When Tony Dalpiaz first started pharmacy school, he had a clear vision of his future.  

One day, he would run his own drugstore and divide his time between helping customers and hitting the slopes as much as possible. “I used to be a pretty extreme skier,” Tony says. “I love nothing more than the adrenaline from finding a good line in deep powder and just letting go.”

But life rarely turns out exactly how we plan. Instead of owning a drugstore, he became a clinical pharmacist, and for the past 26 years, he’s swapped his Wasatch powder days to help hundreds of patients treat their cases of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and Hepatitis C. If you ask him what altered his course, his answer is simple: the people.

Though Tony is far from extroverted, he can work with just about anybody, from patients of all ages to frustrated doctors looking for answers. His coworkers rave about him, and patients often send him thank-you notes—a considerable win for a pharmacist. Soft-spoken and slightly shy, Tony is most comfortable out of the spotlight, working behind the scenes to solve his own kind of mystery: which medications work best, and for whom?

“Tony is the guy who wants to be on the sidelines, cheering on the team,” says Kathryn Peterson, a gastroenterologist who first recruited Dalpiaz to join her department more than 26 years ago. “He is the strategist behind your winning touchdown, but he doesn’t need everyone to know it’s him.” 

Some 3 million people in the United States are infected with Hepatitis C, and another 2-3 million experience IBD. Symptoms can be unpredictable and unpleasant—some Hepatitis C patients may feel extreme fatigue or no symptoms at all, while IBD patients often experience diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting. Beyond those disruptions to daily life, many patients face potential long-term complications of their liver or heart if Hepatitis C or IBD are not cured. 

Medications have become both more complex and more expensive, driving many patients to pursue natural treatments and holistic medicines. Instead of dismissing their ideas, Tony serves as their private eye, viewing his job as a kind of detective’s work. He tracks down the science behind herbs and other alternative therapies to see how diseases may respond, then serves up his findings so patients can apply them however they choose. 

After that, he follows up and digs in: Is the treatment successful? Is the patient dealing with unintended side effects? Have they stopped taking their medication?  Is it too expensive? 

“It’s a very shared decision-making, patient-centered approach,” Peterson says. “That’s what Tony is all about. He doesn’t pass any judgement, one way or the other. He just tells them what we know. He is a big part of what sets the university apart from other health care systems.”

On his daily commute from Sandy to offices at Sugar House Health Center and University of Utah Hospital, Tony runs through a mental checklist for patients under his care. Did they receive their medication on time? Is there something he could do to improve their outcomes? 

Because he confirms what he already knows before providing answers, doctors and patients trust him implicitly. Helping patients who are dependent on meds to survive and thrive is one of Tony’s favorite parts of his job. 

“The teaching aspect of it is really rewarding,” he says. “I’ve seen some of my patients off and on for years — I know them and they know me. It’s important to me to make sure I connect with them so they understand why and how their therapies were chosen so they can live healthier lives.” 

Tony hopes he can expand that impact past his clinic walls by sharing his expertise with providers outside of Salt Lake Valley to help them become local experts. When colleagues in rural areas need guidance, Tony’s team can dial in to help with complex cases. He joins a regular video call with surgeons, nurses, and family practice doctors around the Mountain West—anyone who doesn’t regularly treat people with gut or liver issues—and provides weekly recommendations. This saves patients from needing to drive to Salt Lake City to receive expert care, which in turn saves time and money.

No day is like the other, but Tony prefers it that way. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is that things change, and yet they kind of stay the same,” Tony says. “You’re there to take care of patients. That always stays the same.”

As much as he loves skiing, Tony has come to love people more. Over the years, he’s sacrificed time on the mountain, but in exchange he’s empowered patients to take charge of their own health, connecting them with the interventions they need to live well. 

With them in mind, he knows one thing: even if he is not where he intended to be, life sometimes has a way of working out.