Dr. Patterson was educated in Canada, he received his M.D. degree from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He has completed residencies in general surgery, thoracic surgery and vascular surgery at Queen’s University, Kingston and the University of Toronto. He did post fellowship training at Johns Hopkins University.

He joined the Thoracic surgery faculty at the University of Toronto in 1982. In 1987, he was awarded the Royal College of Surgeons Gold Medal for his research in lung transplantation. Dr. Patterson was Director of the Lung Transplant Program while at the University of Toronto and served in that capacity at Washington University from 1992-2014. He was Evarts A Graham Professor and Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Washington University from 2005 to 2014. He is Past President of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery and the Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education. He has served as Chairman of the Joint Council for Thoracic Surgery Education. He is an honorary member of the European Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery, the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Indian Association of Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgeons, the Polish Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Turkish Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the Italian Thoracic Surgery Society, Women in Thoracic Surgery and the Japanese Association for Thoracic Surgery.
He has served as associate editor of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, the American Journal of Transplantation and the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. He is the previous Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Thoracic Surgery. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the publications of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
He is the author of 515 peer reviewed manuscripts and 75 book chapters. His current interests focus on general thoracic surgery and lung transplantation.