Dr. William Merritt is an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine and surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is an expert in anesthesiology and transplant surgery. Dr. Merritt serves as the director of the Transplant Anesthesia Group (kidney/liver/pancreas). He is a co-founder of the International Liver Transplantation Society (multidisciplinary – surgery, hepatology, critical care, anesthesia), a past president (1999-2001) of the ILTS, and the founder of the Perioperative Care in Liver Transplantation Course held annually at the American Society of Anesthesiology meeting. His liver transplantation experience goes back to our first four liver transplants in 1986 to over 120 in 2016. In addition, he has organized and participated perioperative educational programs internationally – Asia, South America, Europe and Africa.

Dr. Merritt earned his M.D. from University of Maryland. He completed his residency and performed a fellowship in anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Anesthesiology and the American Board of Pediatrics, and completed a fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases.

His research and clinical interests have included the management  of infectious diseases, metabolism in end-stage liver disease, cerebral autoregulation in end stage liver disease, hemodynamics of end-stage liver disease and the education of perioperative physicians in the issues of transplantation patients, blood substitutes and blood conservation methods, underwater medicine, preoperative patient evaluation, and the introduction of post baccalaureate pre-medical students to clinical physiology.