Dr. Mark Walker MD, FRCSC, MSc, MHCM

Vice-Dean, Internationalization and Global Health University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine

Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology;

Obstetrician Gynecologist, Clinical Specialist Maternal Fetal Medicine;

Senior scientist, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute;

Scientific Director, BORN Ontario;

ASPR Speech title:

In-Utero Pediatrics, How the In-Utero Environment Influences Child Health

Bio

Dr Walker is a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist, Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and Clinical Epidemiologist.  He is internationally acclaimed healthcare thought-leader and executive.  His clinical training is in Maternal Fetal Medicine, and he has a special interest in medical disorders of pregnancy which forms most of his clinical practice. Dr. Walker is an internationally recognized scientist with over 360 peer reviewed publications, an h-index of 81 and has held $19 million in grants as a principal investigator. He has published in Nature, Lancet, JAMA and the BMJ amongst other high impact journals.

Dr Walker is seen as a leader and innovator in medicine. He is the co-founder of the OMNI Research Group, established in 2001. OMNI is a leading health services and clinical trials group in maternal newborn health recognized globally for their research endeavours. They have collaborations with 81 centres in more than 12 countries.  Under Dr. Walker, OMNI has trained more than 113 students, including PhD, MSc students, and post-doctoral fellows.

In 2008, Dr Walker co-founded the Better Outcomes Registry and Network (BORN Ontario) which is the most robust perinatal registry in the world. This registry collects data on all touchpoints of pregnancy with the health care system and informs maternal-child care for the province of Ontario, population of 14 million.

As a health care executive, Dr Walker holds a Master’s in Health Care Management from Harvard University.  He recently completed his tenure as the Chair and Chief of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Ottawa. He is currently the Vice Dean of Internationalization and Global Health for the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He is also Professor in both the Faculty of Medicine and School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Walker's other leadership roles include chairing the National Society of Investigators for Obstetrics and Gynecology in Canada. He is an influential policy maker in maternal and child health. He was the chair of the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance system for Health Canada as well as the chair of the Maternal Newborn Advisory committee for the province of Ontario for 10 years.  In these roles Dr Walker set health policy and practice improvement at both the provincial and national levels. Most recently, he was asked by the provincial government to co-chair the task force on COVID-19 and pregnancy.