Elena Sandoval was born in Barcelona in 1983. She studied Medicine in the University of Barcelona from 2001 to 2007. After finishing her Cardiovascular Surgery residency in Barcelona, shoe moved to Houston to continue her training in transplant and mechanical circulatory support . In 2015 se moved back to Barcelona, where she works as cardiovascular surgeon at Hospital Clinic. There she is responsible for the ECMO and MCS program and well as for the DCD heart transplant program. In addition, she collaborates in different research programs and is associate professor at University of Barcelona She is board certified by EACTS and active member of several societies (ESC, ISHLT, EACTS, SECCE, ESOT, ISMICS, etc). She is currently member of the EACTS HF taskforce. Her main professional interests are transplant and mechanical circulatory support, as well as minimally invasive surgery.