Dr. Santiago Rodríguez Montero

Dr. Santiago Rodríguez Montero is one of Uruguay's most accomplished interventional cardiologists, practicing at Médica Uruguaya — one of the country's largest and most respected mutual aid healthcare organizations (mutualistas) serving hundreds of thousands of Uruguayan members across Montevideo and beyond. With over two decades of experience in interventional cardiac procedures, Dr. Rodríguez Montero represents the high standard of specialist medicine that has made Uruguay's healthcare system one of the most admired in Latin America for its combination of quality, equity, and universal coverage.

Uruguay's healthcare model, built on a network of mutual aid institutions integrated with public hospital services and the National Health Fund (FONASA), means that specialist cardiology services like those provided by Dr. Rodríguez Montero are accessible to a broad cross-section of the population — not only to patients with private insurance. This ethos of accessible excellence is central to his professional identity, and he has dedicated his career to providing catheterization-laboratory-based care that matches international standards within the Uruguayan system.

Dr. Rodríguez Montero leads a busy interventional cardiology program at Médica Uruguaya that encompasses elective coronary interventions, primary PCI for STEMI (heart attack), and a growing structural heart program including transcatheter aortic valve procedures. He applies contemporary intravascular imaging techniques — including optical coherence tomography (OCT) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) — to optimize stent deployment and reduce the risk of long-term stent complications.

Beyond his clinical and procedural work, Dr. Rodríguez Montero is engaged in the professional life of Uruguayan cardiology through the Sociedad Uruguaya de Cardiología (SUC), where he contributes to scientific sessions, guidelines discussions, and continuing medical education initiatives.

Dr. Rodríguez Montero completed his medical degree (MD) at the Universidad de la República in Montevideo — Uruguay's principal public research university and the training ground for the majority of the country's physician workforce. He subsequently completed residency training in Internal Medicine before pursuing cardiology specialization through the structured Fellowship program recognized by the Sociedad Uruguaya de Cardiología.

Drawn to the technical demands and clinical impact of interventional cardiology, he completed an Interventional Cardiology fellowship, receiving supervised training in coronary angiography, PCI, and hemodynamic assessment. He has supplemented his foundational training with coursework in intracoronary physiology (FFR and iFR), intravascular imaging (OCT and IVUS), and the principles of TAVR and other structural heart interventions.

Dr. Rodríguez Montero maintains active membership in the European Society of Cardiology and regularly attends EuroPCR — the leading European interventional cardiology congress — as well as SOLACI meetings and the Congreso Uruguayo de Cardiología, ensuring his practice reflects current evidence in coronary intervention, antithrombotic therapy, and structural interventions.

Dr. Rodríguez Montero's interventional practice spans the full breadth of contemporary catheter-based coronary and structural cardiac therapy. In coronary intervention, he performs elective PCI for stable coronary disease — guided when appropriate by fractional flow reserve (FFR) or instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) to confirm physiological significance before stenting — as well as urgent and emergency PCI for acute coronary syndromes including STEMI.

He is experienced in complex PCI scenarios, including left main coronary artery intervention, bifurcation lesions, heavily calcified vessels amenable to rotational atherectomy, and chronic total occlusion (CTO) crossing. He uses intravascular imaging routinely in complex cases to optimize stent sizing, apposition, and coverage, reducing the risk of stent thrombosis and restenosis.

In structural cardiology, Dr. Rodríguez Montero participates in TAVR procedures within a multidisciplinary heart team, performing the catheter-based components in collaboration with cardiac surgeons and cardiac imaging specialists. He also manages patients with significant aortic stenosis through the valve clinic pathway, coordinating risk stratification and patient selection for transcatheter versus surgical intervention.

Dr. Rodríguez Montero's research interests center on optimizing PCI outcomes in the Uruguayan patient population, including the adoption of physiology-guided decision making, intravascular imaging guidance, and contemporary antiplatelet therapy regimens. He has contributed data from Médica Uruguaya's catheterization laboratory to multi-center registries examining door-to-balloon times in primary PCI, stent thrombosis rates, and one-year cardiovascular outcomes following complex coronary intervention.

He is also interested in the implementation of TAVI programs in small and medium-volume centers within Latin America's mutual aid healthcare model — where the resource environment and patient selection pathways differ from the high-volume European and North American structural heart centers on which most evidence is based. His work includes contributions to position papers on TAVR patient selection criteria adapted for the Uruguayan healthcare context.

Dr. Rodríguez Montero treats patients from across Uruguay and occasionally consults with patients from Argentina and Brazil who prefer to seek cardiac intervention in Uruguay's well-organized healthcare environment. He consults in Spanish and English, and Médica Uruguaya can arrange logistical support including appointment scheduling, pre-procedure coordination, and post-procedure follow-up.

For international patients considering cardiac evaluation or coronary intervention in Montevideo, Dr. Rodríguez Montero is available for video consultation to review coronary angiography results, CT coronary angiography data, and stress test findings before an in-person visit is arranged. Montevideo's international airport and the compact geography of Uruguay's capital make procedural visits straightforward to organize.

Dr. Rodríguez Montero is a member of the Sociedad Uruguaya de Cardiología (SUC), SOLACI, and the European Society of Cardiology. He has been recognized by Médica Uruguaya for sustained clinical excellence and for his leadership role in developing the institution's interventional cardiology and structural heart programs. He is a regular participant and speaker at the Congreso Uruguayo de Cardiología and SOLACI annual meetings, where he has presented on complex PCI techniques, intracoronary physiology, and TAVR outcomes. His peers regard him as one of Montevideo's most technically accomplished and evidence-driven interventional cardiologists.