Conversations with Perry and Friends: Jon Bloom, M.D.

It was a smell you don’t forget, said Jon Bloom. He was a third-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh on a rotation in the emergency department. “You basically still know nothing,” Bloom said. As the thick bandages were removed from the women’s legs, the pungent odor of Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus aureus bacterial infections hit the room.

Perry Cohen, Pharm.D.

“You remember those smells very vividly, and you could see the amount of gangrene that had affected her legs. And I, even with my limited understanding, knew that she was going to lose both limbs and likely not leave the hospital. And that was really the first time I'd seen this complication before that just devastates vulnerable populations,” Bloom told Perry Cohen, Pharm.D., during the latest episode of Cohen’s MHE-hosted podcast, “Conversations with Perry and Friends.”

That happened years before Bloom co-founded Podimetrics in 2011, a company that uses sensor-laden mats to detect early warnings of diabetes-related complications in the feet. But Bloom, an anesthesiologist who trained at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Cohen that the episode stuck with him as he became interested in medical technology and related businesses. “I felt like I wanted to be able to drive bigger change. Here’s a problem that maybe I could try to affect the whole problem,” Bloom said to Cohen. “I could try to have a much bigger impact than one patient at a time.”

Jon Bloom, M.D.

Bloom shared some of his personal history with Cohen as they explored the evolving role of the physician in U.S. healthcare in this episode of Cohen’s podcast.

“There are doctors who took care of my parents. They were viewed as God,” said Cohen. “There are doctors who take care of my daughter. They are viewed as trusted advisors. And there are a lot of doctors who feel their contract has been violated from when they went to medical school, and technology is driving some of that change.”

Bloom said the sheer magnitude of the medical information and knowledge that is available and growing has changed the once-omniscient role of the physician. “I feel like the doctor now has to be the student, almost first and foremost. Constantly, you have to continue to make sure you're learning with humility what's out there. Patients are far more educated and have greater access to information than ever before.” He said physicians are “more partners in that care than simply “drivers of care.”

Bloom was optimistic about technology relieving physicians of administrative burdens and, as a consequence, helping with burnout. He also discussed the benefits of telehealth and robotic surgery. “Patient access is something that I obsess on, and now, you don't have to necessarily be constrained to where that specialist is,” Blooms said. “You can have the specialist in Philadelphia, say, but he can now operate on somebody in San Diego. If that's the right provider, you can connect them now via the robotic capability.”

Good data is going to continue to improve care, Bloom said, and he noted the possibilities of technology taking over aspects of what radiologists, pathologist and anesthesiologists do.

But he also drew a bright line, stating that technology will never replace physicians.

“Relationship drives good outcomes, not some piece of technology,” Bloom said. “You want to be able to hold that person's hand or just be able to say, ‘Hey, here's what's going on. Here's what I think you need to do,’ and as a partner, to try to help them along in their health journey and hopefully help them make good decisions.”