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Jonathan M. Giftos, M.D.

Jonathan M. Giftos, M.D.

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (General Internal Medicine)

Area of Research: Applying harm reduction principles to clinical care of patients who use drugs; low-threshold treatment of opioid use disorder; managing patients with opioid use disorder in correctional settings

Contact Information

347.443.0444jonathan.giftos@projectrenewal.org

Project Renewal, Inc.
8 East 3rd Street
New York, NY 10003

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Professional Interests

Dr. Jonathan Giftos is the Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Alcohol & Drug Use: Prevention, Care and Treatment at the NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene. In this role, he oversees NYC's investment in public health interventions to reduce drug related harm.

Dr. Giftos's work is broadly focused on improving health care delivery for people who use drugs. This work includes improving care "accessibility" and "acceptability" for people who use drugs, including enhancing low-threshold treatment options; defining and developing a continuum of care that reflects the fluctuating nature of many patient's drug use and recovery; reducing barriers to methadone and buprenorphine for justice-involved patients; and partnering with impacted communities to identify challenges, set priorities and develop strategic plans for meaningful systems change.

Previously, Dr. Giftos served as the Medical Director of Addiction Medicine & Drug User Health at Project Renewal, a non-profit organization that provides health, housing and jobs to people experiencing homelessness. In this role, Dr. Giftos oversaw the clinical care for people who use drugs and/or struggle with addiction at Project Renewal's OASAS-licensed programs, which included a medically supervised withdrawal/stabilization unit, as well as outpatient and residential treatment programs, while also providing clinical support to the primary care doctors and psychiatrists in Project Renewal's Article 28 clinics and mobile medical van. He also provided (and continues to provide) clinical care at Project Renewal's 3rd Street Medical Clinic in the East Village.

Prior to his work at Project Renewal, Dr. Giftos served as the Clinical Director of Substance Use Treatment for NYC Health + Hospitals, Division of Correctional Health Services at Rikers Island, where he oversaw diversion, harm reduction, treatment and reentry services for incarcerated patients with substance use disorders. In this role, he also served as the medical director of the Key Extended Entry Program (KEEP), the nation's oldest and largest jail-based opioid treatment program that provides methadone and buprenorphine to incarcerated patients with opioid use disorders. Dr. Giftos's most important accomplishment while at CHS was leading the effort to remove non-clinical barriers to OTP enrollment in 2017, which dramatically expanded treatment access from 25% to over 80%, while also reducing post-release mortality for people with opioid use disorder.

Dr. Giftos has worked locally and nationally to advocate for expanded access to methadone and buprenorphine for incarcerated patients, and he has partnered with the ACLU and Physicians for Human Rights to advocate for evidence-based treatment for patients with cases before drug courts. In 2016 he partnered with VOCAL-NY and SIF-NYC to organize healthcare workers in support of Safe Consumption Spaces (SCSs) and continues to partner with community based organizations to advocate for humane drug policy. He is a prior board member for St. Ann's Corner of Harm Reduction in the Bronx, and has been honored by VOCAL NY and Corner Project/NYHRE for his ongoing contribution to the harm reduction community. A proud member of Montefiore's Coalition Against Racism, Dr. Giftos is committed to dismantling structural racism in the healthcare system and was a proud co-author of A Letter to Our Patients on Racism, a call to action that has been cosigned by over 3000 medical students and physicians.

Dr. Giftos completed medical school at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2012. While there he was elected to the Gold Humanism Honor Society and the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society, of which he also served as President. He completed residency and chief residency in the Primary Care & Social Internal Medicine Residency Program at Montefiore Medical Center. During his training, he also completed the Harvard Macy Program for Postgraduate Trainees where he developed his skills as a clinician educator. In 2016 he became credentialed as an HIV specialist through the American Academy of HIV Medicine. He remains closely affiliated with Montefiore and the Primary Care & Social Medicine residency program, and previously served as a voluntary attending in the Bronx Transitions Clinic at Montefiore's Comprehensive Health Care Center (CHCC) in the South Bronx. He is board certified in internal medicine (ABIM 2015) and addiction medicine (ABPM 2020).

He can be found on Twitter @JonGiftosMD.

Selected Publications

1. Cheng, A., Badolato, R., Segoshi, A., McDonald, R., Malone, M., Vasudevan, K., Giftos, J ... & Tofighi, B. (2022). Perceptions and experiences toward extended-release buprenorphine among persons leaving jail with opioid use disorders before and during COVID-19: an in-depth qualitative study. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, 17(1), 1-9.

2. Lee JD, Malone M, McDonald R, Cheng A, Vasudevan K, Tofighi B, Garment A, Porter B, Goldfeld KS, Matteo M, Mangat J, Katyal M, Giftos J, MacDonald R. Comparison of Treatment Retention of Adults With Opioid Addiction Managed With Extended-Release Buprenorphine vs Daily Sublingual Buprenorphine-Naloxone at Time of Release From Jail. JAMA Network Open. 2021 Sep 1;4(9):e2123032.

3. Vail, W., Faro, E., Watnick, D., Giftos, J., Fox, A.D. (2021) Does incarceration influence patients' goals for opioid use disorder treatment? A qualitative study of buprenorphine treatment in jail. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 108529.

4. Velasquez M, Flannery, M, Badolato, R, Vittitow, A, McDonald, RD, Tofighi, B, Garment, AR, Giftos, JM, Lee, JD. Perceptions of extended-release naltrexone, methadone, and buprenorphine treatments following release from jail. Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, Volume 14, Article number: 37 (2019)

5. Fox, AD, Jakubowski, A, Giftos, JM. ‘Enhancing Treatment Access and Effectiveness: Toward Patient-Centered Models of Care’, in Wakeman, SE, Kelly, JF (editors) Treating Opioid Addiction, In Press

6. Giftos JM, Tesema, L. When Less is More: Reforming the Criminal Justice Response to the Opioid Epidemic. ABA Judges Journal. Winter Issue, 2018.

7. Giftos JM, Kaba F, Johnson CJ, MacDonald RF. Jail-Based Initiation of Buprenorphine/Naloxone Treatment for Patients with Opioid Use Disorders. Presented as Oral Abstract, AMERSA Annual National Conference. November 2017.

8. Giftos JM, Mitchell A, MacDonald, RF. Medicine & Mass Incarceration: Education and Advocacy in the NYC Jail System. AMA Journal of Ethics (2017), 19(9), 913.

9. A Letter to Our Patients on Racism. Medium. July 2016. (one of 9 original co-authors).

10. Giftos, JM. Community Health Workers: Key to Reducing Disparities in End-of-Life Care. Geripal.org. September 2013.

11. Bloom-Feshbach, K., Casey, D., Schulson, L., Gliatto, P., Giftos, JM., & Karani, R. (2016). Health literacy in transitions of care: an innovative objective structured clinical examination for fourth-year medical students in an internship preparation course. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 31(2), 242-246.

12. McKee, M. D., Fletcher, J., Sigal, I., Giftos, JM., Schechter, C., & Walker, E. A. (2011). A collaborative approach to control hypertension in diabetes: outcomes of a pilot intervention. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health.

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Jonathan M. Giftos, M.D.

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