William T. Merritt, MD, MBA, Associate Professor

Dr. Merritt came to Hopkins in 1982 for his anesthesia residency. Previously he had completed training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious diseases. After his anesthesia residency, he completed a vascular/thoracic fellowship here with Dr. Charles Beattie. His interests include anesthesia for vascular and thoracic surgical patients, and all complex, sick patients for various surgical procedures.

In 1986 he was asked to set up an anesthesia program for liver transplantation. After preparatory work at the University of Pittsburgh, that program started. In 1989 he began working with an international group of liver transplant hepatologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists and intensivists to establish the International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS). He was the Secretary/Treasure of the ILTS until 1997 and is currently the President of this multidisciplinary society. He is also an Associate Editor of the journal Liver Transplantation.

Dr. Merritt is a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists and the Association of University Anesthesiologists. His research and clinical interests include liver transplantation hemodynamics, the living liver donor, infectious disease issues in anesthesia, patient and staff safety, computerization of the anesthesia/OR environment, photographic documentation of clinically significant teaching cases, teaching materials for vascular/thoracic/transplant anesthesia/surgery, medical student physical diagnosis instruction and the encouragement of residents to undertake small clinical studies. And in 2000 Dr. Merritt earned his MBA here at Hopkins.

Dr. Merritt is an avid sailor, and has been a coach with the US Naval Academy sailing team since 1976. He also is a long distance bicycler.

Dr. Merritt’s research interest include the hemodynamics of end stage liver disease, metabolism in end stage liver disease, waste gas measurement, blood substitutes and blood conservation methods. He has worked extensively to educate/update anesthesia providers and others on the significant perioperative medical issues of end stage liver disease.