Basil M. Rifkind

Basil Mair Rifkind (1934 – 22 June 2008) was an American physician known for conducting influential research that demonstrated lowering blood cholesterol reduces cardiovascular disease risk.

Career

Rifkind was born in Glasgow to Lithuanian Jewish parents. He studied at the University of Glasgow and obtained his MD in 1955. The trial has been described as the "first study to demonstrate conclusively" that lowering cholesterol levels reduced the rate of heart attacks in a group of middle-aged men.

In 1984, Rifkind was co-chairman of the National Institutes of Health's Consensus Conference on Lowering Blood Cholesterol to Prevent Heart Disease. Ten-Year Mortality from Cardiovascular Disease in Relation to Cholesterol Level among Men with and Without Preexisting Cardiovascular Disease (1990) The Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial: Design, Results, and Implications (1991) Clinical Trials of Reducing Low-Density Lipoprotein Concentrations (1998)