias-forenses-necesita-dinero-para-evitar-fuga-de-especialistas/ ⁴ Primera Hora — https://www.primerahora.com/noticias/puerto-rico/notas/ciencias-forense-reinicia-las-residencias-para-formar-nuevos-patologos-forenses/