Dr. John P. Bilezikian, Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silverberg Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University is Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Director of the Metabolic Bone Diseases Program at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Dr. Bilezikian received his undergraduate training at Harvard College and his medical training at the College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed four years of house staff training (internship and residency) including the Chief Medical Residency of the Medical Service at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Dr. Bilezikian received his training in Metabolic Bone Diseases and in Endocrinology at the NIH where he served as a Clinical Associate in the Mineral Metabolism Branch under the tutelage of Dr. Gerald Aurbach.
Dr. Bilezikian is a major national and international spokesperson for the field of metabolic bone diseases. His major research interests are related to the clinical investigation of metabolic bone diseases, particularly primary hyperparathyroidism and osteoporosis. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Physician Award of the Endocrinen Society, the Frederic C. Bartter Award of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research for Excellence in Clinical Research, the John P. McGovern Compleat Physician Award of the Houston Academy of Medicine, the First Annual Global Leadership Award of the International Society of Clinical Densitometry, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Armenian American Medical Society of California. His publications, which number over 500, speak to his active original investigative initiatives as well as his demand as an author of many reference sources of endocrinology and metabolic bone diseases.
Dr. Bilezikian belongs to a number of professional societies including the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, of which he served as President in 1995-1996 and the International Society of Clinical Densitometry, of which he served as President, 1999-2001.
He is a member of the Endocrine Society, the American Federation for Clinical Research, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and the American College of Endocrinology that has designated him Master.
He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (2000-2004). His books include Editor-in-Chief of “The Parathyroids” (1994, 2001), and co-editor of “Principles of Bone Biology” (1996, 2002), “The Aging Skeleton” (1999), and “Dynamics of Bone and Cartilage Metabolism” (1999). He has been on numerous panels, including serving as Chair of the NIH Consensus Development Panel on Optimal Calcium Intake (1994) and Co-chair of the NIH Workshop on Primary Hyperparathyroidism (2002).
Throughout the 1990s, Dr. Bilezikian was instrumental in providing preceptorials in Metabolic Bone Diseases and Osteoporosis to physicians from Yerevan, Armenia. In 2007, he initiated an Osteoporosis Diagnostic and Treatment Program at the Research Centre of Maternal and Child Health Protection in Yerevan. This program included obtaining and installing a state-of-the-art bone densitometer, formal training of over 100 physicians in Yerevan, and plans for ongoing education of these physicians. He will be returning to Yerevan this year to develop this program further. Dr. Bilezikian is a member of the International Advisory Board of the Yerevan State.
