Mercedes Pilkington

Dr. Mercedes Pilkington is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and a Staff Surgeon in the Division of Paediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). She completed her General Surgery training at Queen’s University and her Paediatric General and Thoracic Surgery fellowship at the University of Calgary. She completed additional research fellowships in paediatric surgical innovation at the University of Michigan and a Safe Surgery/Safe Systems fellowship jointly with Ariadne Labs, Brigham Women’s Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and EQuIS at the University of Calgary. She has a Master’s in Global Surgical Care from the University of British Columbia. Her current clinical and research interests include neonatal surgery, Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, and strengthening surgical systems to promote safer surgery in a variety of resource settings.

Research

Pilkington uses mixed methods to understand how to use evidence-based care to standardize and improve paediatric surgical outcomes. This work involves creating Enhanced Recovery After Surgery guidelines for the neonatal population as well as studying the implementation of such protocols in variable resource settings, adaptation of surgical safety tools including the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist, and the creation of new safety tools to improve surgical care delivery. 

Education and experience

• 2022: Master of Global Surgical Care (MGSC), Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC 
• 2021–2022: Paediatric Surgeon and Clinical Lecturer, Alberta Children’s Hospital, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB 
• 2021–2022: Safe Surgery/Safe System Research Fellow, Ariadne Labs, Brigham Women’s Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and EQuIS Research Platform, University of Calgary  
• 2019–2021: Paediatric Surgery Fellow, Division of Paediatric General Surgery, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB  
• 2018–2019: Paediatric Surgery Innovations Fellow, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI  
• 2013–2018: General Surgery Resident, Department of Surgery, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON 
• 2013: MD, Queen’s University School of Medicine, Kingston, ON 
• 2009: BSc, Neuroscience (ad hoc), McGill University, Montreal, QC 

1. Pilkington M, Alshaikh BN, Brindle ME. Human Milk Fortification for Preterm Infants: The Right Kind at the Right Time for the Right Baby. JAMA Pediatr. 2021;175(8):777-778. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.0689. 
2. Pilkington M. Creation of an enhanced recovery after surgery protocol for Wilms tumours in low- and middle-income countries. Graduate Thesis. 2022. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0413684 
3. Global PaedSurg Research Collaboration. Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study. Lancet. 2021:398(10297):325-339. 
4. Pilkington M, Theivendram A, Brogly SB, Kolar M. Rising Incidence of Childhood Intussusception in Ontario: A Population-Based Study From 1997-2016. The American Surgeon. 2021;0(0). doi:10.1177/00031348211011139 
5. Malcolm RJ, Pilkington M, Merchant SJ, Velez MP, Brogly SB. Work-Related Factors and Pregnancy Outcomes in Female Surgeons. Annals of Surgery Open. 2021;2(2):e069. doi:10.1097/AS9.0000000000000069.