Biography

Dr. John Irons, a founder of the Bethesda Allergy & Asthma Clinic, has been recognized by his colleagues in the Washingtonian Magazine as one of Washington, D.C. area’s “Top Doctors” and the Bethesda Magazine has chosen him Bethesda’s “Best Allergist”.

He is certified by the American Board of Allergy and Immunology. Dr. Irons offers his patients the vast knowledge and experience that come from his many years working with patients in a private practice setting. His caring demeanor and personal style come across in every patient visit. He takes the extra time to get to know each patient as a person, outside of their allergies (Are you a runner? Do you love to garden? How do your allergies hold you back?), which helps him customize treatment options to fit each person’s lifestyle.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, Dr. Irons received his formal medical training at the Marquette Medical School (now the Medical College of Wisconsin) in Milwaukee. He then completed two years of general pediatric training at the Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center and the University of Chicago, in Chicago.

His two-year allergy and immunology specialty training and research fellowship was then completed under the mentoring of one of the most highly respected and most often-published leaders in allergy, Dr. Roy Patterson at the Northwestern University Medical School, also in Chicago. Here he not only diagnosed and treated very complex allergy and asthma problems, but he also researched, among other things, the helpful changes that happen to the immune system as a person receives allergy injection treatment. He then spent two years as Chief of the Allergy Section of the Department of Internal Medicine at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center (WBAMC) in El Paso, Texas.

Prior to founding the Bethesda Allergy & Asthma Clinic, Dr. Irons spent 17 years as an allergist with the Oklahoma Allergy Clinic, a highly-regarded private practice in Oklahoma City, where he practiced among a team of nine allergists. He was also an Associate Clinical Professor of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

In 1994 after his three sons left Oklahoma for the East Coast for college (Swarthmore, Boston College, and Skidmore) Dr. Irons and his wife Connie relocated to Bethesda to found their own practice, closer to their children (and eventually their grandchildren!).