Meet the Snow Canyon Clinic Neurology Staff

Snow Canyon Clinic: Neurology: Staff - Dr. Gary L. Jones

Dr. Jones

Snow Canyon Clinic Neurology Staff

Gary L. Jones, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Jones was the first private practice clinical neurologist to practice full time in Southern Utah, arriving in 1991. In 1998 he founded Snow Canyon Clinic (SCC), whose principle mission is to provide for medical expertise and technology not otherwise available in Southern Utah. Under Dr. Jones' direction, SCC brought the "first" PET-CT scanner to Utah. PET (positron emission tomography)-CT (computerized tomography) is a fusion of technology that enables the most advanced cancer diagnostic capability in history. It is also useful in Alzheimer's disease diagnosis and response to treatment, seizure focus identification, and other applications. SCC was also responsible for bringing the first high resolution MRI to Southern Utah, and has "pushed" to be first in many other areas, because the need was simply not being met by major health care organizations. When stroke therapeutics entered it's modern era, with the introduction of "tissue plasminogen activator" (TPA), a clot dissolving drug, Dr. Jones treated more stroke patients with this clot dissolver than any other physician in Utah, for the first year (statistics from Genentech). Thus, Dr. Jones ussured into use TPA for acute stroke in Utah, advancing stroke therapeutics immeasurably.

Dr. Jones studied chemistry as an undergraduate in Arizona and earned his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Utah. His Ph.D. is in pharmacology (mechanisms of drug action, drug discovery and development, etc.), and he undertook a two year post doctoral fellowship in this field, before attending medical school. Upon completion of medical school he undertook a residency program in neurology at the University of Utah, after which he became Board Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and has remained Board Certified continuously since.

Dr. Jones has eight years of academic experience at the Assistant and Associate Professor level, serving in the Pharmacology, Pathology and Biology Departments at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, prior to returning to Utah. Dr. Jones has contributed significantly to research in epilepsy, stroke, and sickle cell disease. He is currently engaged in the development of an Alzheimer's disease research program. Further, he has worked tirelessly in theoretical efforts to achieve a better understanding of the electronic and energetic nature of natural and synthetic organic molecules, especially as they relate to the study of drug action.

Dr. Jones has published numerous articles in the peer reviewed scientific literature, and has been the invited author of numerous chapters and reviews. He owns several patents. He belongs to numerous professional organizations, and has made frequent contributions. For example, he is a member, attends and contributes to the American Academy of Neurology, the Epilepsy Society of America, the American Stroke Association, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the American Society for Pharmacognosy, the American Chemical Society, the American Heart Association, and the American College of Chest Physicians.

While Dr. Jones has dedicated his life to clinical neurology since arriving in Southern Utah in 1991, he continues to maintain a research laboratory, at Snow Canyon Clinic. He founded and owns a private small molecule drug discovery company, Hamit-Darwin-Freesh, Inc., on the Snow Canyon Clinic campus. He has also founded and is developing alternative health care delivery models, an example being HealthForceOne, Inc..

In patient care Dr. Jones believes that the "time" spent with your patient is often more valuable, in a therapeutic sense, than just about anything else we, as physicians, can offer. A patient's participation in his or her illness, along with the physicians' efforts, will amplify the efficacy of just about any therapeutic transaction; and patient education (of which Dr. Jones is an avid believer and participant) must play a major role. This means that physicians need to spend more time with their patients. Leisure time might find Dr. Jones restoring and driving Studebakers, or in competitive rifle matches.