Head of the Chair of Social Problems of Health. He is also the founder (1995) and head of the Independent Unit of Medical Sociology at the Medical University in Lublin.The main areas of interest are sociology of health, health promotion, sociology of medicine, sociology of non-medical treatment, ecosociology. In 1990, he was elected the coordinator of the activities of the European Society of Health and Medical Sociology (ESHMS) in Poland. In 2001, he was elected chairman of the Sociology of Medicine Section of the Polish Sociological Society and held this function until January 2013.

From 2005/2006 consultant of the Polish-American Fulbright Commission administering the Scholarship Program of Lane Kirkland. Editor and creator of the section: Sociology of Health and Illness in the journal Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine. The originator and head of the National Science Center (NCN) grant "The problem of women's reporting for cytological tests in Poland. An attempt at socio-medical analysis "(OPUS3, 2011/03 / B / HS6). Author of over 200 scientific publications (including articles from IF 3.06 and Ministry of Science and Higher Education scores - 30) and "Beyond Medicine. Non-Medical Methods of Treatment in Poland ”published in the USA and Germany monograph, reviewed inter alia in the journal Medical Sociology Onnlie (Volume 7, Issue 1, February 2013).

In July 2013, JM Rector of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University appointed W. Piątkowski as the head of the Department of Medicine and Family Sociology at the Institute of Sociology. On January 7, 2014, Professor W. Piątkowski was awarded the individual scientific award (E.Prost Award) by the Lublin Scientific Society. Reviewed paper of prof. W. Piątkowski (co. M. Nowakowski): »" Childbirth with Dignity "campaign as opposition to" totalitarian obstetrics "was delivered during The 15th Biennal Conference of the European Society for Health and Medical Sociology (ESHMS) -" Health and Welfare Challenges in Europe: East, West, North and South "held at the University of Helsinki on August 28-30, 2014.

In 2016, the speech (reviewed): "Selected Strategies for Pro-health Policy in Poland as Exemplfied by Cytological Prevention. A Sociological Analysis" (co. A. Sadowska) was presented at the 16th Congress of the European Society for Health and Medical Sociology (ESHMS) took place in Geneva on June 27-29, 2016 at the University of Geneva. In May 2016, prof. W. Piątkowski was elected a representative of the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology to the UMCS Senate for the 2016-2020 term. Professor Włodzimierz Piątkowski was elected the head of the scientific team developing the Polish part of the international sociological research "Healthy homes barometer" (HHB2016), coordinated by the Humboldt University in Berlin, carried out on a sample of 14,000 respondents in 14 European countries.

The research results of the team led by W. Piątkowski (A. Sadowski-Dudkowska, A. Majchrowska) were presented at the seventeenth Congress of the European Society of Sociology of Health and Medicine in Lisbon (June 6-8, 2018) - Old Tensions, Emerging Paradoxes in Health: Rights, Knowledge, and Trust; "Utilization of Gynecological care and the role of gynecologist in cytological prevention" and "A healthy life begins at home: the european project" Healthy Home Barometer. "On September 25, 2019, JM Rector of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Prof. Stanisław Michałowski gave Prof. W. Piątkowski, nomination for the head of the Chair of Social Problems of Health at the Institute of Sociology, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, by order of the President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda based on the request of the Minister of Science and Higher Education for his contribution to the development of science, Prof. Włodzimierz Piątkowski was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit on October 23, 2019.