February, 2025
The European Respiratory Society (ERS) is sad to announce the death of Professor Eric Donn Bateman AM, MB BS, PhD, FRACP, who passed away at the end of January, 2025, after a short illness.
Eric was an Emeritus Professor in Medicine and Respiratory Medicine at the University of Cape Town and was a world-renowned authority on the investigation and management of airway diseases and the treatment of tuberculosis, and in developing and implementing interventions to improve respiratory health in underserved areas.
Eric obtained his medical degree at the University of Cape Town in 1970 and completed his clinical training in medicine and respiratory medicine at Groote Schuur Hospital and University of Cape Town, mainly under the mentorship of Dr Solly Benatar. In 1979, he moved to the Royal Brompton Hospital in London to complete postdoctoral training, working with Dame Margaret Turner Warwick, and Dr Peter Cole, where he completed work for an MD thesis entitled “Fibrogenic mechanisms and sequence of collagen deposition in pulmonary fibrosis”. He returned to Cape Town where he was appointed Head of the Respiratory Clinic at Groote Schuur Hospital and became a Full Professor at University of Cape Town in 1996.
In 1998, Eric founded the University of Cape Town Lung Institute (UCTLI) and served as its director for the next 17 years. He made a major impact in many areas of pulmonary medicine. These included the optimal pharmacological management of asthma, COPD, and tuberculosis, as well as community-based interventions to improve patient outcomes in chronic disease. In addition, he was an extraordinary mentor to many young clinicians and researchers who trained at the UCTLI, now working both in South Africa and internationally.
The seminal studies that he led included the Gaining Optimal Asthma controL (GOAL) study, which was a landmark study evaluating the optimal treatment approaches to achieve asthma control. In addition, he was a lead investigator in several studies evaluating the benefits of using a combination of an inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and rapid-onset long-acting inhaled beta-two-agonist (LABA) budesonide/formoterol, both as maintenance and reliever treatment for asthma, and subsequently as a preferred inhaled reliever in patients with mild asthma. In addition, his studies in COPD demonstrated the benefits of inhaled triple therapy with ICS/LABA and a long-acting inhaled muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) in patients not well controlled with ICS/LABA alone. His research impact is demonstrated by the fact that he published 380 peer reviewed publications, which have been cited more than 65,000 times.
While leading these innovations in healthcare, Eric also constantly reminded us of the burden and limited resources for people in low-middle-income countries. One of his most important legacies is the Practical Approach to Care Kit (PACK), a clinical decision support tool that was meticulously developed by Eric’s Knowledge Transfer Unit team to simplify, standardise and strengthen primary health care delivery; it has been adapted and implemented in multiple countries.
Eric had impact on the management of patients with chronic lung diseases in several other ways. He was a founding member of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) Scientific Committee in 2002 and chaired this committee from 2004 until 2007, and then chaired the executive committee from 2008 until 2011. He led these committees with great skill and at a time when asthma management was undergoing a major re-evaluation with regards to treatment approaches. He remained on the GINA Science Committee and Board until his death. He played an active role on many other international committees of the American Thoracic Society, World Health Organization, the European Respiratory Society, the Federation of International Respiratory Societies, and the US National Institutes of Health. His contributions in all these fora were consistently thoughtful, insightful, and productive.
Eric received many honors and distinctions during his very distinguished career. These included the Alan Pifer Award from the University of Cape Town in 2012; the President’s Award from the European Thoracic Society in 2012; the South African Medical Research Council Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013; Fellowship in the Art and Science of Medicine from the South African Medical Association in 2014; and the World Lung Health Award from the American Thoracic Society in 2018.
In addition to his many contributions to respiratory medicine, Eric was an amazing athlete his entire life, particularly as a long-distance runner. He was one of the leading ultra-marathoners in South Africa in the 1980s and was a gold medalist in the Comrades Marathon in 1984 and in the 56km Two Oceans Marathon twice. He was devoted to his wife, Mary, also a physician who worked at UCTLI, and his five children and eight grandchildren. Those of us who worked closely with Eric knew about the pride he had in his children and grandchildren’s accomplishments.
Most importantly for many of us who knew Eric well was his kindness, wisdom, and strength of character. Friendship and collegiality were very important to him in all his dealings. He was an extraordinarily effective and pragmatic committee chair, whose calm demeanor encouraged debate but required consensus. He was also an extremely humble person, for whom the only important outcome in all his dealings was improving patient care, particularly for patients in underserviced areas. Those of us who knew, respected and admired Eric will miss him greatly, but we have all been made better by knowing him.
Authors: Paul O’Byrne and Helen Reddel.