Bernard Brom qualified as a medical doctor in 1965. While specialising in gastroenterology he became dissatisfied with medicine and his lifestyle and in 1971 giving up his practice, he travelled around the world in a VW kombi for almost 6 years.

Returning to South Africa, he started an integrative medical practice, specializing in the non-drug treatment of ill-health. After intensively studying Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), herbal medicine and homeopathy, Brom realised that conventional medicine's focus on disease had moved doctors away from lifestyle management and how to support good health.

Brom immersed himself in exploring how a person becomes ill and how to support the person back to their previous health. This did not require breaking away from the conventional medical model, but rather shifting the focus away from the disease model and the use of dangerous drugs - towards lifestyle medicine and supportive health medicine. His approach is that, whilst treating disease and symptomatic approaches using drugs, have their place, it needs to be within a model of medicine that is much more supportive to health improvement.

Dr Brom was chairman of the South African Acupuncture Medical Association and the founder and chairman of the South African Society of Integrative Medicine (SASIM). He was also one of the founders and the first Chairman of the Traditional and Natural Health Alliance, an organisation working towards a balanced and appropriate regulatory process for natural products. He has also written extensively on integrative medicine, both in medical journals and in his monthly newsletters. He founded the Complementary Medicine Journal in 1996 which became the Journal of Natural Medicine in 2000.

His non-medical interests include walking in nature, growing organic vegetables, deep discussion on the meaning of life and his own inner spiritual journey.