Christopher Jones (biologist)

Christopher Jones (born 1976) is an American naturalist with a strong interest in health economics, particularly as it applies to improving outcomes and reducing healthcare costs. In early 2003, he presented a report, first to then-British Chancellor Gordon Brown^[1] and then in the House of Commons, that led to policy changes to the maximum allowable number of transferred embryos during the course of a woman's in vitro fertilisation treatment. The Times in London reported that Jones' report induced immediate action by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority^[2] but divided fertility doctors: half viewed this as a good policy from a public health vantage point, the other half viewed the move as over-regulation in personal affairs. Regardless, Jones showed in a co-authored letter that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine that twins are six-times more likely to occur following in vitro fertilisation, compared with natural conceptions, even when only one embryo was implanted.^[3] This led to cost-reductions to the National Health Services of GBP 60 million per year that would otherwise have been spent on ineffective treatments or neonatal intensive care due to excessive numbers of multiple births.^[2] He was appointed director of bilateral collaborations at the Center for Study of Multiple Birth, a non-profit devoted entirely to research into the health of multiples.^[4] Although few had heard of such a trend in 2003, Jones predicted and found that medical tourism and more particularly reproductive tourism away from the United Kingdom, along with an epidemic of multiple births, would be the likely results of fertility regulation.^[5]

Biography

Jones earned a bachelor's degree with distinction in biology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1999, where he studied genetics and chronic disease under the supervision of James V. Neel and evolution in classes taught by Richard D. Alexander.

From 1999, Jones matriculated in Christ Church, Oxford University earning two post-graduate degrees, starting with a Master's in Human Biology. While at Christ Church, he was elected variously to Social Secretary of the Graduate Common Room and Master of the Hawks in the Hood and Bell Club, an ancient society with foundations depicted in a papal sword once gifted to a young Henry VIII, now housed in the Ashmolean Museum. Although its original foundations date from the time of Constantine, Hood and Bell was the secret society upon which newer fellowships including the Cardinals and Skull and Bones were founded. The significance of the name could be a reference to falconry and to lore such as Romulus and Remus and a wolf in sheep's clothing, a Biblical reference. When asked on the significance of Hood and Bell, Jones said "it is so secret, the only thing one can ever reveal is its address, 434", believed in modern times to refer to Forty Three Pall Mall, London, adjoining the Army and Navy Club, to the number of letters in each word of Hood and Bell, or, more abstractly, as some have suggested, a nod to talons: eagles and falcons have three talons in the front and one in tow. Regardless, a number of enlightened thinkers such as John Locke and John Ruskin were Hood and Bellsmen. Since 1791, the society is said to have been a bridge between the love of falconry and broad curiosity.

From 2002 to 2005 Jones was president of Oxford's controversial banking forum. This forum brought international financial services leaders from around the world to discuss frank academic issues. Attendees included Nobel Laureate Robert Mundell, inventor of the currency known as the Euro. During the Oxford years, Jones won a fellowship from the Bertarelli Foundation in Switzerland, created by Ernesto Bertarelli and Donna Bertarelli Spaeth, to develop a cost-effective framework of fertility treatment that would preserve the dignity of human life. After earning his doctorate in health economics/medical sciences from Oxford, he became a junior faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.

Jones grew up in Gilford, New Hampshire to a family of early New England settlers on both sides (Jones and Tabor). His grandfather Art Jones was stationed as a U.S. Naval officer in Newfoundland. His grandfather's family came from Waitsfield, Vermont. Art was born in New Hampshire however to a military family and played minor league baseball in Penacook. Chris' great-great-grandfather, Horace Austin Warner "HAW" Tabor, of Hungarian extraction, hailed from Holland Vermont (as did his first wife and Mayflower descendant, Augusta Pierce), but left stonecutting and the East Cost snow to become the legendary silver baron, senator and first lieutenant governor of Colorado. HAW was a republican, anti-slavery advocate, and benefactor to the arts. The Tabor Opera House was once the largest theatre west of the Mississippi. It attracted the likes of Oscar Wilde.

Patron of the arts

Jones has from time to time raised funds for his friends in the scientific and bohemian communities, to launch projects of profound artistic, scientific and intellectual merit. In 2000, with co-inventors Erik Westerman and Ozzie Johnston (son of The Beach Boys legend Bruce Johnston), Jones invented BUYTV^[6] the first mechanism to allow cable viewers to purchase goods and services through their television set, using a set top box. In 2008 Jones assisted his Motown friends to market the Martin Luther King Feature Film in the Gulf, starting in Dubai. Jones led Motown legend Mark Davis, producer of Let's Get It On and the soundtrack to the film Animal House to a meeting with His Royal Highness Sheikh Saud of Ras El Khaimeh. In 2009 Jones led a British television delegation to visit His Royal Highness Sheikh Abdulla bin Hamad in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Jones was married in France at Chateau du bas-Miniac, his wife's childhood country home.

Inventor

With another inventor and colleague, Jones owns a United States Patent for a novel way of freezing specimens,^[7] particularly mammalian embryos, and he continues to invent and license products to medical and conservation initiatives. He once joked with Edward DeBono that his cryogenic invention could create a market for "Faberge Embryos".

Predictive modeling

In 2010, Jones and his team of researchers published a paper describing a virtual tool to predict infertile women's chances of taking home a healthy baby, to an accuracy of 80%. Whereas previously researchers could only provide chances of pregnancy, this take-home baby calculator presents results in terms of a healthy baby who survives 27 days of life. By creating this software, Jones essentially created a novel business model, namely the translation of esoteric population-based data into meaningful recommendations to individual, data-savvy beneficiaries.

Translator of population-based statistics

Jones was one of the early researchers to link reproductive biology to economics, arriving in 1999 at something called health economics which had been in development for nearly twenty years but which as a field of natural science, remains in its infancy. He made headlines in investor news with the launch of his online take-home baby calculator called For My Odds.

Media

Jones was in the news^[8] following his efforts to promote awareness of medical tourism,^[9] a trend whereby individuals from developed countries seek superior or bargain medical treatments outside of their home country, and in locations that are either more affordable or more equipped with specialised care.

Diplomacy

Jones has remained non-political but rather diplomatic, viewing global harmony as one of the most important challenges of the next century. While he was born in Washington D.C. and has contributed funds to campaigns from New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to President Barack Obama, he has spent half of his life overseas, and has "half [his] mind in Europe". This has led him to bring to the U.S. certain aspects of health economics that work in international settings, and advocate for a renewed foreign policy towards global harmony; that is, improving the health and wellbeing of people and families around the globe so that they can thrive with dignity and economic opportunities. In Paris, he was asked to be co-Founder of the UNESCO sponsored World Academy for New Thinking, an initiative founded in Malta by Edward DeBono. His love for connecting individuals who share unusual interests has led to the creation of several well known brands. His banking forum established a new form of academic-industry-government collaboration, leading inter alia to what is now called CapitOx, Oxford's fast-growing finance and actuarial society.

Teacher

Dr. Jones has joined the faculty of the University of Vermont College of Medicine where he will teach Health Economics from January 2012.

Father

A European traveler and avid horseman, Dr. Jones resides in Vermont with his wife Victoria Brassart-Jones and their daughters, Johanna and Lys.

References