Joseph Colt Bloodgood (November 1, 1867 – October 22, 1935) was a prominent surgeon in the United States based in Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
[1] His first mentor in medical studies in Philadelphia, the eminent Canadian physician William Osler, helped him obtain this position.
He visited the main European centers of surgery and pathology, and met the pathologists Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen and Theodor Billroth.
[6] He worked under Dr. William Stewart Halsted, a pioneer in surgical techniques in the United States, who greatly influenced his thinking.
[7] In 1897 he was appointed chief assistant to Halsted and was given the task of setting up the Surgical Pathology department at Johns Hopkins and teaching this subject.
[6] As a resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Bloodgood was aware of the introduction of rubber gloves in the operating room by nurse Caroline Hampton working with surgeon William Stewart Halsted.
Ten years later, in 1899, Bloodgood published results showing that use of rubber gloves during surgery reduced postsurgical infection rates from 17% to less than 2%, a staggering effect.
[5] Bloodgood followed Halstead's advice in taking care to control bleeding during surgery so as to avoid the need for excessive haste.
[5] Bloodgood was among the first to describe "borderline" lesions, saying that a biopsy specimen would often contain "a pre-existing local defect which is benign and in which later there may be a cancerous development.
[23] He was awarded a gold medal by the Radiological Society of North America for his use of X-rays and radium to study, diagnose and treat malignant bone tumors.
[6] Bloodgood found that "giant-cell sarcoma" were bone tissue reactions to irritants rather than malignant growths, and could be cured by curettage rather than by amputating the limb.
He said in 1932 that "the modern woman who keeps her teeth clean and in good shape teaches men how one should smoke with a minimal risk of cancer.
[26] As a teacher, Bloodgood was innovative in familiarizing his students with unusual conditions by using specimens from the museum along with pamphlets that described their relevant features.
[27] As his reputation grew, many budding surgeons came to Johns Hopkins to study under him and to access the unique collection of material at the laboratory.
[17] However, Cheatle in London and Bloodgood in Baltimore had no direct contact, and may have worked independently in their studies of the differences between benign and malignant breast lesions.
"[31] He repeated in 1933 "Armed with intelligence and enlightenment, it is hoped that women soon will banish false modesty, which has in the past been in large measure responsible for the lack of advance in the control of cancer of cervix for the womb.
"[33] Some of his colleagues thought that he was doing this to persuade private patients to pay for needless examinations, resulting in controversy and unfair treatment of Bloodgood later in his career.