Life Sciences Breakfast Series: Session 1 - The Medical Isotopes Revolution

Moderator:

• Dr. Bob Bell, Professor Emeritus, Dept. Surgery, Temerity Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto

Lightning Talks:

• Dr. Patrick Veit-Haibach, Professor | Division Head Abdominal Imaging, Deputy Radiologist-in-Chief, University Health Network
• Dr. Brad Wouters, Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Executive Vice President, Science and Research, University Health Network
• James Scongack, EVP & Chief Development Officer, Bruce Power and Chair, Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council

Dr. Bob Bell, MDCM, MSc, FRCSC, FACS, FRCSE (hon), Professor Emeritus, Dept. Surgery, Temerity Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto 

Robert Bell served as Ontario’s Deputy Minister of Health from 2014 to 2018. Prior to this role, he worked as President and Chief Executive Officer of University Health Network (UHN) for nine years. He was previously the Chief Operating Officer at Princess Margaret Hospital, the Chair of Cancer Care Ontario’s Clinical Council and the Cancer Quality Council of Ontario. 

Dr. Bell received his Doctor of Medicine from McGill University, a Master of Science from the University of Toronto and achieved his Fellowship in Orthopaedic Surgery in 1983. He completed training in Orthopaedic Cancer Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University in 1985, and in the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2005. 

Dr. Bell is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the American College of Surgeons and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. As an internationally recognized orthopedic surgeon, health system executive, clinician-scientist, and educator, Dr. Bell has more than 45 years of health care experience.  

Today he provides advice to a number of private and public organizations and has published three novels with all proceeds from these books benefiting UHN foundations. 

James Scongack, EVP & Chief Development Officer, Bruce Power and Chair, Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council 

James Scongack is the Executive Vice President, Operational Services & Chief Development Officer at Bruce Power. In this role James is responsible for operational and capital project services with a team of nearly 1,000 professionals at the nuclear facility. He also has responsibility for nuclear regulatory affairs, external affairs, environment, sustainability, asset dispatch, medical isotopes and business development.  

During his 20-years of service at Bruce Power, he’s served in a number of diverse leadership roles at the company including the Vice-President of the Bruce B Generating Station where he was responsible for the safety, operations, project integration and standards of excellence at the facility consisting of four large-scale CANDU nuclear reactors. He’s also served as the company’s Vice-President of Environment & Corporate Affairs and in leadership roles reporting to the President & CEO dating back to 2005.   

James serves as Chair of the Independent Electricity System Operator Strategic Advisory Committee, Chair of the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council and Chair of the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario (POGO). He’s previously served as a Director on LifeLabs, Canada’s largest community laboratory services provider and the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada.    

James has been recognized by the Globe and Mail Report on Business 2022 Best Executive Awards and awarded the Platinum Jubilee Award in honour of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s 70th Anniversary on the Throne for his work on COVID-19 Provincial vaccination efforts. He’s also a recipient of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 by Caldwell/Bloomberg.  

James has an Executive MBA from London’s Ivey Business School and a Chartered Director through McMaster’s DeGroote Business School. James holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Guelph College of Management and Economics in Leadership and a BA (Hons) and has completed Master’s-level Project Management certification through York University’s Schulich Business School. He is also a graduate of the US-based Institute of Nuclear Power Operations Senior Plant Management Program and Bruce Power’s Enhanced Operational Training Program.

Dr. Patrick Veit-Haibach, Professor of Nuclear Medicine and Radiology, University Health Network 

Dr. Patrick Veit-Haibach is a dual-certified Radiologist and Nuclear Medicine Physician currently serving as the Deputy Radiologist-in-Chief, Director of the PET/MR program and Division Head Abdominal Imaging at the Joint Department Medical Imaging (JDMI), Toronto, Canada. He is Full Professor of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the Department Medical Imaging at the University of Toronto.

Over the course of his career so far, he has published > 240 articles, multiple book chapters and has been Editor/Co-Editor for four books in molecular/hybrid imaging. He is currently one of the main PI’s at UHN building a comprehensive Theranostic Program. He was one of the world’s first users of PET/MR and evaluated the PET/MR through its prototype phase to market approval.

His research interests focus on multi-modality molecular imaging strategies and Theranostics, particularly combined PET/MRI and PET/CT, perfusion- and hypoxia-imaging. Current projects involve clinical and preclinical molecular imaging research in esophago-gastric cancer, hematological and lymphomatous malignancies, breast cancer, HCC, sarcoma and ENT cancer as well as hybrid-modality hypoxia imaging and machine learning endeavors in PET as well as being lead on several Theranostic studies on prostate cancer and neuro-endocrine tumours.

Dr. Bradly Wouters, Senior Scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and Executive Vice President, Science and Research, University Health Network 

Dr. Bradly Wouters is an internationally recognized leader and cancer researcher.  He became Executive Vice President of Science and Research at UHN in 2016 and prior to that served as the Interim Director of Research at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre since 2014. He joined UHN in 2008 as Senior Scientist and Director of the Princess Margaret Hypoxia Program and has held faculty appointments at the University of Toronto in the Department of Medical Biophysics and the Department of Radiation Oncology since that time. Prior to joining UHN, Dr. Wouters was Professor and Head of Experimental Radiation Oncology at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. As EVP of Science and Research, Dr. Wouters is focused on creating an environment that incentivizes, facilitates, and rewards excellence in basic, translational, and clinical research across all elements of UHN.