James Demitrack MD

Education

B.S. (Physics) U.S. Naval Academy 2000, with distinction
M.D. USUHS 2004

Biography

Dr. Demitrack was born in Jamaica, NY, and grew up on Long Island. After high school, he attended the United States Naval Academy, where he served on the honor staff during his last two years. He graduated with distinction in 2000 with a B.S. in Physics, and was accepted for immediate training as a medical officer. He attended the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and graduated in 2004 with an M.D. He completed a pediatric internship at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth in 2005.
From 2005-2008, he served as a General Medical Officer with the 3rd Marine Division in Okinawa, Japan. While there, he completed two deployments to Korea and three to mainland Japan. He earned a Navy/Marine Corps Commendation medal for this tour. He then returned to Portsmouth to complete his residency. He graduated from residency and achieved board certification in Pediatrics in 2010.
From 2010-2013, he served as a staff pediatrician at U.S. Naval Hospital Guam. Despite demanding clinical responsibilities, he performed multiple collateral duties, including Medical Director of the Synagis Program and the Mother-Baby Unit, Chair of the Pharmacy and Therapeutics and Infection Prevention and Control Committees, Joint Medical Attendant Transport Team provider, and Pediatric Advanced Life Support Program Director. His efforts on the Infection Prevention and Control Committee led directly to the awarding of a DOD Patient Safety Award to the command. He was awarded the 2013 Navy Outstanding Young Pediatrician Award for the West Chapter of the Uniformed Services Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics. He also received a second Navy/Marine Corps Commendation medal for his tour in Guam.
From 2013-2015, Dr. Demitrack served as a staff pediatrician at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. His collateral duties included medical advisor for the Naval District Washington Child Development Centers, medical director for the Exceptional Family Member Program, and rotation director for the Community Pediatrics rotation. He was a member of the faculty of the largest Pediatric residency in the military, and taught medical students and residents in the Pediatric clinic, the newborn nursery, and the Pediatric ward. He led a Medical Home team, and served as acting Service Chief of Primary Care Pediatrics for the last four months of his tour. During this tour, he was recognized as an Associate Master Clinician and was awarded both a Joint Services Achievement Medal and a Joint Services Commendation Medal.
From 2015-2018, Dr. Demitrack served as the Head of the Department of Pediatrics at Naval Hospital Okinawa. In this capacity, he led the largest overseas Pediatric department in the Navy, with 28 subordinates, and maintained its recognition as a Level III Medical Homeport. He also served as chair of the Disease Management Committee. In this capacity, he was responsible for clinical standardization as well as population health quality performance standards such as HEDIS and Oryx. As a direct result of his leadership, the command maintained all HEDIS standards within benchmarks and tied for best in the Navy in Acute Condition and Screening HEDIS measures.
From 2018-2021, Dr. Demitrack served as the Chief Medical Officer of Naval Hospital Pensacola. A senior executive leader responsible for all quality and patient safety programs, he ensured the execution and submission of three process improvement projects that were awarded the Department of Defense High Reliability Organization Award. He established a new Medical Corps Officer Career Development Board program, reformed primary care provider peer review processes, designed and implemented a command-wide Visual Management board system, and brought multiple clinical and administrative stakeholders together to design the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Demitrack currently serves as the Officer-In-Charge of U.S. Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Unit Iwakuni, Japan.
Dr. Demitrack is married to the former Yuki Maekawa of Okinawa, Japan. They have two daughters and a son.