Thomas Sproat

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT THOMAS SPROAT

I’m passionate about all aspects of our complex healthcare system. It is fascinating how many different industries and skill sets ultimately impact patient care. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to participate in many of these over my career, which has given me a unique perspective on how our system works – or doesn’t work. A perpetual student, the early part of my career was spent in academia where I eventually worked my way to the teaching side of the lectern. A PharmD and PA by training, I taught courses for medical, nursing, pharmacy, and PA students at two different universities. In teaching them, I learned how to create content for diverse audiences with different needs.Due to the nature of the professions, my practical experience as a clinical pharmacist and as a PA reinforced the need for me to advocate for patients and their caregivers. This has only become more important as our healthcare system has become more difficult to navigate, and therapies have become more complicated.As is common in this profession, medical communications found me. The very nature of this business was immediately attractive to me. I’ve been able to flex my scientific muscle; however, at my first company, I eventually became chief operating officer. I’ve also had the opportunity to work inside the pharmaceutical industry which provided invaluable knowledge about goals, motivations, and processes of these companies. In my time on that side of the fence, I experienced and survived an acquisition, a co-promote, and more institutional bureaucracy than I thought could ever exist. Today I marvel at the advances made in the biotherapeutic space. Hundreds of gene therapy products are being developed which have the ability to completely transform the lives of people with rare diseases. It is an exciting time to be able to participate in bringing the knowledge and training to HCPs and other professionals who will manage patients and their caregivers along this complex journey.The medical communications space has grown and morphed significantly over the past decade. Stakeholders and audiences are becoming more diverse, and include patients/caregivers, the investment community, payers, and even the media. Lines between “channel-specific” messages are blurring as people have access to almost infinite streams of information. Our industry has become a fascinating intersection of drug development and launch, product and franchise life cycle management, finance/investment, politics, and education – hopefully all focused on optimizing healthcare delivery and patient care.