Our Rob
Rob Johnston made a real difference in his lifetime – and his story is well worth telling.
It’s rare that I record a dinner conversation and turn it into an article. For one thing, restaurants are usually busy and noisy – especially when there’s an ophthalmology conference. But on the first day of this year’s EURETINA, I nevertheless found myself in the glorious (and fully-booked) Botafumeiro seafood restaurant in Barcelona, interviewing Adnan Tufail, Javier Zarranz-Ventura and David Johnston. I was hoping to relive a slightly more lubricated conversation I’d had with Javier and Adnan in the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor during ARVO in May, but this time, “on the record.” In short, we were there to talk about the late Rob Johnston.
I never met Rob, but I was well aware of Medisoft (the EMR company he’d started with his brother, David) and the value of the data and insight it provides. But in the Marriott bar (in between trying to use my graduate NUS Extra card to try and obtain a student discount on an eyewateringly expensive round of drinks, and consuming said drinks) I found myself learning more from two surgeons who knew him well – and clearly loved the man. I learned about his personality, his professionalism and what his work over the years has done (and will continue to do) for ophthalmology.
Adnan explained that Rob had built something that has laid the foundations of functional, valuable big data in ophthalmology. Unlike many other EMRs, Medisoft was designed not for billing but for quality outcome audits, so the quality and structure of the data within was ideal for training artificial intelligence algorithms. Meanwhile, Javier told me about the man himself: kind, warm, generous, and intelligent. He also spoke of the impact of Rob’s death after a long on–off battle with cancer – both on him personally and the ophthalmology community in general.
Rob’s story is definitely worth sharing – you’ll find the result of our restaurant conversation and more here. In both Baltimore and Barcelona, we raised our glasses to toast his life and work. I hope after reading his story, you may feel the need to do the same.
Mark Hillen
Editor
I spent seven years as a medical writer, writing primary and review manuscripts, congress presentations and marketing materials for numerous – and mostly German – pharmaceutical companies. Prior to my adventures in medical communications, I was a Wellcome Trust PhD student at the University of Edinburgh.
