Rafael Rodríguez-Mercado, MD, FACS. obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the Rio Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico, Doctor of Medicine and a Residency in Neurological Surgery from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. Later he obtained a fellowship subspecialty in Endovascular Neurosurgery from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Since 1997, he was the pioneer in Endovascular Neurosurgery in the island and the entire Caribbean Basin. At the present moment is Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine and director of the Endovascular Surgery Program of this institution. He also leads the same program at ASEM Stroke Medical Center and, since 2001, is the director of the Fellows Training Program in Neuroendovascular Surgery. There, he has trained leaders of many countries in this specialty. In his extensive professional career stands out the realization of about 5,000 endovascular corrections in people with intracranial congenital vascular malformations, being this one of the largest world series with one of the lowest postoperative mortalities in the world. Dr. Rodríguez Mercado is a member of 15 prestigious international medical societies and has participated in multiple scientific research projects. He has made more than 140 oral presentations in Puerto Rico and in more than 20 countries such as South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Spain, Portugal, France, South Korea, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela. He has been a lecturer outside of Puerto Rico on 80 occasions. Is author and co-author of 35 scientific articles in prestigious journals, such as the Journal of Neurosurgery, Neurosurgery, Stroke, American Journal of Neuroradiology, and has written chapters of three health books.

His life has been surrounded by excellence and achievements. His Endovascular Surgery program is recognized worldwide. In addition, for his qualities and vast administrative experience was chosen in 2009 as Interm Chancellor and on 2010, unanimously, as Chancellor of the Medical Sciences Campus of The University of Puerto Rico position that ends on 2013. He continues his clinical and academic work until January 2017 when he was appointed by Governor Ricardo Rossello Nevares as Secretary of Health of PR. On September 2017 he was appointed as an Associated Professor of Sugery at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences at Bethesda, Maryland as part of his academic and military career.