In the late 1890s, Brödel was brought to the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine  to illustrate for Harvey Cushing, William Halsted, Howard Kelly, and other notable clinicians. Besides creating a prolific amount of work Brödel developed new artistic techniques, such as the carbon dust technique, that helped advance the quality and accuracy of medical illustrations. In 1911 he presided over the creation of the first Department of Art as Applied to Medicine for training other medical illustrators at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, remaining director of this department until 1939.