Professional Statement:
PHYSICIAN. Dr. Michael Bartalos studied medicine in Budapest (1953-56) and medicine, psychology and philosophy at the University of Heidelberg (1957-60), where he obtained the Doctor of Medicine degree (with honors) in 1960. He received training in radiology (University of Heidelberg), pathology, internal medicine and medical genetics (Johns Hopkins University).
SCIENTIST. Conducted medical research in the fields of biochemistry, histochemistry, cytogenetics and medical genetics. In 1968 he described a new disease entity that has been named after him ("Ectodermal dysplasia, Bartalos type"). Elected member of several scientific organizations, including the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
ADMINISTRATOR. At age 30 he was asked to organize and direct a university institute of human genetics at a major university in Washington, DC (Howard University, 1966 to 1968), in 1976 organized the Columbia University affiliate Birth Defect and Genetic Disease Center at St. Mary's Hospital for Children in Queens, NY and was medical director of Council/Heritage Health Center in Harlem, New York City (1993-1998).
TEACHER. He taught human genetics at Howard University, Washington DC (1965-68) and clinical genetics, patient-doctor relationship, psycho-social aspects of disease and death and dying at Columbia University, New York City (1971-to present).
AUTHOR. He published the books Medical Cytogenetics (1967), Genetics in Medical Practice (1968), Citogenetica Medica (1972), and Zetetics (2000), and over 100 scientific communications.
PHILOSOPHER. In several presentations and in his book "Zetetics" he outlined a philosophy of a "Contextual Individualism", an "Adaptive Psychology" and the sociology of "Surbiosis".
REVOLUTIONARY. As a medical student in Budapest he took part in the 1956 anti-Communist uprising. When Hungary became free again, he was awarded the 1956 Memorial Medal by Arpad Goncz, President of the Republic of Hungary "for exemplary resoluteness for which to receive the gratitude of the Hungarian nation".
COMMUNITY LEADER. His civic activities included various leadership positions within the Hungarian Freedomfighters' Federation USA, the Hungarian-American National Republican Federation, and the American-Hungarian Foundation (New Brunswick, NJ), among others. He organized two multi-specialty clinics in needy areas of the Bronx borough of New York City and for five years was medical director of a large outpatient facility in New York's Harlem neighborhood. In 1998 he received a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition for "… invaluable service to the community …" from Representative Charles B. Rangel.
Dr. Bartalos was born in Bratislava (Pozsony), Slovakia in 1935 as the son of a physician of the same name. He belongs to an old Hungarian noble family of the clan Mogh with a documented history from the 1200s.
He resides in the United States since 1960, is the father of three sons, and maintains an office for the private practice of internal medicine and medical genetics in New York City.
