Alain G. Bertoni, M.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor, Public Health Sciences and Internal Medicine

SHORT BIOGRAPHIC SKETCH: Dr. Bertoni is a board certified general internist and an assistant professor of Public Health Sciences - Epidemiology and Internal Medicine - General Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. A native of New York, NY, his education was at Yale University (B.A., political sciences) and Johns Hopkins (M.D., School of Medicine 1995, M.P.H. School of Public Health 1999). His training was also at Johns Hopkins (1995-1998 residency and 1998-2001 a post-doctoral fellowship. He has been author or co-author of over 20 research publications in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and ethnic/racial disparities.

SYNOPSIS OF AREA OF INTEREST: His research interests incude the etiology and prevention of diabetes-related complications, especially cardiovascular disease; quality improvement in chronic disease, and ethnic disparities in health and healthcare.

DETAILED AREA OF INTEREST: Dr. Bertoni’s research activities involve field center management, recruitment, and events ascertainment/adjudication for a variety of epidemiologic studies and clinical trials in which diabetes is the major focus or an important secondary focus. These have allowed for investigations into the relationship between diabetes and its cardiovascular complications. Dr. Bertoni is currently a co-investigator in the Multi Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) and the MESA-Family genetic study. For these two related studies he is the Field Center medical director. In both MESA studies he has had a major role in recruitment, particularly of minority participants. The Wake Forest MESA center successfully recruited 1,077 persons; 47% of which were African-American. In the Family study, which is only recruiting African-Americans at this site, we are currently meeting recruitment targets. He has Coordinating Center experience as a co-investigator in the NIDDK-funded Look AHEAD trial of weight loss in type 2 diabetes, for which he serves on the study Safety and Economic Evaluation committees; he is also a part of the CoC outcomes working group. He is also a co-investigator in the ACCORD trial of glucose, blood pressure, and lipid control in type 2 diabetes and is responsible for blood pressure data monitoring in 12 southeastern clinics, and serves as an adjudicator on the Morbidity and Mortality committee. These experiences have led to his collaboration with Regenerative Medicine. There are many potential applications of this field to diabetes, be it replacement therapy aiming to correct the underlying pathophysiology of diabetes, or in ameliorating/ reversing the cardiovascular complications. His expertise with human-subjects research and epidemiology lend itself well to the translation of basic science research to the clinical arena.

PUBLICATIONS:
Bertoni AG, Goff Jr DC, LE Wagenknecht LE. Excess mortality related to diabetes mellitus in elderly Medicare beneficiaries . Annals of Epidemiology, 2004 May; 14(5):362-367.

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