Ontario’s Anesthesiologists’ Distinguished Service Award

Do you know an Ontario anesthesiologist who goes Beyond the Mask to provide significant service to our profession? Consider nominating them for Ontario’s Anesthesiologists' Distinguished Service Award! Presented during the Ontario Anesthesia Meeting, our Distinguished Service Award is the highest honour our organization can bestow.

Our Distinguished Service Award recognizes anesthesiologists who have provided significant service to the promotion of anesthesiology and/or its respective subspecialties in the Province of Ontario by having had an active role in:

• Clinical Service or Excellence

• Administrative and Leadership

• Education and Teaching

• Research and Scientific Work

• Humanitarian and Altruism

To be eligible for nomination, the candidate must be an anesthesiologist who has been an active member in good standing in the Section on Anesthesiology in the OMA for a minimum of 10 years.

Nominations are now closed for 2024.

2024 Distinguished Service Award Recipient

Dr. Jonathan Hooper from the Ottawa Hospital

If you are an anesthesiologist who has have worked in or around Ottawa, you are likely familiar with Dr. Jonathan Hooper, better known as Jon.

A true local, Dr. Hooper grew up and completed medical training in Ottawa. He initially interned as a general practitioner in Newfoundland before heading north to work as a locum in such remote communities as Fort Simpson, in the Northwest Territories, and what is now called Iqaluit. It was while up north that Dr. Hooper realized that if he wanted to continue helping patients in isolated areas, he needed to better develop his resuscitation skills, so he embarked on an anesthesia residency at Dalhousie University.

After taking a year off to volunteer in Ethiopia, Dr. Hooper completed his residency, and then a fellowship that focused mostly on thoracic and vascular anesthesia before returning to Ottawa for a critical care fellowship. Since then, he has been on staff at The Ottawa Hospital for over 30 years, where his quiet confidence has gained the respect and admiration of countless colleagues and patients.

A Leader in Clinical Excellence & Advancement

Described as the “go-to anesthesiologist, regardless of the case,” Dr. Hooper is acclaimed by his colleagues for his ability to manage complex cases with excellent judgment, provide calmness in chaos and reflect on challenging cases with a critical but balanced perspective.

Driven by a passion for delivering the highest quality front-line clinical care, Dr. Hooper has developed expertise in several clinical areas including complex vascular, ultrasound-guided regional and point-of-care ultrasound, to name just a few. His extensive skills and knowledge have earned him the admiration of many, but perhaps more impressive is his humble and unassuming manner and his willingness to always assist a colleague.

Dr. Hooper has proven himself to be an influential player not only within The Ottawa Hospital’s anesthesia department but also the Civic Campus’ Intensive Care Unit and Department of Critical Care, where he has also held leadership positions. That influence can also be felt beyond Ottawa. For example, he is a proven innovator in critical care as the co-founder of The Ottawa Hospital's RACE team, the first critical care Outreach team in Canada. These teams are now the medical standard for most hospitals.

Thanks in part to his roles in the anesthesia and critical care departments, Dr. Hooper has helped to foster tremendous collaboration between these two groups, bringing a wealth of insight to both areas. He is well known for visiting his colleagues’ rooms and is always up for discussing even the most complex cases.

A true example of what a leader should be, Dr. Hooper naturally has a solution-seeking, team-oriented attitude that makes him a pleasure to work alongside. As a result, he has the skills and the respect needed to gently challenge any plan he believes is not the best for his patient.

But most critically, Dr. Hooper is known for managing his patients with gentle kindness and respect. Perhaps the greatest recognition of Dr. Hooper’s skills, and the respect his colleagues give him, is that they would choose him to look after their loved ones or even themselves.  

A Leader in Teaching

It should come as no surprise that Dr. Hooper has contributed immensely to the teaching of medical students, anesthesia residents, and vascular anesthesiology and intensive care fellows. His roles in this area have included assistant professor and lecturer at the University of Ottawa’s anesthesia program, acting as the Vascular Fellowship Lead and many more. He was also the recipient of the Ottawa Anesthesia Department’s Clinical Teacher of the Year award.

As someone whose purpose is high-quality patient care, Dr. Hooper understands the importance of creating a learning environment that is welcoming, inspiring, and also a little challenging. His teaching style has been described by his peers as one that is unparalleled and that inspires excellence in clinical care and continued learning. He is known for interspersing his teachings with stories of his patients and his experiences, and always being available to review a case or debrief a trainee.

His trainees consistently report exceptional learning experiences with him and note how his calm presence and mentoring, even during challenging cases, resulted in learnings that have stayed with them for their entire medical careers. Dr. Hooper has also been credited with inspiring more than a few young anesthesiologists to pursue vascular anesthesiology and critical care because of his kind mentorship.

Leader in Humanitarian Work & Altruism

Dr. Hooper’s impact extends far beyond Ottawa. In 1986, he took his first of three trips to Ethiopia. This was just after the height of the Ethiopian famine, and Dr. Hooper spent the following year living in a mud hut while providing rural Ethiopians with much-needed health care.   

Since then, he’s participated in at least another dozen humanitarian missions, where he’s worked with such organizations as Interplast and ReSurge International. Dr. Hooper’s roles on these trips included leading the anesthetic care teams and training young anesthesiologists in countries such as Ghana, Peru, and Bangladesh.

Dr. Hooper’s altruistic nature has also left its mark on Ottawa and in particular, the Ottawa Race Weekend. For over two decades, he has served as the race director for the marathon and has collected enough experience and wisdom to make him one of the country’s, if not one of the world’s, leading marathon managers.

We also need to recognize the significant impact he and his wife Sindy have had on improving the lives of Canadian pancreatic cancer patients. In 2013, Sindy, an avid triathlete, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She went on to become one of Canada’s longest living pancreatic cancer patients and completed an Ironman Canada only nine months after her Whipple surgery, while on chemotherapy. Sadly, Sindy passed away on Friday, September 13, 2024.

The couple have been very public about Sindy’s fight against pancreatic cancer and they have used that openness, as well as their shared love for triathlons and running, to raise over half-a-million dollars for pancreatic cancer research. Dr. Hooper plans to continue that tradition, and is organizing a memorial run in his wife’s honour on November 9, 2024.

In May, Dr. Hooper wrapped up his impressive career and is now spending a well-deserved retirement with his sons and their dog Lexey. 

We thank Dr. Hooper for his distinguished service to the profession. We congratulate his many outstanding achievements and are thrilled to honour his work with our 2024 Distinguished Service Award.

Past Recipients