John Vitarello, MD, was born and raised in Frederick, Maryland. He played varsity soccer, swimming, and indoor and outdoor track in high school. Vitarello is a fellow of Cardiovascular Disease at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. He completed a residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts and received his Medical Doctorate from Georgetown University School of Medicine. Prior to medical school, he obtained a Master of Science in Nutrition from Columbia University. While attending Columbia University, John was selected for a position as a research assistant at the Comprehensive Weight Control Center, Weill Cornell Medicine. And received a full-time position the following year and then matriculated into medical school. The center is a clinic that treats patients with metabolic disease/obesity and a research center involved in diet studies and clinical trials for anti-obesity drugs. The clinic founder Dr. Louis Aronne is one of the prominent obesity doctors and founded the Obesity Society of America. His background in nutrition and endocrinology is the inspiration for practicing preventive cardiology. Providing effective treatment for cardiovascular disease goes hand in hand with treating metabolic disease. He participated in the research during his Internal Medicine residency, presenting posters at national meetings and publishing them in peer-reviewed Journals. In line with his interest in preventive cardiology, he examined the prevalent use of medication that may raise blood pressure in those diagnosed with hypertension. The research letter published in the high-impact journal JAMA highlighted The estimated prevalence of US adults with hypertension using medications that may raise blood pressure was 18.5%. Furthermore, using these medications was associated with lower blood pressure control rates and a greater number of antihypertensives. The research presented at the American College of Cardiology Conference in 2021 was also chosen for a moderated press conference attended by various news outlets. It was picked up by news outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and MedPage.