Barry Lewis, MD, PhD

Born: 1929

Barry Lewis is a leading figure in clinical research and trials of cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention. He received both an MD, 1958, and PhD, 1956, from the Univeristy of Capetown, South Africa and became a member of the Royal Society. He has held positions at the University of London and at St. Thomas’s and Guys Hospitals. He was founder and chairman of the International Task Force for Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) in which he was author of major reports and recommendations for cardiovascular disease prevention.

The central theme of Professor Lewis’s career is the study of nutrition and clinical disorders of blood lipoproteins. He published an early text on lipid disorders, directed researches and supervised numerous doctoral theses in the field. He measured the rate at which low density and intermediate density lipoproteins transfer from plasma into the arterial wall; the rate being determined by and directly related to the plasma concentration of these lipoproteins, and inversely related to their particle size. He chaired the St. Thomas’s Atherosclerosis Regression Study (STARS), a randomized clinical trial lowering plasma cholesterol level by diet or by combined dietary and drug treatment, which retarded the progression of coronary atherosclerosis.

He remains active in London and internationally, in teaching, practice, lecturing and consultation in preventive cardiology. (HB)