Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
April 26, 2020
Steven Jonas, MD, MPH, MS, FNYAS, FRSM(UK), FAPHA, FNYAM, is a Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at StonyBrookMedicine, Stony Brook University (NY), where he served from 1971 until 2014. He is the author/co-author/editor/co-editor of 36 books on topics ranging from the U.S. health care delivery system and medical education, through regular exercise/ wellness/athletics (multi-sport racing), to politics. He has also published numerous articles and reviews in both the academic and the lay literature on health policy, health and wellness, athletics, and politics. He is himself a triathlete (36 seasons, 256 multi-sport races).
On politics he publishes columns regularly on several websites. He is a “Trusted Author” for OpEdNews.com. He is a regular contributor to Reader Supported News/Writing for Godot; an occasional contributor to buzzflash.com and From The G-Man; and will become the Editor/Publisher of The Planetary Movement when it re-opens. His own political website is this one: stevenjonaspolitics.com. Among other things it will serve as an archive for the columns that he has published on a variety of political websites since 2004. He also posts regularly on Twitter, at https://twitter.com/tpjmagazine and on the Community pages of The Daily Kos.
Dr. Jonas’ latest book is Ending the ‘Drug War’; Solving the Drug Problem: The Public Health Approach, Brewster, NY: Punto Press Publishing, (Brewster, NY, 2016, available on Kindle from Amazon, and also in hardcover from Amazon). His most recent book on US politics is The 15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022: A Futuristic Novel (Trepper & Katz Impact Books, Punto Press Publishing, 2013, Brewster, NY), and available on Amazon.
Eventually, most of the political columns that Dr. Jonas has published over the years will be re-published on this site. They will be organized by the webmagazines on which they were originally published. They will each have key words and a unique URL for this website, which will have its own search engine.
Dr. Jonas received his B.A. from Columbia College in 1958, his M.D. from the Harvard Medical School on 1962, his M.P.H. from the Yale School of Public Health in 1967, and his M.S. in health management from the NYU Wagner School in 1997. He is a widower (Chezna Newman, dec. 2018) and has three children and four grandchildren and one pussycat.
Academic/Political Biography/ Career highlights: STEVEN JONAS, MD, MPH, MS, FNYAS
Dr. Steven Jonas is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Preventive Medicine and the Program in Public Health, School of Medicine, Stony Brook University. Dr. Jonas served in the Department from April, 1971 until January, 2014.
I. EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
He holds a B.A. from Columbia College (1958), an M.D. from the Harvard Medical School (1962), an M.P.H. from the Yale School of Medicine (1967), and an M.S. in Health Management from the Wagner School of New York University (1997). He also studied at the London School of Economics (1964-65) and the Touro College Law Center (1985-86). He interned at the Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City (1962-62) and took his residency in Preventive Medicine/Public Health in the New York City Department of Health (1965-67). He is board certified in Preventive Medicine. During 1967-71, he worked for the City of New York in several capacities, including as Director of Ambulatory Care at the Morrisania City Hospital Affiliation of the Montefiore Medical Center. From April, 1971 until Jan. 3, 2014, Dr. Jonas was Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and then Professor (from 1983) of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook, and from 2004, Professor in the Program in Public Health. He has also held academic positions as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medical Education at the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (1980-85) and an Adjunct Professor of Legal Education at the Touro Law Center (1998-2005).
II. HONORS AND AWARDS
He is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences (elected), the American College of Preventive Medicine, the American Public Health Association, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Royal Society of Medicine (UK). He is a Past President of the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, a past member of the New York State Board for Medicine, and a past Associate Editor of Preventive Medicine (1983-2005). In 1982, he was awarded the Founders’ Medal by the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, University of North Texas (Ft. Worth). In 2006 he received the Duncan Clark Award for lifetime achievement from the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research. In 2008 he received the Faculty Recognition Award of the Graduate Program in Public Health, Stony Brook University. In 2010 he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Yale School of Public Health. In 2011 he received the Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Service, United University Professions, Health Science Center Chapter, Stony Brook University. In 2016 was selected as an Honored Member for the “Top Doctors Honors Edition of Trademark Who’s Who.” In 2019 he received the “Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award” from The Marquis Who’s Who Publications Board. In 2020 he received the “Top Doctor 2020” award form The Global Directory of Who’s Who.
Also, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, in 1958, his biography has appeared annually in Who's Who in America since 1988 and he has been a Mensan since 1988.
III. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS (FOR FURTHER PUBLICATION DETAILS, SEE IV, BELOW)
Being a list of what I consider to be the major achievements of my career, all of them “firsts or among-the-firsts.”
1. Health Care Delivery in the United States (New York: Springer Publishing Co., 1st ed., 1977) of which I was the creator and first editor, was the first comprehensive, multi-author textbook on the US health care delivery system ever published. I was active with the book through the 7th Ed. Since 1999, the book has been known as Jonas & Kovner’s Health Care Delivery in the United States, and will be so known henceforth (11th ed. forthcoming), with my name listed as “Founding Editor.”
2. Medical Mystery: The Training of Doctors in the United States (New York: WW Norton, 1978) was the first book on medical education that proposed organizing its content around the observed health and health care needs and priorities of the people, using student-centered problem-based learning as the primary pedagogical method for delivering that content.
3. “The Springer Series on Medical Education” (New York: Springer Publishing Co.), which I founded in 1980, featured monographs on new developments in medical education. I was the Editor until 2000, and continued as Founding Editor until the series was discontinued by the publisher in 2005. It was known as the only series of its type.
