A native of New York, Dr. Bernstein attended the State University of New York at Stony Brook for his undergraduate training and Georgetown University for medical school. He was a resident in Internal Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital and completed a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Rochester.

He has been on the faculty of Marshall University and Wright State University, where he is presently Professor of Medicine and Pathology and Program Director for Infectious Diseases. At the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center, he is the Coordinator for Research and Development. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He has special interests in viral diseases and antiviral chemotherapy.