Dr. Howard Ovens

Dr. Howard Ovens is a practicing emergency physician and chief medical strategy officer of the Sinai Health System. He is the Ontario expert lead for emergency medicine; in that capacity he chairs the Emergency Services Advisory Committee, and as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response sits on the Ontario Health “R5- Response Table” representing emergency medicine. Dr. Ovens holds the rank of full professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, and is a senior fellow in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. He is also a member of the Public Affairs Committee of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians. 

Dr. Ovens has published and spoken widely on issues related to the administration of emergency departments and public policy related to emergency services including topics such as emergency department access and overcrowding, the lessons of SARS, and mandatory gunshot wound reporting. He hosted a podcast series on COVID-19 for Sinai Health called “Champions of Sinai: Understanding the COVID-19 Pandemic”  (www.sinaipodcast.ca). He tweets about issues related to emergency services using the handle @HowardOvens and his blog “Waiting to be seen” is hosted on the Emergency Medicine Cases website. 

Dr. Ovens has received many awards including Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians “Emergency Physician of the Year”; CPSO Council Award from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario; Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto “Excellence in Creative Professional Activity” awarded in 2004 for work advocating for gunshot wound reporting legislation); and Canadian Family Physician “Research Article of the Year” awarded in 2002 for research paper on heavy users of emergency services.