Mariana Calderon has her medical degree from Facultad de Medicina Universidad La Salle; it was in her fifth year—the internship—that she realized the big gap in palliative care and pain medicine, especially in children outside the capital of Mexico, and the poor education on this topic. From this experience, she decided to pursue the Anesthesia Specialty because Mexico is the main path for a subspecialty in pain medicine. After completing her specialty, she fell in love with acute pain medicine, where she developed curricula with multiple trainings, both local and abroad, and became a teacher in this field. A couple of years later, she completed the course on pain medicine and began her deep interest in the advocacy area of pain and palliative care.
She began as a coordinator of the Pain and Palliative Care Project for the Mexican Health Foundation, focusing on advocacy and education. She was granted access to morphine all over the country; she started as a teacher for the UNAM (the principal University in Mexico) for pain management. As part of her goals, she joined the “Quality at the End of Life Research Group,” which we actively participated in for over two years.
Knowing the capitalized world where we live, Dr. Calderon studied for a Master in Science, focusing on Management of Health Systems, from Liverpool University, where her dissertation focused on the barriers that keep palliative care from developing in Mexico. She continues her clinical education by participating in the Palliative Care Education and Practice program at Harvard Medical School.
Although her main practice currently is centered on Anesthesia and Acute Pain, she continues her efforts on palliative care, access to essential medication, and how to talk about death.

Email: mcdotora@gmail.com