Charles Watts, MD

Charles Watts, MD, has held a number of clinical and administrative leadership positions within Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH) and at two renowned academic medical centers, Northwestern and the University of Michigan.

Dr. Watts served as a Director of Providence Health and Services, chairing its Quality and Patient Safety ImprovementCommittee from 2012 through 2016. He was a Trustee of Swedish Health Services until June 2017, when he accepted an appointment as interim Chief Medical Officer, serving in that capacity until 2019. Dr. Watts was appointed to the ISB Board upon the 2016 ISB-PSJH affiliation and became Chair of the Board in 2019.

Dr. Watts served as Chief Medical Officer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University from 2001 to 2011. He directed the quality and patient safety programs and was responsible for oversight and support of the clinical programs at NMH.

Prior to his tenure at Northwestern, Dr. Watts served as Chief of Clinical Affairs and Associate Dean at the University of Michigan Medical Center. While at Michigan, he was Medical Director of Critical Care and actively involved in a number of multi-center critical care research projects including the Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome Network and the development and implementation of the APACHE score, a nationally used tool for measuring the severity of illness and predicting outcomes in critically ill patients. 

Dr. Watts has served as an Executive in Residence for the Health Management Academy and as an active faculty member of a national Physician Leadership Program. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Accelerate Diagnostics Inc. and of Biodesix Inc.

Dr. Watts received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Michigan. His research interests have included severity of illness adjustment and outcome prediction in the ICU, acute respiratory distress syndrome, quality improvement and patient safety.