Dr. Bob Bell

Robert Stuart Bell, MDCM, MSc, FRCSC, FACS, FRCSE (hon). Professor of Surgery, University of Toronto

Dr. Bob Bell received his medical degree from McGill University in 1975. Following internship at McGill, he worked as a General Practitioner outside Toronto for three years. Bell returned to surgical residency at the University of Toronto and received his fellowship in Orthopedic Surgery in 1983.

Bell then spent two years as a surgical and research fellow at Harvard University, Boston Children’s, and Massachusetts General Hospitals in Boston. While in Boston, he gained clinical expertise in arthritis and cancer surgery and worked in cancer research. His love for Boston is evident in the setting of Hip in this Massachusetts center of medical excellence.

Recruited to the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Surgery, Bell worked as a cancer and orthopedic surgeon for 19 years. During that time, he trained more than 30 surgical fellows in principles of cancer surgery, and these former fellows are now surgical leaders on five continents. Bell collaborated with dedicated expert basic scientists throughout his surgical career and published more than 200 peer-reviewed, scientific, and clinical papers—mainly on bone and muscle cancer. He has presented his research at scientific meetings around the world.

In 2005, Bell stopped performing cancer surgery when he was appointed as President and CEO of University Health Network (UHN), Canada’s largest research hospital network. Toronto General Hospital, one of the hospitals in the network, was recently named the seventh best hospital in the world by Newsweek magazine. During his nine years as CEO of UHN, Bell led a massive expansion of clinical and research programs.

In 2014, Bell was appointed Deputy Minister of Health in Canada’s largest province of Ontario. For the next four years, Bell was responsible for the operations of a health system serving 14

million people.

After resigning as Deputy Minister in 2018, Bell has focused on charitable activities and providing commentary on Canada’s publicly funded health system. This commentary can be found at www.drbobbell.com and @drbobbell. Bell and his wife Diann divide their time between homes in Toronto and on Georgian Bay.

All profits from this book will be donated to serve bone cancer research at Princess Margaret Hospital, one of the world’s premier cancer hospitals and a member of University Health Network.