TopVet: John Mitas, M.D./Teaching Doc

John A. Mitas II, M.D., has been appointed deputy executive vice president and chief operating officer of the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP-ASIM), the nation’s largest medical specialty society and second-largest medical group. Its membership comprises more than 115,000 internal medicine physicians and medical students. Internists are specialists in the prevention, detection and treatment of illnesses that primarily affect adults. He will join the college staff on July 1, 2002.

A Fellow of the organization, Dr. Mitas has been an active member and leader of ACP-ASIM. He served on the ACP Ethics Committee and as ACP Governor for the U.S. Navy region from 1991 to 1995, during which time he increased the number of ACP-ASIM Fellows from 19 to 101, established an annual meeting for the region, and initiated the Navy Governor’s Award for clinical and academic excellence. He received an ACP Laureate award for his leadership of the ACP Navy region.

Dr. Mitas has served in a variety of leadership positions and has had a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy. From 1998-2000 he served as the commanding officer of the USNS Comfort, one of the Navy’s two 1,000-bed surgically intensive hospital ships. He also served as the commanding officer and CEO of the U.S. Naval Hospital in Keflavik, Iceland.

Dr. Mitas served two terms as the specialty advisor for internal medicine to the Surgeon General of the Navy, and was on the board of directors of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, an academic medical center with 3,000 employees, where he was responsible for the training and readiness of 2,000 military personnel and the development of a disaster preparedness plan, including treatment of victims of terrorist acts.

Dr. Mitas, from Fairfax Station, Virginia, had served most recently as the medical director of the DynPort Vaccine Company in Frederick, Maryland, a biotechnology company that develops vaccines for the prevention of illness from potential biological weapons or bioterrorism.

A board-certified internist, nephrologist, and geriatrician, Dr. Mitas is a member of the American College of Physician Executives, the American Medical Association, the American Society of Nephrology and the International Society of Nephrology, the Society of Medical Consultants to the Armed Forces, and the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society. Dr. Mitas received his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, completed an internship at the naval hospital in San Diego, and was a resident in internal medicine at Naval Regional Medical Center in San Diego. He completed a fellowship in nephrology at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine and Naval Regional Medical Center. Dr. Mitas is pursuing his MBA in medical services management at Johns Hopkins University. He and his wife, Rosalind T. Roux, have three children.