Dr. John Bartlett was a visionary physician-scientist and preeminent authority in infectious diseases whose career spanned more than five decades of groundbreaking medical research and clinical innovation. Born in Syracuse, New York on February 12, 1937, he graduated from Dartmouth College in 1959 and earned his medical degree from SUNY Upstate Medical University in 1963, followed by internal medicine residency training at Harvard-affiliated Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His service in the US Army Medical Corps during the Vietnam War at Saigon's Third Field Hospital proved pivotal, inspiring his decision to specialize in infectious diseases upon his return to civilian life. After further training at UCLA under Sydney M. Finegold, he joined the faculty at Tufts-New England Medical Center before accepting a position at Johns Hopkins University in 1980, where he served as director of the infectious diseases division for 26 years and held the prestigious Stanhope Bayne-Jones Professorship of Medicine.
Dr. Bartlett's seminal research fundamentally transformed infectious disease medicine through his early demonstration of the connection between Clostridium difficile and antibiotic-related colitis, a discovery that revolutionized understanding and treatment of this potentially life-threatening condition. As an early pioneer in HIV/AIDS research during the epidemic's most challenging years, he fearlessly established one of the nation's first comprehensive AIDS clinics at Johns Hopkins Hospital when many institutions refused to treat these patients, developing treatment protocols that became foundational to modern HIV care. His influential textbook series, including Medical Management of HIV Infections now in its 13th edition, has been translated into multiple languages and serves as an essential clinical reference used throughout North America, Africa, and Latin America. The infectious disease program he built at Johns Hopkins became the exemplar of academic clinical care, generating over 100 publications from its extensive patient database while providing exceptional teaching and clinical services.
Beyond his research and clinical contributions, Dr. Bartlett's enduring legacy lies in his extraordinary mentorship of generations of infectious disease specialists, with former trainees uniformly describing his influence with profound admiration and respect. As president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and co-chair of the Department of Health and Human Services HIV Guidelines Panel, he shaped national and international approaches to infectious disease management and policy. His leadership in designing the ARLG mentoring committee established a framework that has provided career development opportunities to more than 45 mentees, fulfilling his vision to cultivate the next generation of clinician-scientists in antibacterial resistance research. When he passed away on January 19, 2021, the medical community lost not only a brilliant researcher but a compassionate clinician who demonstrated unparalleled dedication to his patients during the darkest early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, setting a standard of care and compassion that continues to inspire infectious disease specialists worldwide.
