ATEC Taps Former Proprio Exec Tommy Carls to Lead Data Intelligence

Alphatec (ATEC) announced that Thomas “Tommy” Carls joined the company in the newly created role of new executive VP of data intelligence and strategy. He will report to chairman and CEO Pat Miles and become a part of ATEC’s senior leadership team.

The new role will have Carls leading the Carlsbad, California-based spine surgery company’s development and marketing for EOSEdge, EOS Insight, data acquisition/analytics, and broader InformatiX strategy. His chief goal is to align global teams and capabilities and accelerate a strategy that turns patient and procedure data into actionable clinical insights.

Carls brings over 30 years of spine and medical technology experience. He’s held leadership roles spanning spinal implants, image-guided surgery, and robotics, most recently serving as VP of product and clinical at Proprio Vision, where he helped advance an AI-enabled surgical navigation platform.

Earlier, he spent more than two decades in executive roles at Sofamor Danek and Medtronic across engineering, product development, marketing, and global R&D roles. Carls holds over 80 patents, as well.

ATEC’s procedural ecosystem includes EOS imaging, EOS Insight, surgical planning, Valence navigation and robotics, SafeOp neuromonitoring and patient-specific solutions. Through InformatiX, the company aims to connect these capabilities with data and predictive analytics to inform care before, during, and after surgery and improve procedural consistency.

Comments from ATEC execs

Miles: “I have known and trusted Tommy for nearly 30 years. He has spent his career translating complex clinical needs into technologies that meaningfully advance spine surgery. Tommy is a student of spine. His depth of experience across implants, enabling technologies, imaging, software and clinical strategy makes him uniquely qualified to lead this next phase of our evolution. I am confident Tommy will help us accelerate the use of data and predictive analytics to make spine surgery better informed, more reproducible and personalized.”

Carls: “ATEC has assembled a distinctive set of technologies across imaging, procedural planning, navigation and robotics, neuromonitoring, and patient-specific solutions. The opportunity is to connect those capabilities and apply data and predictive analytics, so a patient-specific plan becomes a shared source of truth across the continuum of care. This will inform better decisions, improve execution and create a learning system that advances outcomes over time. I am excited to join Pat and the high-performing ATEC team, to help bring that vision to life.”

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