Former Chief Executive Officer, St. Michael's Hospital
Dr. Robert (Bob) Howard, was president and CEO of St. Michael’s Hospital from 2009 until 2017. From August of 2017 until March of 2018 he was the inaugural President of a newly formed network of Hospitals including St Michael’s Hospital, St Joseph’s Health Center and Providence Health Care, today known as Unity Health Toronto. With a total annual budget of over $1.1 billion the new network is making a unique difference for patients and families living in urban Toronto and especially those living with disadvantage.
Dr. Howard is a cardiologist known for bringing a comprehensive quality improvement (QI) program to the downtown Toronto academic hospital. He embedded a QI philosophy in the hospital’s strategic plan championing work related to improving the six Institute of Medicine dimensions of quality: safety, patient outcomes, access, patient-centredness, equity and efficiency. This effort has set the benchmark for hospitals across Ontario and has allowed staff to continue to foster and build a culture of quality improvement that spreads outside of the institution’s walls.
Under Dr. Howard’s leadership, St. Michael’s officially opened two linked buildings—the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science and the Li Ka Shing International Healthcare Education Centre—that together form the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute. This innovative facility brings the worlds of health sciences research and education together to advance patient care in a hospital setting. The hospital also constructed the 17-storey Peter Gilgan patient care tower. This resulted in a major revitalization of the hospital’s academic and patient care facilities and positioned St. Michael’s to be the premier critical care hospital in Canada.
Prior to his appointment as president and CEO, Dr. Howard was the chief medical officer and executive vice-president of Programs and Education at St. Michael’s. Dr. Howard has an executive MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business, a medical degree from McMaster University and an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto. He is a professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
He has previously served on a number of health care related Boards including the Hospital Insurance Reciprocal of Canada ( HIROC), The Health Force Ontario Marketing and Recruiting Agency (HFO MaRA), and MaRS Innovation. During his tenure as board chair of the Michener Institute, he helped oversee its transition to UHN. He is a Past Chair of The Hospital Diagnostic Imaging Repository Services (HDIRS) and the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network Board (TAHSN) and past executive member of the Council of Academic Hospitals of Ontario Board (CAHO). He continues to work part time as a clinical cardiologist and is Medical Advisor to the St Michaels Hospital Foundation.
