John M. Vasudevan

John M. Vasudevan, MD has been a Fellow of the College since 2016. On June 3, 2023, he was installed as the 162nd President of the Philadelphia County Medical Society. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also a Team Physician for Penn Athletics and Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor, as well as Medical Director of the Broad Street Run and Philadelphia Distance Run. Dr. Vasudevan is a Director of the Running and Endurance Sports Medicine Program at Penn Medicine. 

What interested you in becoming a Fellow of the College? What do you think the College’s main responsibilities are to the Fellowship, to the larger medical community, and to the public/communities served?   

I became a Fellow because I have always valued being part of the history and traditions of medicine. Just as with progress in other human domains, we cannot know where we are going without knowing where we have been.   

I believe that the College holds a unique role in Philadelphia and a special one in our profession. The College should continue its work to make our history more accessible to both the medical community and public at large (members and nonmembers alike), using online teaching tools to make the College and Mütter Museum an even more exciting place to visit in person. I also hope the College can celebrate and publicize the good work of its Fellows through internal and external communication (e.g., via local media), so that the public knows the many ways in which physicians can advance the health of their patients (e.g., clinical, research, community health, etc). 

Congratulations on your Presidency of the Philadelphia County Medical Society. What inspired you to take on this role?  Prior to becoming President, you reached out to College President and CEO Dr. Mira Irons about a collaborative “Doctor’s Lounge” lecture series on topics in career shifts in medicine. What was your purpose in selecting these topics? How do you see our institutions working together in the future? 

I have been involved in organized medicine (local, state, and national medical societies) since my first year in medical school for much of the same reasons that physicians become Fellows of this College: to connect with colleagues across different specialties and stage of practice, to learn from each other, and to advocate for our patients and profession with a unified voice. Becoming President of PCMS is simply a reflection of work I have already put in for this organization, but also an opportunity to help define what organizations like ours should be in a changing world. 

I am excited to establish a collaborative effort between CPP and PCMS to create the “Doctor’s Lounge” series. This will be a series of after-hours panel discussions at the CPP over food and drink, in which physicians and other leaders discuss topics such as how to improve administrative skills without an MHA, how to improve business skills without an MBA, how to improve public health without an MPH, and how to influence politics without running for office.  So much of what influences how health care is delivered is not formally taught in medical school, and this series hopes to inspire us to enact as much positive change to the health care system as we do for our patients, all while developing valuable relationships with each other. 

You are in sports medicine and rehabilitative medicine. Were/are you an athlete, and is that why you chose a career in sports medicine? If not, what attracted you to this field in medicine? 

If I was an athlete, I was a pretty terrible one! I actually was very active growing up, but had more brainy than brawny skills, hence the medical route. However, I was a cool bass drummer in the University of Wisconsin Marching Band, which was actually the most physically demanding activity I ever undertook and included adventures like marching in the Rose Bowl. What I enjoyed about the band, and also about sports medicine, is that even if you are not the person performing at the highest level, the performance and experience of the sporting event is better when the athletes have the right support and environment around them. 

I chose the specialty of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation because of its fundamental focus not just on disease, but on the functional impact and outcome of the disease. Our quality of life is not defined as much by pain and injury as we think, but rather on our ability to perform the tasks we need (at home, at work, and for our fitness). My subspecialty of sports medicine is a natural extension of this philosophy, in that exercise is a form of medicine crucial to our physical, psychological, and social health, and when we treat everyone with the respect and precision that we give our best athletes, we can meet and even exceed our expectations. 

What do you believe are the medical challenges (physical and psychological) facing athletes today? Can any of these be avoided with awareness and education? During the pandemic how did you support the athletes who were faced with quarantine and unable to play sports. 

So much attention is paid to the physical health of athletes, which makes complete sense given their talents. However, athletes suffer psychological stress as much as any non-athlete, and a non-athlete can make calculated improvements to their physical health regardless of their baseline status. If we champion the psychological health of athletes and the physical health of non-athletes with the same rigor, we can help all of our patients gain a sense of achievement and a balanced assessment of their abilities and needs throughout life. 

Because athletes serve as a model of our aspirations, when athletes like Damar Hamlin or Bronny James suffer cardiac arrest, it should prompt all of us to increase our consideration not only of their medical conditions, but also of the decisions that impact our long-term health.  These athletes are not only considering their heart health but are also balancing the near-term impact on their careers and long-term impact on their quality (and quantity) of life. We all must make these decisions in our own lives, so these athletes help us start the discussion. 

The interruption of sports during the COVID-19 pandemic was a stark reminder of how the routines and habits we establish have a direct link to the outcomes we seek, and any disruption can be bewildering and difficult to handle. Like the athletes I treat, we must all learn to consistently assess our goals and know when it’s time to “pivot” to a new routine. And in cases when we don’t know where to pivot, that is where a good relationship with a physician is so important. 

What challenges and/or opportunities do you see in medicine in the next decade? How can the College be a leader in addressing these issues? 

Like it or not, the post-pandemic world is and will remain different than what was before it. Like the old adage, every crisis is an opportunity to redefine what constitutes success when it comes to our wellbeing. Technology is not evil if it enables us to augment our abilities, but it is problematic when it substitutes for the direct human relationships that have defined our species throughout time. Health care needs will not change, but how we deliver care can (and must) change to ensure the health of our health care system. In practical terms, this means we need physician leaders – in collaboration with nurses, therapists, social workers, and all facets on the front line of our system – to define and develop the innovations we need before they are determined for us by those who do not share the same passion for patient care as we do. 

The College can assist in this effort by providing needed perspective – online and in-person – to remind us just how far we have come as a profession but what barriers have (or continue to) keep us from delivering optimal care. The more we can collaborate among different physician groups across location, institution, and specialty, the better. Crucially, if we are not inviting the public and our youth to events at the College, we are missing out on opportunities to make changes sustainable, as it requires as much buy-in from our patients as it does among our medical community. 

Thank you! Anything else you would like to share with us? 

I appreciate the opportunity to share my experience and thoughts with you and the Fellowship. I hope to see as many collaborative relationships as possible fostered among our Fellows and across organizations, as they generate our greatest ideas and remind us all of just how rewarding our profession can be.