Jonathan S. Abelson, MD, MS

Scott R. Steele, MD, MBA, FACS, FASCRS, FPSCRS (Hon.),

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, New York, in the suburbs of New York City—being the youngest of three boys. He comes from a long line of dentists, and while his eldest brother is a Rabbi, his paternal grandfather, both parents, and middle brother are all in the field. Jon attended the University Pennsylvania for undergraduate, where he studied Bioengineering, and was a 4-year starter for the Men's Varsity Soccer team and Captain in his senior year. He then took 2 years off to work in healthcare 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 in the upper east side of Manhattan. During this time, he spent 2 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. 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 is researching shared decision-making in patients with locally advanced colorectal cancer, especially those who have completed total neoadjuvant therapy (TNT) and have a complete response. He is funded through both Lahey and ASCRS to continue this work. He has multiple peer-reviewed publications and have given multiple lectures regionally and nationally in our field.

He and his wife have two young sons (Cole and Levi). His wife, Sarah Berkley, works in wellness consulting, and they have a dog named Foster whom they adopted in St. Louis. Outside of medicine he enjoys exercising and long bike rides (and recently completed his first Pan Mass Challenge that benefits the Dana Farber Cancer Institute), as well as cooking all types of cuisine for his family.

On a personal note, Jon continues to excel at about everything he does, and I was delighted he agreed to contribute again as a guest editor. 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 Shared Decision-Making in Colorectal Surgery.

Publication History

Article published online:
22 December 2025