Samuel Thomas

Samuel was born and raised in Salt Lake City, UT.  After serving an LDS mission in Russia for 2 years, he pursued a love for science and the humanities and earned undergraduate degrees in Chemistry, Russian and International Studies from the University of Utah.  He then returned to the University of Utah for medical school where he was given a scholarship to add an additional year to his education to earn a Masters in Bioengineering with an emphasis on medical technology innovation through the BioInnovate Program.  He has been involved in numerous NSF and NIH funded research and innovation projects within the University of Utah Health Sciences, Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute, and the Center for Medical Innovation.  He is the co-founder of multiple startups focusing on digital health, minimally invasive surgery, and smart technology. During medical school he was the President of the AMA for the Utah medical student chapter, was a voting member of the Board of Trustee for the UMA (Utah Medical Association), and co-founded two medical-student driven outreach clinics for the homeless and refugee populations.

He recently graduated from the Internal Medicine residency program at the University of Utah where he was able to continue much of his research and innovation projects. During his training he gained a new perspective on systemic challenges within health care delivery and implementation. His current interests involve improving outcomes, reducing costs, and increasing patient and provider satisfaction via a multidisciplinary effort that brings together advanced analytics, implementation science, system and process modeling, smart technology, and patient-centered design to enable the medical community with the information and tools they need for the management of patients throughout the health care system.  

Samuel enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys, snow skiing, biking and working on his 1970 Ford Bronco.