Joseph F. John, Jr, MD

---

“Tell me about yourself and how we have come to meet here,” Dr. John welcomes new patients to his practice at Lowcountry Infectious Diseases. He has practiced infectious diseases and internal medicine for almost 50 years, specialties that still command his respect and passion. A cum laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame and a quarterback himself back in high school in Western Pennsylvania, there is no way to pull him away from Saturday college football. His other competing interests include the music of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Chopin, settling down to the weekly edition of The New Yorker, and still swinging the tennis racquet or golf club.

Yet, it is the world of infectious diseases and microbiology that serve the ultimate challenge to Dr. John as a clinician, researcher and educator. His interest in infectious diseases began during his residency at Rush Medical Center in Chicago where he met the then giants in infectious diseases. During his fellowships in infectious diseases at the University of Rochester and subsequently at the Medical University of South Carolina, he began a lifelong study of antibiotic use and antimicrobial resistance, now a worldwide problem. He learned the value of having generous models of mastery in infectious disease as he evolved, physicians like Stuart Levin in Chicago, Gordon Douglas in Rochester, Ronald Nahass in New Jersey and particularly Edmund Farrar in Charleston.

These teachers and colleagues encouraged his interests in emerging infectious diseases including hospital infections, staphylococcal infections, HIV, tuberculosis, and chronic fatigue syndrome. The innovators and many other scholarly colleagues have helped Dr. John author or coauthor nearly 100 peer-reviewed articles in a wide variety of medical journals.  Dr. John feels very fortunate to have had broad experience as Professor of Medicine and Microbiology, as a federal-funded researcher, as an Associate Chief of Staff for Education at the Charleston VA Medical Center, as a principal investigatory for clinical trials, as Associate Editor for nearly 30 years for Infectious Disease Alert and as a valued infectious diseases consultant. Those experiences are what he brings to bear to a personalized practice of infectious diseases and to the problems of his patients, Dr. John wants to bring this unique background to every encounter with new and returning patients. Patients who come to that patient-physician experience can expect Dr. John to share medical decisions, rely on evidenced-based diagnosis and therapy, seek counsel from his valued colleagues at Lowcountry Infectious Diseases and utilize the humanities and humor to maximize his patient’s experience.

Dr. John and his wife Anne have raised three grown children, two sons and a daughter, all of whom, as Dr. John proudly says, live in the same zip code. Anne and Joe share time with their children and with each other to play tennis, travel, read, watch Boston Celtic basketball and experience the whole of life around them. The family enrich each other’s lives with a diversity of enterprises and interests. They all enjoy the Charleston experience and the spirit of the Lowcountry, a spirit and a hope that  Dr. John strives to bring to all his patients.