John Gill Bartlett (February 12, 1937 – January 19, 2021) was an American physician and medical researcher, specializing in infectious diseases. He is known as a pioneer in HIV/AIDS research^[1][2] and for his work on vancomycin as a treatment for Clostridioides difficile infection.^[3]

Biography

Born and raised in Syracuse, New York, Bartlett graduated from Syracuse's Nottingham High School. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1959 with a bachelor's degree and from Syracuse's State University of New York Upstate Medical University (SUNY Upstate) in 1963 with an M.D.^[1] He did his medical residency in internal medicine at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (affiliated with Harvard Medical School) and at UAB Hospital (affiliated with the University of Alabama at Birmingham). At UAB Hospital, he became interested in cardiology. From 1965 to 1967 he served in the US Army Medical Corps during the Vietnam War.^[2] He was assigned to the Third Field Hospital in Saigon, where he attained the rank of captain.^[1]

During his service in Saigon, Bartlett decided to specialize in the study of infectious diseases. After leaving the US Army, he studied infectious diseases at the UCLA Medical School under the mentorship of Sydney M. Finegold. Bartlett then worked at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center before joining the UCLA Medical School faculty. In 1975, Dr. John G. Bartlett left Los Angeles and accepted a position at Boston's Tufts-New England Medical Center,^[1] where he was mentored by Sherwood Gorbach.^[2]

... John’s research flourished, and he truly exemplified a multidimensional physician-scientist. His initial research was on diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary and abdominal anaerobic infections ... In 1978, John and his collaborators performed definitive studies that proved that Clostridium difficile caused pseudomembranous colitis ... They showed that intercaecal injection of stool from patients with pseudomembranous colitis would induce enterocolitis in hamsters. Furthermore, they were able to isolate Clostridium difficile from the stool of these patients and show that intercaecal injection of the cultured bacteria recapitulated the disease in hamsters ... Diagnostic tests and effective therapy for this disease were eventually developed based on John’s landmark study ...^[2]

In 1980, Bartlett left Boston and accepted a position as the director of Johns Hopkins Medical School's infectious diseases division^[1] and was appointed to the Stanhope Bayne-Jones Professorship of Medicine.^[2]

When Dr. Bartlett arrived in Baltimore, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases had three full-time staff members and a budget of $2,000,000, which grew during his tenure to become one of Hopkins’ largest divisions with 55 faculty members, a staff of 177, and a research budget of $40 million.^[1]

Bartlett arrived at the Johns Hopkins Medical School when the AIDS epidemic was being identified. With the epidemiologist B. Frank Polk, he co-founded the second HIV/AIDS clinic in the United States. Bartlett played a key role in developing AIDS treatment regimens validated in clinical trials.^[1]

The Johns Hopkins University Press published in 1991 The Guide to Living with HIV Infection by Dr. Bartlett and Ann Finkbeiner^[4][5] (with a 6th edition published in 2006). In 2019 Oxford University Press published the 17th edition of Bartlett's Medical Management of HIV Infection,^[2] which was originally published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 1994 under the title Medical Management of HIV Infection.^[1] The earlier editions were co-authored by Dr. Bartlett and Dr. Joel E. Gallant^[6] (including the 2007 edition — but later editions added one or more co-authors). The Bartlett Pocket Guide to HIV/AIDS Treatment, with 19th edition published in 2019,^[2] originally had the title A Pocket Guide to Adult HIV/AIDS Treatment.^[1] Bartlett's Medical Management and the Bartlett Pocket Guide "remain the definitive textbooks on HIV clinical care."^[2] Bartlett, Sherwood Gorbach, and Neil R. Blacklow were co-editors of Infectious Diseases (1st edition, 1992; 2nd edition, 1997; 3rd edition, 2004).^[7]

Bartlett was instrumental in educating the medical community and the general public about the dangers of bioterrorism. He and Donald Henderson were co-authors, along with numerous colleagues, of papers on possible biological weapons such as "smallpox, plague, tularemia, botulism, anthrax, and hemorrhagic fever viruses."^[8] Bartlett was the president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) in 1999.^[9]

In 1999 Bartlett was elected a member of the National Academy of Medicine.^[10] In 2005 he received the Maxwell Finland Award from National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, as well as the Alexander Fleming Award for lifetime achievement from the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

In 2006 he was succeeded as director of the Johns Hopkins Division of Infectious Diseases by David Lee Thomas, M.D., M.P.H.^[2] In 2014 Bartlett retired from the Johns Hopkins Medical School. In 2017, Johns Hopkins Hospital opened the John G. Bartlett Specialty Practice.^[1][11]

He was the author or co-author of "more than 500 original papers, 330 book chapters, and 14 books."^[2]

He is well known for his early discovery of Clostridium difficile as the cause of antibiotic-associated colitis, his insights and treatment of anaerobic abdominal and pulmonary infections, community-acquired pneumonia, bioterrorism, and emerging and reemerging infectious agents, from anthrax to Zika.^[2]

His wife, Joan née Scott, was a registered nurse. She died in October 2020 after 50 years of marriage. Upon his death, Dr. Bartlett was survived by three sons, two daughters, eight grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.^[1]

Selected publications

References