Meet the Carrolls

  • Thomas Carroll, PA-C

    Thomas Carroll, PA-C is a practicing Physician Associate with experience in primary care, urgent care, and pain management prior to founding The Carroll Clinic. He received his master’s in Physician Assistant Studies from the University of Nebraska as a part of the Army’s Interservice Physician Assistant program. Tom continues to serve as a Captain in the United States Army Reserve, where he also serves as a Physician Associate. In his spare time, he enjoys exercising, watching and playing sports, cooking, and spending time with his family and friends. Tom is our lead clinician and is largely responsible for the medical and nutrition portions of our program while assisting with the exercise component.

  • Libby Carroll, CPT

    Libby Carroll, CPT is an experienced personal trainer who has worked with clients both in person and electronically through online training programs. In addition to this certification, she holds a bachelor’s degree from Pennsylvania State University. In her spare time, Libby enjoys exercising, playing with her two dogs: Finn and Loki, and spending time with family and friends. Libby is our lead personal trainer and therefore largely responsible for the training and aspect of our program in addition to much of the behind-the-scenes administration involved with running our clinic.

What We Believe

At The Carroll Clinic, we believe that modern medicine has made great strides in diagnosis and treatment, particularly in terms of life-threatening issues and acute illness. However, early screening for, as well as prevention of, major chronic illnesses in the western world are embarrassingly absent concepts. Most individuals interact with the healthcare system only after an issue has occurred. While this system works well for things like heart attacks and broken bones, it is completely inept at dealing with the large-scale chronic illnesses plaguing the United States. Additionally, a direct relationship between patient and primary care provider often no longer exists in America. We believe this is wrong and that clients should have easy access to their provider, when needed, without red tape and middlemen (i.e., large office administrators, insurance companies, etc.) getting involved.

Our vision for our clients is to provide you with personalized, proactive medical care while meeting the lion’s share of your day-to-day primary care needs, combined with expert personal training and nutrition programs to optimize your body and mind. Signing up with our clinic will feel different than any interaction you have ever had with the healthcare system… and that is how we want it to feel.

Background

“The inspiration for The Carroll Clinic was born out of a multitude of our experiences. My wife and I have always been interested in health and fitness…medicine came later. Many years ago, after graduating from EMT school, it was clear to me that medicine would be my career. When an opportunity to go to Physician Associate school presented itself, I jumped at the opportunity. I have learned so much in the years since beginning EMT school and opening that first medical textbook, but as time went on and I continued working as a practicing Physician Associate, one fact became glaringly clear to me: much of our healthcare system is utilized by middle to older-aged Americans who suffer daily, debilitated by diseases largely fostered by modern comforts and convenience in our younger years. While we, as clinicians, would do our best to alleviate the ailments that these people would experience and give them a better quality of life, by the time they would see us, it was often too late and very few had a viable road back to the vitality that they had once known. Early in my career, I became frustrated with what I saw as antiquated thinking and rigid clinical practice guidelines. I questioned whether we were truly doing right by our patients, or just padding the pockets of insurance companies, pharmaceutical corporations, and healthcare executives. For someone getting into this business to ‘help people,’ I really did not feel like I was truly helping anyone.”

Why We’re Qualified

“In medical schools, it is drilled into your head to practice ‘evidence-based medicine.’ While much of our clinic treatments are in line with current evidence-based guidelines, we believe that there are areas of screening, prevention, and even treatment in which traditional medical advice is woefully inadequate or sometimes outright incorrect.

For example: Reading this right now, you may believe that your dietary intake of cholesterol is what determines your blood cholesterol level on lab work. This notion was pounded into our heads for decades with backing by respected medical colleges and other institutions; but this conclusion was based on bad science and flawed studies, and was promoted largely by the sugar industry. We now know that dietary intake of cholesterol, for most people, has little to no influence on your blood cholesterol readings and today there is even controversy about how much dietary fat intake contributes. But, for most of you, I bet you did not know that, did you? Another good example is hormone replacement therapy both for men and women, previously vilified as cancer causing and dangerous, we now know to be both safe and tremendously helpful, possibly even protective against deterioration and some chronic disease when done correctly.

It became clear to me that in order to live the best quality life for the longest period of time that I could, I would need to shift how I approach medicine entirely. I believe this enough to have made these changes personally, for my family, and now for my clients.

I never claim to know everything and never will. I also understand that the fields of functional and longevity medicine continue to evolve. Some of my thoughts and recommendations may change as we learn more, which is what every good medical provider and fitness/nutrition coach should do. I make it a priority to stay as informed and up-to-date as possible to offer the most quality programs for my clients.”

-Tom Carroll, Founder