Prof Pattinson is one of the leaders in the field of perinatology (the branch of obstetrics that deals with the period around childbirth) in South Africa and is closely involved with the establishment and management of various research projects in the country. The focus of the research conducted by Prof Pattinson and his team at the Maternal and Infant Health Care Strategies Unit is on identifying the core problems, developing effective solutions and determining successful ways of implementing these interventions to reduce deaths among pregnant women and their infants at both primary and secondary levels of care. One of the major outcomes of the team's work to date has been the development of clinical death review tools, namely the Perinatal Problem Identification Programme (PPIP) for babies and the Child Healthcare Problem Identification Programme (Child PIP) tool for infant and child deaths in South African hospitals.

Prof Pattinson has published more than 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals and holds a B1-rating from the NRF. He sits on many local and international expert panels and committees, including the World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Survey Steering Committee. He served as chairperson of the WHO's trial Data Management Committee for Active Management of the Third Stage of Labour from 2008 until 2011. In addition to the above, he also served on the steering committee for the series on stillbirths published by The Lancet in 2012 and was the lead author of one of the papers in the series.