Dr. Christopher Caldarone appointed Surgeon-in-Chief

The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Board of Trustees has approved the appointment of Dr. Christopher Caldarone to the position of Surgeon-in-Chief, effective immediately, for a five-year term. This follows an extensive international search over the last number of months which resulted in an impressive slate of candidates, both internal and external to SickKids. 

"I am thrilled that we have been able to recruit world-class talent from within our own organization," says Dr. Mike Apkon, President and CEO of SickKids. "Chris has been an outstanding member of the SickKids community for more than 10 years and has been an exceptional leader as the Division Chief of Cardiac Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Caldarone is an internationally-recognized and talented clinician, scientist and scholar.”

Christopher Caldarone, MD joined the SickKids Cardiovascular Surgery staff in 2003. He currently holds the Watson Family Chair in Cardiovascular Sciences at SickKids and is Professor and Chair of the Division of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Toronto. Dr. Caldarone is an Associate Scientist in the Research Institute at SickKids and cross-appointed in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Caldarone obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1984 and his MD degree from Columbia University of Physicians and Surgeons in 1988. He completed his General Surgery Residency and Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency at the New England Deaconess/Harvard Medical School. During his training, Dr. Caldarone spent a year at SickKids as a Clinical Fellow in Cardiovascular Surgery.​

Dr. Caldarone currently maintains a translational science laboratory focused on pulmonary vein stenosis and upstream pulmonary vasculopathology with funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. ​He is the Executive Director of the Cardiovascular Data Management Center which is housed in the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning at SickKids and collects cardiovascular clinical data from across the University of Toronto institutions. This role builds on Dr. Caldarone's prior role as the Managing Director of the Congenital Heart Surgeons Society Data Center which is housed at SickKids and collects congenital heart surgery data from across North America.

Dr. Caldarone is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and is active in the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons where he recently completed his term as a Member of the Board of Directors.