Dr. Rafael S. Garcia-Cortes is a transplant cardiologist, Medical Director of Heart Transplantation at the Rooney Heart Institute in Naples, Florida, and a bilingual novelist writing in Spanish and English. Before accepting his current role, he served as Director of Sports Cardiology for the WNBA's Indiana Fever for four seasons. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, he now lives in Naples with his family.

His professional journey began in a different field. After earning a degree in electrical engineering, he pursued medicine, later completing his Master's in Population Health Sciences and fellowship training in cardiology and heart transplantation at Washington University in St. Louis, one of the nation's leading academic medical centers.

As a physician, he specializes in advanced heart failure, heart transplantation, and mechanical circulatory support. His work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, and he has been recognized for his compassionate patient care.

While his day-to-day work focuses on medical science and patient care, storytelling and community-building have always been driving forces in his life.

Following the pandemic, he returned to creative writing and published his Spanish-language debut novel, Catarsis, a psychological thriller that received the Isabel Allende International Latino Book Award (Silver Medal, 2023). The novel was later commissioned for an English adaptation, which he chose to rewrite from the ground up rather than translate directly, an experience that ultimately inspired his subsequent fiction.

Inspired by the success of Catarsis, Garcia-Cortes has completed three additional novels. THE MANY-WORLDS OF LEONARDO BLANCO is an upmarket speculative novel exploring parallel realities, memory, and family across generations. THE INFINITE CAMINO is a literary speculative novel about memory, legacy, and the enduring bonds between fathers and daughters. THE RETRIEVAL is a high-concept medical thriller rooted in the ethical dilemmas of modern transplantation, drawing on his firsthand experience caring for patients with advanced heart failure. Together, these works reflect his enduring fascination with science, identity, and the moral choices that shape our lives.

As a proud Puerto Rican writer and father, he is drawn to stories that bridge cultures, challenge perspectives, and explore the universal desire for connection. He believes literature, like medicine, has the power to heal, inspire, and transform.