4. Triathloning for Ordinary Mortals (New York: WW Norton, 1986; Updated and Expanded edition, 1999, 20th anniversary 2nd ed., 2006) was the first book on the sport written expressly for novices and purely recreational triathletes. It has been referred to as one of the best-selling triathlon books ever.
5. Regular Exercise: A Handbook for Clinical Practice (New York: Springer Publishing Co., 1995) was the first book designed to educate clinical practitioners on how to effectively provide the exercise prescription to their patients in practice. That book was followed by the second of its type, ACSM’s Exercise is Medicine tm: A Clinician’s Guide to Exercise Prescription (Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2009), the original textbook for the American College of Sports Medicine's national program, “Exercise is Medicine®,” which I co-authored with Dr. Edward Phillips.
6. In my book The “I-Don't-Eat-but-I-Can't-Lose” Weight-Loss Program (co-written with Virginia Aronson, New York: Rawson/Macmillan, 1989), I presented my “diet-induced/low-calorie hypothesis" to partially illuminate the natural history of overweight. At the time I developed it, it was an original contribution to the field of weight management.
7. In my book Take Control of Your Weight (co-written with the Editors of Consumers Reports Books, Yonkers, NY: CRB, 1993) I presented the "Four Pathways" general hypothesis to partially illuminate the natural history of weight-gain/weight-loss. It was also an original contribution to the field of weight management.
8. The first textbook on health-promotion/disease-prevention organized around risk factors rather than diseases, Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Clinical Practice, was published by Williams and Wilkins, (Baltimore, MD: 1996). I was the originator of the concept and organization of the book, and with Steven Woolf, MD as its Editor, I was Associate Editor.
9. I was one of the early creators of the "health care by contract" concept (I termed it the "Personal Health Care System"); first paper: "The Personal Health Care System," New York State Journal of Medicine, 84, 187, 1984. To my knowledge entirely by coincidence, the concept became the basis for the Clinton Health Plan of 1994.
10. I was one of the early developers the “Co-Factor Hypothesis of the Natural History of HIV infection/AIDS.” First paper: "AIDS: An Alternative Scenario," AIDS Forum, Vol. 2, No.2, p. 32, 1989, and then: “Towards a Unified Field Theory of the Pathogenesis of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.” Preventive Medicine, 24, 423-424, 1995.
11. To my knowledge, I was the first developer of the "Comprehensive Public Health Approach to the Drug Problem.” First paper: "Solving the Drug Problem: A Public Health Approach to the Reduction of the Use and Abuse of Both Legal and Illegal Recreational Drugs," Hofstra Law Review, Vol. 18, No. 3, Spring, 1990, p. 751. Most recent treatment in the public health literature was: "The Public Health Approach to the Prevention of Substance Abuse," chapter 79 in Lowinson, J., et al, Eds., Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook, 4th ed., Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2005. What I now call the “Public Health Approach to the Drug Problem” is in my book, Ending the Drug War; Solving the Drug Problem, Brewster, NY: Punto Press, 2016.
12. I was one of the early developers of the "Health at Any Size" approach to dealing with the problem of obesity and health. To my knowledge, Just the Weigh You Are, which I co-authored with Linda Konner (Boston, MA: Chapters/Houghton-Mifflin, 1997, Houghton-Mifflin, 1998; republished under the title Just As You Are, Barnes and Noble Books, Dec. 2000), was the first book-length treatment of the subject.
13. The textbook An Introduction to the U.S. Health Care System is a single-author text designed for use primarily by undergraduates. It was one of the first of its type. For the 3rd ed. of this text in 1992 (New York: Springer Publishing Co.), I was privileged to be invited to succeed the late, great Milton I. Roemer, MD, MPH as the author. The 5th ed. was published in 2003. The 6th ed. (principal authors, Drs. Ray and Karen Goldsteen of the Graduate Program in Public Health, Stony Brook University, myself as Associate Editor) was published in May, 2007. From the 7th edition onwards, authored by the Drs. Goldsteen, the book, the 8th edition of which is published in 2020, is known as Jonas’ An Introduction to the U.S. Health Care System.
14. Duathlon Training and Racing for Ordinary Mortals®: Getting Started and Staying With It. This book, with a chapter from USA-Triathlon, is the first modern book devoted solely to the duathlon (run-bike-run) variant of triathlon. It was published by FalconGuides/Globe Pequot Press in March, 2012.
15. Under the pseudonym "Jonathan Westminster," in 1996 I self-published The 15% Solution: A Political History of American Fascism, 2001-2002. It was re-issued under my own name in 2013 by Trepper & Katz Impact books, an division of Punto Press, as a “third version,” under the title The 15% Solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022: A Futuristic Novel (http://www.puntopress.com/jonas-the-15-solution-hits-main-distribution/ http://www.amazon.com/15%25-Solution-Steve- Jonas/dp/0984026347/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369071141&sr=1-1&keywords=The+15%25+Solution). To my knowledge, the 1996 edition was the first to warn of the developing onslaught of Evangelical Republican Right© in the United States under the leadership of President Trump and the Trumpublicans© in Congress and on the Supreme Court.
It is this set of works that I regard as my 15 principal lifetime professional achievements, all of them, as I noted at the beginning of this review, “firsts or among-the-firsts.”