Marianela Horta Acosta was a licensed physician in Cuba for eighteen years before she came to the United States in 2016.
A medical license does not cross borders. To practice as a physician here she would have had to repeat residency and fellowship training she had already completed and spent nearly two decades using. She chose a different route — one that let her return to patient care without starting her medical education over. She earned her certification as a nursing assistant in 2017, her registered nurse license in 2020, and her Master of Science in Nursing as a Family Nurse Practitioner in 2023.
She practices at Vascular Wellness Institute as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse. What she brings to it is eighteen years of medicine on top of everything the nursing training gave her.
Where She Learned to Practice
Marianela earned her medical degree at the Institute of Medical Sciences in Camagüey, Cuba, and spent most of her career in general practice — much of it in Vertientes, a rural community where the clinic had very little and the doctor was expected to manage whatever came through the door.
For part of those years she served as a Carmelite Missionary, working with people who had few options and less access. That work shaped how she practices: unhurried, thorough, and attentive to the parts of a person’s life that affect their health but never appear on a chart.
After emigrating, she worked in nursing homes, assisted living communities, and private homes throughout Sarasota and Manatee counties while completing her nursing education — caring for elderly patients with the same conditions she now helps treat.
How Marianela Works With Our Patients
Marianela sees patients alongside our vascular surgeons as part of the clinical team. She takes histories, performs examinations, reviews test results and explains what they mean, manages medications, monitors chronic vascular conditions between visits, and coordinates follow-up care after procedures. When something needs a surgeon, she brings the surgeon in.
The conditions she helps manage include:
- Peripheral artery disease, claudication, and limb-threatening ischemia
- Carotid artery disease and stroke risk
- Aortic, peripheral, and visceral aneurysm surveillance and post-operative follow-up
- Chronic venous insufficiency, varicose veins, and spider veins
- Deep vein thrombosis and superficial thrombophlebitis
- Lymphedema and compression therapy management
- Diabetic foot ulcers, venous leg ulcers, arterial wounds, and non-healing surgical wounds
Care in English and Spanish
Marianela is fully fluent in both languages. For Spanish-speaking patients in Sarasota, Bradenton, and the surrounding communities, no interpreter is needed — consultations, explanations of test results, treatment planning, and follow-up all happen directly, in whichever language you are most comfortable speaking.
That matters more than it might sound. Vascular disease is a subject full of words that do not translate cleanly, and the difference between understanding your treatment and nodding along is often the difference in whether the plan works.
Her Approach
“Treating vascular disease is more than treating a disease. It is treating a whole person.”
Patients describe her as someone who does not rush. She listens, explains vascular disease in plain terms, and makes sure you leave knowing what is happening in your body and what to do about it — because following the plan is what makes the plan work.
Marianela cares for patients throughout Sarasota and Manatee counties, including Sarasota, Bradenton, Lakewood Ranch, Palmetto, Ellenton, Venice, Port Charlotte, and Punta Gorda.