Rafael Rodríguez Mercado

Rafael Rodríguez Mercado is a neurosurgeon appointed as the 22nd Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico by Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rosselló.

Education
Rodríguez Mercado graduate from High School at Colegio San Conrado, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the Rio Piedras Campus of the University of Puerto Rico, and a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, and completing a Residency in Neurological Surgery. He also completed studies in Endovascular Neurosurgery at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Rodríguez Mercado has practiced Endovascular Neurosurgery in Puerto Rico since 1997. Currently (2018) he is Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine and director of the Endovascular Neurosurgery Program of that 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 at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. There, he has trained physicians from many countries in this specialty as well had lecture conferences in many countries and published papers in peer review journals.

Rodríguez Mercado is a member of 15 international medical societies and has participated in several scientific research projects. Currently (2018) he is licensed to practice medicine in New York, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico.

In 2010, after a year as Interim Chancellor at the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, he was named Chancellor of the Medical Sciences Campus of The University of Puerto Rico. He continues his clinical and academic work until January 2017 when he was appointed by Governor Ricardo Rossello Nevares as Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico. In September 2017 he was appointed as Associate Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences at Bethesda, Maryland as part of his academic and military career.

Military career
Rodríguez Mercado began his military career in 1988. He served in the United States Army Reserve, Medical Corps, as Command Surgeon in the 1st Mission Support Command at Fort Buchanan, Puerto Rico. He served in Puerto Rico National Guard as Assistant Surgeon and Field Surgeon. He was from 2000 to 2006 also a staff neurosurgeon at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center. Currently (2017), he was Associate Professor of Surgery and promoted on February 2019 to Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences at Bethesda, Maryland on an IMA position.

Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico
On 12 January 2017, he was appointed as 22nd Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico by governor Ricardo Rosselló. Since his appointment he had work in the improvement of the health system in Puerto Rico and the prevention of diseases.