At its inception 40 years ago, Thorne was created to be a dietary supplement company built on research and supplement education. That guiding principle has remained strong to this day. From the ingredients we source to the formulas we create; research and education plays a central role in how we serve our customers.

For health-care providers, Thorne has always been synonymous with quality and efficacy in the clinical setting. Thorne has stood the test of time in maintaining the highest product quality and efficacy.

My name is Dr. Jennifer Greer, and I’m Thorne’s Director of Medical Education.

One of the most powerful things that health-care professionals can do is to provide their patients with information – educating them on product and lifestyle recommendations, the research supporting those recommendations, what patients can expect, and how to gauge if it will be helpful in their specific case. Every recommendation by a health-care practitioner should be uniquely individualized; there is never going to be “one size fits all” solution, and that applies to a medical practice or, in this case, how we recommend products at Thorne.

As part of Thorne’s Medical Affairs team, my role primarily promotes Thorne’s clinical research in two ways: through the education of our internal teams and in the creation of informational materials for external clients.

Within Medical Affairs our supplement education efforts are focused on three main audiences – our internal teams (such as sales and customer service), health-care practitioners, and customers. As you can imagine, each of these audiences benefits from different styles of supplement education resources in terms of the context and delivery method.

So how do we educate each of these audiences?

For internal teams

We work closely with our Learning & Development team to create educational programs that add to their scientific knowledge and understanding of our product formulations. We use curriculum building principles of adult education to create engaging trainings that are delivered live to provide opportunity for Q&A and asynchronous for broader learning as individual time allows.

In particular, we work with Thorne's sales team to serve as a scientific resource to the medical community. When I came to Thorne as Medical Science Liaison, part of my role was to ensure our products were being recommended appropriately, which meant training our sales team on new products and keeping up to date with new research pertaining to Thorne's long-established formulas. Now, as the Director of Medical Education, I still work closely with the sales team, and I collaborate cross-functionally with departments across Thorne to lead educational efforts and support product development.

For health-care practitioners

Health-care practitioners were our primary audiences when we started Thorne 40 years ago. Today, they remain the backbone of who we are, and we continue to work closely with both health-care practitioners and wellness professionals. Health-care practitioners we frequently work with include medical doctors, naturopathic doctors, functional medicine doctors, nurse practitioners, registered dietitians, physical therapists, and athletic trainers, to name a few.  

Thorne’s supplement education currently includes resources we distribute to each practitioner group, such as research extracts, product fact sheets with references to the latest research, product comparison guides, wellness guides that can be used to support patient care, live Q&A calls to expand product knowledge, and product trainings for office staff to support recommendation of Thorne products to patients and clients. In addition, we are actively working to grow and develop new educational resources for healthcare practitioners focused on successful implementation of nutritional supplements as part of wholistic, integrative clinical care.

For our consumers

Supplement education efforts include contributing to Thorne’s Take 5 Daily blog, Research Extracts that share the latest health and wellness research, Wellness Guides and fact sheets designed by Thorne’s Medical experts, and supporting Customer Service with information on the latest research to answer customers’ questions about Thorne’s supplements.

One educational resource I believe is of particular benefit to customers is our Wellness Guides. These guides are rich in information about all aspects of health, from a Weight Management Program and a Women’s Fertility Guide to Protein Powder and Sports Nutrition support. Each guide provides detailed information including nutrition recommendations, information about exercise, stress, sleep, and even recipes.

To maintain our cutting-edge approach to personalized, scientific wellness, our entire Medical Affairs team works diligently to stay up to date with the latest research on nutritional supplements. By doing so we support the functions of research and development, both in new products and reformulations, as well as marketing, sales, and customer service with language and messaging regarding nutritional supplements, ingredients, and formulas. We evaluate all research – the good and the bad – so that we can help our customers understand what’s out there, what it means, and how it might affect them.  

The role of Medical Affairs within a dietary supplement company is broad, and we all wear a variety of hats to get the job done. In addition, Medical Affairs has a mission to support all the post-market aspects of product development, including monitoring product safety, efficacy, and performance.  

Like our formulations – each one designed for a specific consumer need – we consider education about our products to be individualized. By crafting educational materials for our clients and customers, we boldly bridge the gap between research and consumer, making Thorne the most-trusted name in personalized, scientific wellness.

Read more about Thorne’s Medical Affairs team here.

This article is part of an ongoing series from Thorne HealthTech’s Medium blog, where we showcase the individuals behind Thorne’s approach to developing and delivering health and wellness solutions.