John Bartlett: Appreciation & Celebration

When I was 6-years-old I wrote a letter to Roy Rogers, the cowboy star of movies and television, asserting that I was his biggest fan. That was the first and only fan letter I ever wrote. When I was invited to speak at a Festschrift for John Bartlett, I quickly replied, “I am much honored to be asked to be part of your proposed celebration of John. I can’t think of anyone in our discipline who has given more or is more deserving of celebration. Thanks for asking me to be part of this wonderful tribute. Others may know John better than I, but I doubt that anyone holds him in higher regard.” One can consider what follows as my second go at fan mail. I think I was given this privilege because, although I know John and have partnered with him for Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) presentations and committee service, I have enough distance to be objective, so you can be confident that everything I am about to say is true. Also, I have been around long enough to have been able to observe John throughout the entirety of his distinguished career. I have the perspectives of distance, time, and age. John (Figure 1) is a unique figure in American medicine. Consider this: what other person can you name who could draw to a Festschrift as distinguished and diverse a group as Drs Anthony Fauci, Sherwood Gorbach, D. A. Henderson, and Brad Spellberg? And consider this: What other academic has reinvented himself as many times as John has? He has an unusual ability to shift gears, take up a new issue, and become a leader in the new arena. Very few individuals become known as a world expert in a single area; John is internationally recognized as a leader in at least 6. He began by defining for us the important roles played by anaerobes in a variety of human infections and by providing exquisite descriptions of the clinical pictures of these infections. Then, in a series of elegant experiments and clinical studies, he showed us that C. difficile was the cause of antibiotic-related colitis. He is an authority regarding community-acquired pneumonia and other respiratory tract infections. When the AIDS epidemic hit, John jumped in with both feet along with his heart and brain, established a model care program, and became a leading educator and guideline developer for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). After the anthrax bioterrorism episode in 2001, he helped awaken the medical community about anthrax and other bioterrorism threats. Furthermore, he has been a driving force in getting both the medical community and policymakers to understand the potential devastation that inevitably attends increasing antibiotic resistance. John has reinvented himself more times than the pop singer Madonna. Figure 1. John Bartlett, 2008.