Nathan Hill: Why better healthcare begins with more precise treatment

Modern medicine can treat more conditions than ever, yet standardized products do not always reflect the person taking them.

For Nathan Hill, CEO and Co-Founder of Strive Pharmacy, progress depends on recognizing that patients respond differently and pursue different health outcomes.

"We are made up of different genetics. We metabolize medications differently," Hill says. "We’re going to have different side effects than the next person on the same exact medication."

That variation sits at the heart of compounding, where medications can be prepared for needs that commercially available products do not meet. Hill explains that Strive Pharmacy was built around collaboration with providers and a closer understanding of each patient’s goals.

"It’s been all about the patient and what the providers need and helping them solve problems. So very much a collaborative approach to what the patient’s needs are and what their healthcare goals are," he says on CEO: Behind the Scenes.

Treating the individual

Those needs can be highly practical. A patient may require a different dose, an alternative ingredient because of an allergy or continued access to a medication that manufacturers no longer produce at sufficient scale.

Personalization also changes the way success is defined. Instead of measuring every patient against the same standard, treatment can be aligned with the level of mobility, performance or quality of life each person is trying to achieve.

"Someone may have the goal to just be able to walk around the block. Another person’s like, ‘I want to ride my bike with my kids,’ and then you have someone who wants to be a triathlete," Hill says.

"All of those individuals have different goals and they’re going to have different needs."

Precision, however, cannot come at the expense of confidence. As demand for compounded medications grows, Hill believes access and quality must advance together, particularly in an industry facing intense scrutiny and evolving regulation.

Quality control

"Quality and access should be one and the same as we’re scaling," he says.

For Strive Pharmacy, that means testing products before they are introduced, securing the necessary documentation and using third-party testing after medications are prepared. It also means viewing the experience of patients and providers as an essential part of delivering consistent care.

"We want them to come to us because their patients have had a good experience with the products," Hill says.

That commitment grew from Hill’s earlier career in pharmaceutical sales, where he began questioning whether treatment was always addressing the source of a problem.

Compounding offered a more proactive direction, grounded in the idea that healthcare should help people move beyond managing symptoms alone.

"You may feel good, but could you feel great? Could you feel better?" he says.

Hill’s perspective on growth has also evolved. What began as an ambition to make Strive Pharmacy the best compound pharmacy has expanded into a broader commitment to learn from acquired teams, experienced industry figures and other organizations.

"The goal is much bigger than just this one industry and being the best in this industry," he says. "The goal is about working collaboratively with these other organizations because we can accomplish so much more together."

Listen to the latest episode of our CEO: Behind the Scenes podcast with Nathan Hill on Amazon, Apple or Spotify.