Jon Myers, PhD

Jon (Jonathan N.) Myers, PhD is a Health Research Scientist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, a Clinical Professor (Affiliated) in Cardiovascular Medicine at Stanford University, and a VA Rehabilitation Research & Development (RR&D) Senior Research Career Scientist Award recipient. His work sits at the intersection of exercise physiology, cardiovascular prevention, and real-world outcomes research—translating cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) and lifestyle measurement into clinically actionable risk stratification and rehabilitation strategies. Over decades, Dr. Myers has built and led some of the field’s most influential prospective clinical exercise datasets, including the Veterans Exercise Testing Study (VETS) and the related Exercise Testing and Health Outcomes Study (ETHOS). VETS—begun in 1987—contains detailed clinical and exercise-test data on 10,000+ patients with long-term follow-up (median ~14 years), enabling rigorous epidemiology on the diagnostic and prognostic power of exercise testing, the impact of risk factors, and the health-economic implications of fitness and physical activity patterns (including work exploring “paradox” phenomena such as obesity). Across 30+ years of reporting from these cohorts, his research has repeatedly demonstrated a graded, inverse relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and major chronic disease outcomes, helping inform guideline-level thinking about fitness as a core clinical vital sign. Dr. Myers’ scholarly output is widely recognized for both breadth and impact—his work has been cited more than 71,000 times on Google Scholar. In addition to his original research, he has authored and co-authored major guidelines on exercise testing and rehabilitation for leading professional societies, and he has served in national leadership roles across the AHA, AACVPR, and ACSM, alongside editorial service for nine journals. His contributions have been honored with the AACVPR Michael Pollock Established Investigator Award, the AHA Steven N. Blair Award for excellence in physical activity research, and the 2022 ACSM Citation Award, one of the organization’s most prestigious recognitions for scientific contributions to exercise science and sports medicine. He earned his BA (UC Santa Barbara), MS (San Diego State University), and PhD (University of Southern California), and is a member of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance.