Dr. Jack Kitts
President and CEO, The Ottawa Hospital
Dr. Jack Kitts received his medical degree from the University of Ottawa in 1980. After interning at the University of Toronto, he completed a three year tour as a medical officer in the Canadian Forces before returning to the University of Ottawa to complete specialty training in anesthesia in 1987. He spent one year as a Research Fellow at the University of California in San Francisco. Dr. Kitts then joined the medical staff at the Ottawa Civic Hospital as an anesthesiologist and Research Director for the Department of Anesthesia. In 1992 he led the development of the hospital’s Preoperative Assessment Clinic which became a model for subsequent clinics, both nationally and internationally. He also became its first Medical Director. In 1995 he was appointed Chief of Anesthesia at the Civic Hospital and Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa. He continues to practice anesthesia on a part-time basis. For many years, Dr. Kitts has been sought out as an accomplished speaker at local, national and international conferences.
In 1998, Dr. Kitts was appointed Vice-President of Medical Affairs and led the medical staff during a complex restructuring in which three hospitals and five large programs were merged into The Ottawa Hospital. He completed his Master’s degree in Business Administration in 2001 and was named President and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital in February 2002. Dr. Kitts continues in that position to this day, managing a staff of 12,000.
The Ottawa Hospital is recognized as one of the largest and most important research and teaching hospitals in Canada. Its Research Institute is one of the foremost institutes in Canada, involving more than 1500 scientists, clinical investigators, trainees and staff.
Dr. Kitts’ inclusive, team-oriented strategic leadership, passion to ensure delivery of quality patient-centered care, and the development and mentoring of physician leaders, has been a central, unifying force in establishing and sustaining The Ottawa Hospital’s mission of ‘Compassionate People…World Class Care’.
Dr. Kitts’ roots are solidly anchored in the Ottawa Valley. His wife and three children have also chosen careers within the health sector.
Dr. John C. Bell
Senior Scientist, Cancer Therapeutics, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Dr. John Bell received his PhD from McMaster University in 1982. In the following three years he trained as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Ottawa and then at the Medical Research Council in London England. Dr. Bell began his independent research career at McGill University in 1986 and moved to the University of Ottawa, Department of Medicine in 1989. He is a member of the Center for Cancer Therapeutics at the Ottawa Hospital Regional Cancer Center, a Senior Scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He heads the Canadian Oncolytic Virus Consortium, a Terry Fox funded group from across Canada that is developing virus based cancer therapeutics and is the Director of the Biotherapeutics Program for the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. His research program is directed towards identification and characterization of novel viruses that specifically infect and kill cancer cells. Currently he is the Chief Scientific Officer for Jennerex Biotherapeutics, a small biotech company that clinically testing virus therapeutics in patients.