George Bakris, MD, an internationally recognized expert in hypertension and diabetic kidney disease, has died at the age of 72 years.
At the time of his death on June 15, 2024, Bakris was professor of medicine in the Section of Endocrinology and director of the University of Chicago Comprehensive Hypertension Center, Chicago.
"Dr Bakris was passionate and worked tirelessly to advance and provide the best care to patients. He was an exceptional leader, mentor, and friend who we will miss dearly," Everett Vokes, MD, Chair of the Department of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief, University of Chicago Medicine & the Biological Sciences, wrote in a letter to faculty and staff.
A 'Giant' in the Field
Colleagues took to X to remember Bakris.
"Very sad news of the death of George Bakris. He was a good friend, coauthor, mentor/supporter and the most recognizable leader in clinical hypertension in our generation," wrote Aldo Peixoto, MD (@ajpeixoto).
"A giant in the field of hypertension," added the Laboratory of Vivek Bhalla, MD — Stanford, California (@BhallaResearch).
During his career, Bakris published more than 500 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the areas of hypertension, diabetic kidney disease, and progression of nephropathy.
This includes a landmark article in The New England Journal of Medicine last month showing that the glucagon-like peptide 1 agonist semaglutide reduces the risk for clinically important kidney outcomes and death from cardiovascular causes in adults with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease (CKD).
In earlier pioneering work, Bakris showed that a potassium binder could alleviate the risk for hyperkalemia associated with renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors in patients with CKD. This led to US approval of patiromer.
Among his many leadership roles, Bakris served as president of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology (2000-2002) and president of the American Society of Hypertension (2010-2012).
'An Amazing Leader'
He was a member of the board of directors of the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and served on the NKF's Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) Blood Pressure Guideline committee and the NKF-KDOQI Diabetes Guideline committee.
Bakris also served as chair of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Consensus Report on Hypertension in Diabetes (2016-2017), cochair of the American Society of Hypertension Writing Committee for the Hypertension in Diabetes Guidelines (2008, 2010), and a member of the ADA Clinical Practice Guideline Committee (2018-2021).
"George was an amazing leader who was committed to improving care for those affected by diabetes," ADA chief scientific and medical officer Robert Gabbay, MD, PhD, told Medscape Medical News.
"George was a pleasure to work with, and his contributions to diabetes were truly immense," added Nuha El Sayed, MD, MMSc, ADA senior vice president of Health Care Improvement.
Bakris received many awards for this work, including the 2014 AstraZeneca Award from the International Society of Hypertension, the 2021 NKF of Illinois Lifetime Service and Achievement Award, the 2023 Luminary in Cardiometabolic Medicine Award from the Heart in Diabetes Group, and the 2023 Hippokrates Lifetime Academic Contribution Award.
He received his medical degree from the Chicago Medical School and completed residency in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine where he also completed a research fellowship in Physiology and Biophysics. He then completed fellowships in Nephrology and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Chicago.
In 2023, Bakris received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Athens, Zografou, Greece. Just last month, Bakris was awarded the Donald F. Steiner Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Treatment of Diabetic Nephropathy at the University of Chicago Diabetes Day.