JohnMThomasMDMBA FAAFP

Summary

• My dad told me that I was too tall to be an astronaut, about the time my grandmother started getting sick. At first, I just wanted to fix my grandmother’s health problems, but as I matured I realized they had been developing for a long time, some genetic, some self-induced, and of course some as a matter of aging. I chose a primary care specialty that could address most of those health care issues as early as possible in a patient’s lifetime, but, there was something more…
  And that was teaching medical students to be efficient, high quality healers that can resolve conflict, reach consensus, problem solve, and make everyone (staff and patients) feel valued…to be healers. With the inherent challenges that medical school and residency couldn’t prepare them for, I found myself recruiting, contracting, and managing primary care practices and implementing the continuing medical education programs and affecting the quality programs of these practices in multiple states as part of what was one of the largest practice management companies of its time, but a still greater impact came when…
  I was the Chief Medical Advisor for the largest health insurer in Ohio. Managing disease management, utilization review, and pharmacy programs, etc., and affecting large populations of patients with the partnerships of hospital systems provided a great opportunity to improve the health of many lives (3.9 million members) with my team of (at any one time) eighty to one hundred physician advisors.
  Like a little kid, I still think about being an astronaut (and the fact that they expanded the height limit to 6’4”). Some say I never grew up, because I use simple props in my meetings like playing cards, or telling jokes, and others say, I don’t give up, like getting through a rigorous M.B.A. program. I have to say they’re both right, and I look forward to working with like-minded, fun loving, driven team members that aren't afraid to reach for the stars.