Alumni Spotlight on Ronald J. Pion, M.D. '56
Ronald J. Pion, M.D. 56, Was at the Forefront of Telemedicine in the 1980's Long Before It Became Commonplace
Ronald J. Pion, M.D. ’56, has contributed to the world of medicine for decades—whether it was as a popular obstetrician and gynecologist in Los Angeles or being on the forefront of an emerging industry of telemedicine. However, all these years later, Dr. Pion still remembers what he told a New York Medical College (NYMC) professor after his admissions interview.
The professor asked Dr. Pion and a few other prospective medical students what they would do if they weren’t accepted to NYMC, which at the time was located in New York City. The other applicants said they’d do their best to improve and be accepted the next year, but Dr. Pion told him that he’d actually be quite relieved – it was his parents who wanted him to be a physician more than he himself wanted it.
“I wanted to teach English at a midwestern school. I wanted to be the drama coach,” Dr. Pion said.
The professor was surprised at the answer but appreciated his honesty enough to send him an acceptance letter and the rest is history. Dr. Pion took the opportunity, all but giving up his drama coach aspirations, to attend medical school and made the most of it.
“I was very lucky to attend New York Medical College,” Dr. Pion said. He looks back fondly on his four years at NYMC, saying he learned valuable lessons from the dedicated faculty during his time.
Now nearly 90 years old, Dr. Pion can look back at decades of dedication to the medical field. He taught at the University of Washington and the University of Hawaii while enjoying a successful career as an obstetrician and gynecologist. “Learning to care for patients is so moving and remarkable,” Dr. Pion said.
In the late 1970s, Dr. Pion traveled to Los Angeles to further his work in telemedicine after realizing he had a great interest in it. The field was still in its infancy, while being explored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the late 1960s to evaluate if remote health care delivery monitoring capabilities could lead to stronger medical care possibilities for long-duration space missions. Dr. Pion’s interest was piqued. He went on to found the Hospital Satellite Network which turned into a force in developing cost-efficient medical teleconferencing in the 1980s. “I found things that medicine wasn’t doing. I was doing things I wasn’t being taught to do,” he said.
But Dr. Pion never lost his penchant for the performing arts. In 1988, he co-developed and hosted a daily television series, “Group One Medical,” and was the host of “Milestones in Medicine,” a Sunday night segment on Lifetime Medical Television during the 1991 and 1992 seasons.
In 1998, Dr. Pion introduced a pilot application for the INFOGEAR “iPhone,”– long before the rights to the name were acquired by Apple in 2007 – an internet screen phone that could be used by physicians and patients.
Dr. Pion went on to work with video-conferencing company Zoom, well before it became common vernacular during the COVID-19 pandemic, speaking about the benefits of the company to health care industry professionals and serving as an advisor for the company.
Dr. Pion is now retired but reflects positively on his time in medicine and academia and credits his constant desire to learn for his accomplishments.
“I’ve had a magical career,” Dr. Pion said.
