Dr. Natalia Ziolkowski
_{MD, PhD, FRCSC}

Dr. Ziolkowski is a plastic surgeon at The Plastic Surgery Clinic, where her practice focuses on aesthetic surgery of the face, breast and body, including labiaplasty and other intimate procedures. She is certified in plastic surgery by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Dr. Ziolkowski completed her plastic surgery residency and aesthetic surgery training at the University of Toronto, where she served as Chief Resident at several of the city’s major teaching hospitals.

She completed a substantial part of her aesthetic surgery training at The Plastic Surgery Clinic under Dr. Frank Lista, returned to the clinic as a locum staff surgeon following her residency, and now practises here as a permanent member of the surgical team. Today they operate side by side, using the techniques he has refined over more than 30 years.

Dr. Ziolkowski was awarded the Neville and Vivienne Poy Fund in Aesthetic Surgery, a University of Toronto scholarship supporting senior residents pursuing advanced training in aesthetic surgery. She has trained internationally in Perth, Australia, and São Paulo, Brazil, in the surgical traditions where many of the innovative techniques were developed and honed.

Alongside her aesthetic practice, Dr. Ziolkowski is an academic burn surgeon at Hamilton Health Sciences and an Assistant Professor at McMaster University. She trained as a Burn Fellow in Western Australia at the Fiona Stanley Hospital State Burns Unit and Perth Children’s Hospital. Burn and reconstructive surgery demand an exact understanding of how skin heals, how tension is distributed across a closure, and how a scar matures over time. She applies that understanding to every incision she plans, places and closes.

As a dedicated academic and researcher, Dr. Ziolkowski completed a PhD at the University of Toronto through the Surgeon Scientist Training Program and Clinician Investigator Program. Her doctoral research developed SCAR-QTM, a patient-reported outcome measure now used internationally to capture how children and adults live with surgical, traumatic and burn scars. Where most surgical research measures whether an operation succeeded, hers measured how patients experienced the result: how a scar looked to them, how it felt, and how it affected the way they lived.

Dr. Ziolkowski has authored more than 35 peer-reviewed publications spanning aesthetic surgery, breast reconstruction, scars, burns and surgical outcomes, including in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, and the Journal of Reconstructive Microsurgery. She has presented at national and international scientific meetings and serves as a peer reviewer for both Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Aesthetic Surgery Journal.

Her clinical and academic accomplishments have been recognized with numerous awards and distinctions. Most notably, Dr. Ziolkowski was the recipient of the Dr. A. Ross Tilley Foundation Scholarship, a national award presented through the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons to a graduating plastic surgery resident committed to practising in Canada.

She was also awarded the Hugh G. Thompson Humanitarian Award, recognizing a trainee who demonstrates a commitment to humanitarianism, collegiality, honesty, generosity, and mentorship. She is a member of the Canadian Society of Plastic Surgeons and the Canadian Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Ziolkowski brings to every consultation the same question that drove her research: what matters most to the patient, and how their individual goals can be realized given their unique anatomy and lifestyle.