Biographical feature: Raymond C. Bartlett, M.D.

As I began reviewing biographical information about Dr. Raymond C. Bartlett in preparation for writing this brief biographical feature, it suddenly occurred to me that this was a rare opportunity to think about the trajectory of my own career path and the influence that some of the visionary clinical microbiologists such as Dr. Raymond Bartlett had on the way clinical microbiology laboratories operate today. I first met Dr. Bartlett during a workshop put on by my infectious diseases group, which had newly arrived in Boston, dealing with the isolation and identification of clinically significant obligate anaerobes. I knew from colleagues that Dr. Bartlett was considered a controversial figure in the clinical microbiology field, but it was not until much later that I came to understand Dr. Bartlett’s vision for the modern clinical microbiology laboratory and the controversy that came with his singular pursuit of this vision. As it turns out, Dr. Bartlett was probably 20 years ahead of his time in his thinking about quality assurance, quality improvement, appropriate specimens for microbiologic analysis, infection control, and effective cost management in the clinical microbiology laboratory. Virtually all of his concepts have been adopted in some form within today’s clinical microbiology laboratory as standard operating procedures. Raymond Clark Bartlett was born on 12 September 1930 in Brooklyn, NY, to Kathryn (Clark) and Hall Bartlett. He was named after his grandfather, Dr. Raymond Clark, a prominent local physician. Raymond spent most of his childhood years in the New York City/Long Island area, where his father taught history. He obtained his early education at local schools and spent his