George L. Bakris, MD, F.A.S.N.
Professor and Vice-Chairman Dept. of Preventive Medicine
Rush University Medical Center

Dr. Bakris received his medical degree from the Chicago Medical School in 1981. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine where he also did a research fellowship in Physiology and Biophysics. He then completed fellowships in Nephrology and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Chicago in 1988. From 1988 to 1991 he was a faculty member of Tulane University School of Medicine and on the staff of the Ochsner Clinic, where he served as Director of Renal Research. Since 1993 he has been on the faculty of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL (USA). He is currently a Professor of Preventive Medicine and Internal Medicine at this institution. He serves as Director of the Rush University Hypertension/Clinical Research Center in the Department of Preventive Medicine and has been Vice-Chairman of the Department since 1998.

Dr. Bakris has published over 300 articles and book chapters in the areas of kidney disease hypertension and progression of nephropathy. He is also the Editor or Associated Editor of four books, three dealing with Kidney Disease, Diabetes and the role of Hypertension: The Kidney and Hypertension, Hypertension: a Clinician’s Guide to Diagnosis and Treatment and Hypertension: Principles and Practice and one a textbook of Cardiology, International Textbook of Cardiology. He has also served as the co-principal investigator of an NIH training grant (K30) to train clinical researchers (one of 55 in the USA). He chaired the National Kidney Foundation Consensus report on blood pressure and impact on renal disease progression (2000). He has also served on many national committees that include: the JNC 7 executive committee (2003), the American Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Guideline Committee (2003-2004), the National Kidney Foundation (K-DOQI) Blood Pressure Guideline committee (2002-2004), the National Kidney Foundation (K-DOQI) Diabetes Guideline committee (2003-2005), the JNC VI writing committee (1997), and the NIH National High Blood Pressure Education Program Working Group on Hypertension and Renal Disease (1994). He has also served as an expertconsultant to the Cardio-renal Advisory Board of the FDA (1993-2003). Dr. Bakris is also the immediate past- president of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology (2000-2002). He is the current Editor of Am J Nephrology and Associate Editor of J Lab. Clin Med and J Clinical Pharmacology. He is also on the editorial board of many different journals including Nephrology, Dialysis & Transpl. Hypertension, Am J Hypertension and Kidney International.

Diep Koly, MD
University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine

After completing her medical training, Dr. Koly also served as the Medical Editor for Intelihealth, a subsidiary of Aetna US Healthcare. In this role, she developed content for Aetna’s award winning consumer health website, Intelihealth.com, and managed and expanded Intelihealth’s professional website to include clinical and practice management information, tools, and resources for physicians. She was also responsible for researching and developing strategies for Aetna’s e-health initiatives and served as a liaison to Aetna’s board of medical directors and quality assurance group to help ensure coordination of efforts.

Dr. Koly also recently served as the Medical Director for Apothecom Associates, a medical education agency. In this role, she was responsible for the development of client medical communications strategies and worked closely with pharmaceutical clients, writers, authors, and content contributors to oversee the implementation of tactical plans. Her medical background and experience in the pharmaceutical, managed care, and medical publishing industry brought broad perspective to her role as Medical Director and continues to provide perspective and expertise to her current role as the medical writer for Scinexa.