John.Batsis@unc.edu
919-966-5945
John A. Batsis, MD
CRC Medical Director, Associate Professor of Medicine
Dr. Batsis has dedicated his professional career to caring for older adults through clinical care, research and education. The privilege of helping older adults maximize their physical function and quality of life through patient-centered, compassionate care serves as a daily motivation in his work. His role as a clinician-researcher allows him to apply scientific principles of inquiry to enhance clinical care for an older adult population. Through learning and discovery, he aims to advance healthy aging by improving goal-directed care and healthcare delivery for older adults.
Dr. Batsis’s academic work focuses on three main areas: (a) understanding the relationships between obesity and sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass, strength and/or function with aging) and important outcomes for older adults; (b) developing multicomponent interventions (diet and exercise) to improve physical function in older adults; and (c) using novel technologies (telemedicine, remote monitoring, Internet-of-Things devices) and collaborating with transdisciplinary scientists (engineers and computer scientists) to improve the health and well-being of older adults.
Read: Dr. John Batsis Presents Keynote at AI Technology Center Consensus Guidelines Workshop
Read: Dr. Batsis Presents at American Diabetes Association Annual Meeting
Read: Dr. Batsis talks to Stat about new weight loss drugs
Watch: Dr Batsis – ‘Everyone has their own secret sauce’
Read: Doctors Assess Opportunities Gained, Lost through Medicare’s Annual Wellness Visits
Read: Batsis Discusses Five Common Medications That Can Cause Weight Gain
In the News
Her childhood in India – and parenthood – changed this nutrition expert’s eating habits
This story originally appeared on the American Heart Association News website. These days, Saroja Voruganti, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,...
Epidemiology: The story of disease.
Every good story includes the “5 Ws”: who, what, where, when, and why. In studying how disease begins and remains in a population, we’re writing the story of that disease, and we use the same...
NRI founding director among the nutrition field’s top researchers, clinicians and educators recognized at NUTRITION 2023 in Boston
NRI’s founding director, Steven H. Zeisel, MD, PhD, is among the 2023 Senior Investigator Awards winners named by the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) and the ASN Foundation. The category is one...
Nutrient: Vitamin D
Vitamin D is both a nutrient we eat and a hormone our bodies make when the skin is exposed to sunlight. It is a fat-soluble vitamin that has long been known to help the body absorb and retain...
Publications
2026
2025
The Relationship Between a Mediterranean Diet and Frailty in Older Adults: NHANES 2007-2017.
Changes in senescence markers after a weight loss intervention in older adults with obesity.
Editorial: Clinical uses and alternative approaches of frailty determination.
Tailoring Obesity Management to Support Physical Function in Older Adults.
Treating Sarcopenic Obesity in the Era of Incretin Therapies: Perspectives and Challenges.
New Drugs and Same Blind Spots-Rethinking Obesity Care in Later Life.




