James G. Wright CM, MD, MPH, FRCSC, FRCS Ed

Dr. James G. Wright is currently a Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.  Previously, he was Chief of Perioperative Services, and Surgeon-in-Chief, Department of Surgery, and Vice President, Medical at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Canada. Through these roles, which he assumed in January 2005, Dr. Wright oversaw one of the busiest and most advanced paediatric surgery departments in Canada.

At SickKids, Dr. Wright was responsible for the operation of six surgical divisions (Cardiovascular, General, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedic, Plastic and Urology) and five Departments (Anaesthesia, Critical Care, Dentistry, Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology). An accomplished surgeon and researcher, he provided leadership to the Perioperative Services staff, ensuring a high level of engagement in complex clinical care, basic and clinical research, undergraduate and postgraduate education and numerous administrative responsibilities.

Dr. Wright was previously the President of the Paediatric Specialties Association, a $60M Practice Plan of over 100 physicians. In his role as Vice President, Medical, Dr. Wright was executive medical lead for the quality and risk teams, providing guidance and expertise on advancing the quality of clinical care and services. Dr. Wright worked with senior staff to set organizational goals and objectives for clinical quality and had accountability for the Centre for Patient Safety, working closely with teams to advance the culture of safety, through research and education. As chair of Medical Affairs, he oversaw the appointment process, and ensured the credentialing and licensing protocols were in place for all physicians annually and when new-hires joined the hospital. He also was Chair of the Medical Advisory Committee; the committee responsible for physician appointment and medical quality within the hospital.

A Senior Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences Program, Research Institute, SickKids, Dr. Wright remains an active researcher. Dr. Wright’s research focuses on the development of measures to evaluate surgical therapy, randomized clinical trials, and evaluating unmet needs and disparity in the use of orthopaedic procedures. He has more than 230 peer-reviewed publications, including publications in Lancet, Science, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the British Medical Journal. He has published 235 peer-reviewed articles with over 21,000 citations and an h-index of 70 (Google scholar). In addition to his hospital and administrative activities, from 1999-2012 he was Associate Editor for the Evidence Based Orthopaedic Section for the American Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery.

Dr. Wright was appointed inaugural holder of the Robert B. Salter Chair of Pediatric Surgical Research. Dr. Wright was Program Head of the Child Health Evaluative Program with 50 scientists from 1999-2004.

Equally active in education, Dr. Wright won the Robert B. Salter Excellence in Orthopaedic Education Award in May of 1997. Since 1994, he has served as (or is currently serving as) primary or secondary supervisor for more than 30 MSc or PhD students. He has been an ABC fellow. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the Kappa Delta Award of AAOS, the Arthur Huene Award of POSNA, and the inaugural President’s Award from SickKids. Dr. Wright was Chair of the Paediatric Surgical Chiefs of Canada and lead for the Canadian Paediatric Surgical Wait Time Project.

In 2016 he was awarded the Order of Canada, Canada’s highest civilian order.

Dr. Wright completed his surgical training at the University of Toronto, a clinical fellowship in Melbourne, Australia, graduate work in clinical epidemiology and a fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at Yale University. He came on staff at The Hospital for Sick Children in 1991.