Strauss Announces Run for Coroner
Practicing physician Dr. Michael Strauss has announced his candidacy for Putnam County coroner in the Nov. 3 election.
In the last two elections for this office, incumbents ran unopposed.
Strauss completed his medical education in Belgium in 1980, then practiced internal medicine at the New York Eye & Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai where he served as director of the Department of Medicine and as chief medical officer.
Later, Strauss began a practice of internal medicine at a residential shelter for men in New York City, where he developed expertise in the care of disadvantaged patients – many of whom were challenged with addiction.
He moved to Putnam Valley in 2020. While continuing to practice internal medicine, Strauss trained to become an emergency medical technician, and now volunteers as an EMT with the Putnam Valley Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
Strauss is running for the office of coroner because the community is “facing ever increasing challenges to our mental and physical health,” he said, adding that there is “an enormous potential for the coroners, in addition to doing their usual work, to help us respond to those challenges.”
“Taking what the coroners learn during their investigations and bringing that knowledge back into the community and applying it to improving our healthcare system should be part of the coroner’s role,” he said. “And there are many ways to do that.”
According to Strauss, the coroner should initiate direct dialogue with the community about the threats that face it and how to respond, and “an educated and informed community can better protect itself and advocate for itself.”
“The same applies to assisting policymakers in making better healthcare-related decisions for us,” he said. “Given their knowledge, coroners could help in the crafting of legislation, and that legislation would make better sense and work better than what we have now.”
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