{"id":9974,"date":"2021-01-24T08:24:37","date_gmt":"2021-01-24T13:24:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=9974"},"modified":"2024-04-28T11:18:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T15:18:49","slug":"john-bartlett-and-hank-aaron-consistently-great-for-a-long-long-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/john-bartlett-and-hank-aaron-consistently-great-for-a-long-long-time\/2021\/01\/24\/","title":{"rendered":"John Bartlett and Hank Aaron &#8212; Consistently Great for a Long, Long Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-23-at-9.48.23-PM.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-9976\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-23-at-9.48.23-PM-300x263.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-23-at-9.48.23-PM-300x263.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/Screen-Shot-2021-01-23-at-9.48.23-PM.png 612w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a>Early last week, we lost one of the true giants in Infectious Diseases, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.idsafoundation.org\/news\/general\/honoring-a-trailblazer-in-infectious-diseases-john-g-bartlett-m-d\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dr. John Bartlett<\/a>. Long-time Chief of ID at Johns Hopkins, he was a true Infectious Diseases polymath &#8212; deeply knowledgeable about such a wide range of topics that virtually everyone in our field knew and respected him.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ll permit me to lift this from <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/brush-with-greatness-john-g-bartlett\/2013\/12\/24\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a previous tribute to John<\/a>, here&#8217;s a <em>partial<\/em> list of his areas of expertise:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=bartlett+jg+hiv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">HIV.<\/a><\/strong> Check.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=bartlett+jg+clostridium+difficile\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Clostridioides difficile<\/em><\/a>.<\/strong> Check.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=bartlett+jg+respiratory+tract+infections\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Respiratory tract infections<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong> Check.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=bartlett+jg+resistance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Antimicrobial resistance.<\/a><\/strong> Check.<\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/?term=bartlett+jg+anaerobic+pulmonary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Anaerobic pulmonary infections<\/a>.<\/strong> Check.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Given that breadth of knowledge, it&#8217;s no wonder that his annual summaries of &#8220;What&#8217;s Hot&#8221; in Infectious Diseases were must-see events at every IDSA\/IDWeek meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Year after year after year.<\/p>\n<p>This consistency of greatness is no small feat. People get sidetracked. Or tired. Or motivated by greener pastures (money). Or hyper-focused on their own areas of expertise. As <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/quotes\/181579-an-expert-is-one-who-knows-more-and-more-about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the famous quote goes<\/a>, \u201cAn expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>John was the polar opposite of this kind of expert.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m convinced he maintained this broad view of our field because he was just such an innately curious and enthusiastic person. A (very) small example &#8212; I remember telling him of the surprisingly high treatment failure rates in people with high HIV viral loads with the two-drug combination of raltegravir and boosted darunavir <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC3515052\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in ACTG 5262.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But they&#8217;re two of our best drugs,&#8221; he said to me in astonishment. (He was right about that.) &#8220;That&#8217;s absolutely fascinating! Why do you think that happened?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For the record, we&#8217;re still not quite sure. But it did. And you can be sure that John was genuinely interested, immediately scribbling down a note about it on those ubiquitous yellow pads he carried with him everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Another remarkable quality of John&#8217;s was his extraordinary prescience, always knowing the next &#8220;big thing&#8221; in Infectious Diseases, often years before others. Here&#8217;s text from a paper he published &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/cid\/article\/46\/6\/919\/350156\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>in 2008:<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The United States needs to be better prepared for a large-scale medical catastrophe, be it a natural disaster, a bioterrorism act, or a pandemic. There are substantial planning efforts now devoted to responding to an influenza pandemic&#8230; Here, we identify some harsh realities: the US healthcare system is private, competitive, broke, and at capacity, so that any demand for surge cannot be met with existing economic resources, hospital beds, manpower, or supplies.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Chilling. Can you imagine how strong John&#8217;s voice would have been in our COVID-19 response had he been well enough this past year to participate?<\/p>\n<p>John&#8217;s kindness and approachability, combined with his encyclopedic knowledge of all things ID, allowed him to teach, influence, and mentor countless medical students, residents, and fellows over the years. A distinguished chief of medicine (not an ID doctor) just told me she learned all her fundamental clinical ID knowledge from him during her residency at Hopkins. I have heard this same anecdote from numerous others.<\/p>\n<p>Since everyone adored John, he used these relationships to gain insight from researchers and experts from all over the ID world. If someone started a clinical trial using a novel probiotic to prevent <em>C. diff<\/em>, he&#8217;d call that person and get the inside scoop (never disclosing non-public information, of course). Why this probiotic? What were the goals of the study? The challenges? What did they envision as the long-term risks and benefits?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wondered about why they chose this approach,&#8221; he&#8217;d say, &#8220;so I called Dr. &#8212; up, and here&#8217;s what he told me &#8230;&#8221; Hearing him talk about cutting edge ID clinical research was inside baseball at its best.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of baseball &#8212; this past week we also lost one of the greatest players who ever lived, Henry &#8220;Hank&#8221; Aaron, whose long and distinguished career strikes me as quite similar to John&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<p>(Yes I can find baseball in anything.)<\/p>\n<p>Aaron could hit for power, hit for average, throw, run, and field &#8212; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/30760087\/hank-aaron-was-one-five-best-mlb-players-ever-here-why-was-even-better-755-home-runs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">five-tool player<\/a>, analogous to John Bartlett&#8217;s broad expertise. And it was sustained greatness, year after year after year. In baseball history, <a href=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/2339890\/2021\/01\/22\/posnanski-to-fully-honor-the-legacy-of-hank-aaron-ugly-truths-cant-be-ignored\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">nobody was great for longer than Hank Aaron<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Nobody ever played the game so well, so consistently, so long. He was the wave crashing upon the shore.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>That Aaron did this in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/01\/22\/sports\/baseball\/hank-aaron-dead.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">face of blistering racism<\/a>, especially as he approached (and passed) Babe Ruth&#8217;s home run record, makes his achievements all the more impressive.<\/p>\n<p>Two remarkable people &#8212; John Bartlett and Hank Aaron. What a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Early last week, we lost one of the true giants in Infectious Diseases, Dr. John Bartlett. Long-time Chief of ID at Johns Hopkins, he was a true Infectious Diseases polymath &#8212; deeply knowledgeable about such a wide range of topics that virtually everyone in our field knew and respected him. If you&#8217;ll permit me to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-infectious-diseases"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}