Biographic Information on Dr. Synonymous

Dr. Synonymous is written by A. Patrick Jonas, MD ABFM.
Someone asked for some information to introduce me, A. Patrick Jonas, MD, for a presentation.  I started to make a few notes, then noticed that it was a bit long.  So I wrote a shorter version and then an even shorter version.  Here are all three sets of information.  I decided to post it on the blog so those who are interested can read it and most can ignore it.  Believe it or not, I left out a lot.

Brief option for introduction:  Dr. Jonas is a Family Physician with a vast array of experience, including about 190,000 patient encounters.  He's still having fun.

Short option on the introduction:  Local origins to West Point to Vietnam flying helicopters to OSU COM to Penn State for Family Medicine training to practice in Granville adding college health and sports medicine at Denison U before a full time faculty stint at OSU then Kettering Medical Center as Director of Family Medicine Education followed by another private practice in Beavercreek from 1999 to present, with the addition of Open Arms Health Clinic in Bellbrook.  Still having fun as a Family Physician. And a social media geezer.  And picking the banjo and playing the didgeridoo.

My background longer form:

I'm a Holistic Family Physician and Scholar practicing in Beavercreek in Family Health Connections, Inc., a practice that I own, and the Free Clinic in Bellbrook- Open Arms Health Clinic - in which I'm Medical Director and Board President of the all-volunteer 2 year old adventure (now also supported by volunteer members of AED).

I grew up in Liberty, a town of about 80 people, counting dogs and cats, eight miles west of Downtown Dayton, went to Jefferson Township High School, then graduated from West Point in 1968 followed by Army Ranger, Airborne and Rotary Wing Aviator schools and a free trip to Vietnam where I flew helicopters supporting the Army Corps of Engineers (which was my Army Branch).  After two years as an aviator and small unit commander at Ft. Riley, KS, I went to OSU College of Medicine on the three year track in the class of 1976.  Chocolate then called me to do my Family Medicine Residency in Hershey, PA at the M. S. Hershey Med Center of Penn State University.  The Three Mile Island nuclear reactor partial melt-down helped with our decision to come back to Ohio to practice in Granville, home of Denison University, for 11 years.

Private practice, clinical precepting at the OSU Department of Family Medicine weekly, doing college health and sports medicine for Denison- where I was Medical Director of the health center and Head Team Physician for 11 years -  was followed by full time faculty status at OSU in 1990 to restructure the Department of Family Medicine when regimes changed.  We succeeded so well that OSU was named one of the top five primary care med schools in the nation two years in a row by US News.  OSU was so surprised that they dismantled the leadership of the department in 1994 and I came to Kettering Medical Center to develop Family Medicine Training affiliated with Wright State.

When regimes changed there, I started the current practice in Beavercreek and picked up an array of holistic skills which complement traditional Family Medicine, including Reiki, Aromatherapy, Reflexology, Holistic Chair Massage, Non Directive Imagery, Neurolinguistic Programming, Sound Attunement Therapy, and others.

For 35 years, I've been a Family Fanatic, still owning the only practice in Ohio that only takes families.  Yes, the whole household signs up, making the Human Genome a daily activity in my practice - and now we're playing with the Microbiome.  And we have fun. 

Halfway through helicopter training, I was smart enough to marry a mid 1969 UD graduate who I knew since the eighth grade.  We have three sons, two of whom are physicians- a hospitalist at Ohio State and a Medical Faculty at UNC in Chapel Hill, NC who is director of their Center for Evidence Based Practice and member of a pharmacogenomics research team.  The oldest son does billing, coding and business activities in my practice which my wife coordinates.

I pick the banjo, write songs, sing in the church choir and just started to lead the men's group at the Bellbrook United Methodist Church. I was named one of the top 20 Family Physicians on Twitter by Medical Economics Online.  I am a social media geezer with two blogs, a weekly internet radio show, four facebook pages, and a few YouTube videos of some of my songs.

I'm also active in medical leadership having served as the President of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians and currently as the Greene County Delegate to the Ohio State Medical Association House of Delegates.  I'm rounding out with a state and national leadership role in Direct Primary Care, a business model that eliminates 40% of the cost of overhead for primary care physicians, giving them back the dream of serving patients in a way that both patient and doctor deserve.

I'm still having fun, and you can have fun, too. I care deeply for my patients.  I get to laugh daily and cry weekly.  (How much you care is how much you can hurt).

I love what I get to be and do.