Thomas Kasperek is Co-Founder and Practice Manager of the Dr. Lily David Institute of Health & Healing — a faith-based, whole-person telemedicine practice serving patients nationwide. In this episode, he joins host Mark Anthony to talk about the story behind the Institute, its name, and the mission he and his wife, board-certified physician Dr. Daphne Kasperek, built it around: treating the root cause of illness rather than just managing symptoms.
The Institute is named for Thomas's mother-in-law, Dr. Lily David. The conversation traces how that family connection became the foundation for a practice built around a different premise than most conventional care — that healing has to address spirit, soul, and body together, not just the physical symptom in front of a doctor.
Key Takeaways
- The Dr. Lily David Institute is named for Thomas Kasperek's mother-in-law, and was co-founded with his wife, board-certified physician Dr. Daphne Kasperek.
- It's a direct-to-patient telehealth practice — nationwide, and structured specifically to avoid the friction of insurance middlemen.
- The clinical approach combines functional and regenerative medicine, centered on root-cause care rather than symptom management.
- Thomas's background is in pastoral care and Christian counseling, which he says directly shapes the Institute's whole-person — spirit, soul, and body — model of healing.
- Personalized, compassionate care is the stated center of the Institute's philosophy, rather than a standardized treatment protocol.
A Practice Named for Family
Thomas explained that the Institute's name isn't a marketing choice — it's personal. Dr. Lily David is his mother-in-law, and the practice he and his wife built carries her name as its foundation. That family thread runs through how he described the Institute's mission throughout the conversation: less a standard clinic brand, more an extension of a family commitment to a particular way of caring for people.
Root-Cause Care Over Symptom Management
A recurring theme was the distinction between treating a symptom and treating what's actually driving it. Thomas described the Institute's clinical work as combining functional and regenerative medicine — approaches aimed at identifying and addressing the underlying cause of a patient's condition, rather than prescribing something to mask what shows up on a chart.
Whole-Person Healing: Spirit, Soul, and Body
Thomas's own background is in pastoral care and Christian counseling, not clinical medicine — and he was direct about how much that shapes the Institute's approach. The practice is explicitly faith-based, built on the premise that healing has to account for spirit and soul alongside the physical body, not just the physical complaint that brought a patient in.
Telehealth Without the Insurance Middlemen
The Institute operates as a direct-to-patient telehealth practice, serving patients nationwide rather than out of a single physical location. Thomas framed this as a deliberate choice: working directly with patients instead of through insurance removes a layer of friction he sees as getting in the way of personalized, compassionate care — the value he described as sitting at the center of everything the Institute does.
