Introduction to the Guest Editor

Scott R. Steele, MD, MBA, FACS, FASCRS, FPSCRS

Dr. Jonathan Abelson is a Staff Colon and Rectal Surgeon at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, MA. He was born and raised in Scarsdale, NY, in the suburbs of New York City—being the youngest of three boys. He comes from a long line of dentists, and while his oldest brother is a Rabbi, his paternal grandfather, both parents, and middle brother are all in the field. Jon attended the University of Pennsylvania for undergraduate, where he studied Bioengineering, and was a 4-year starter for the Men's Varsity Soccer team and Captain his senior year. He then took 2 years off to work in health care consulting before going to medical school at University of Virginia. He then returned to New York for his General Surgery Residency at Weill Cornell Medical Center on the upper east side of Manhattan. During this time, he spent two years performing dedicated colorectal surgery research under the mentorship of Drs. Heather Yeo and Jeffrey Milsom. He also served as the Administrative Chief Resident in his final year of residency. He then completed his Colorectal Surgery fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, prior to going to Lahey, where he has practiced ever since.

Jon is a busy clinical surgeon and loves the relationships that he forms with patients and their family—especially respectful of the intimate relationships based on mutual trust. He remarks, “In Colorectal Surgery we are offered an amazing opportunity to surgically intervene and immediately improve someone's quality of life or provide life-saving treatment. I also enjoy learning and mastering the technical aspects of the wide range of procedures we perform.” His clinical and research interests are in colorectal cancer, and he enjoys the multimodal approach to rectal cancer and the evolution in how to treat these patients. He has multiple peer-reviewed publications and has given multiple lectures regionally and nationally in our field.

He and his wife have two sons (Cole and Levi). His wife, Sarah Berkley, works in wellness consulting, and they have a dog named Foster who they adopted in St. Louis. Outside of medicine he enjoys exercising and long bike rides, as well as cooking all types of cuisine for his family. He has also more recently become interested in growing a vegetable garden and composting.

On a personal note, it has been wonderful to watch him evolve from a surgical resident into an emerging thought-leader in Colorectal Surgery in such a rapid time. On behalf of the readers and staff of Clinics in Colon and Rectal Surgery, I want to sincerely thank Dr. Abelson for serving as a Guest Editor and for providing us with an incredible issue on Endoluminal Surgery.

Publication History

Article published online:
17 July 2023