Pharmacist Spotlight: Brandon Welch, PharmD

Pharmacy Times: Can you walk us through your career path and what ultimately led you into sports pharmacy?

Brandon Welch, PharmD: My path into sports pharmacy really started with a lifelong passion for sports and training. I grew up playing and watching sports and continued that into adulthood as a competitive runner, so performance, recovery, and athlete health were always personal interests. As I began my career as a pharmacist, I kept asking myself how I could combine my clinical training with my background in athletics.

That curiosity led me to take graduate coursework at the University of South Florida in kinesiology and physiology with a focus on human performance. [Through my coursework,] it became clear to me that pharmacists could play a critical role in protecting athlete health and ensuring safe, compliant medication and supplement use.

I started writing and educating on these topics through a publication I launched, Sports Pharmacy magazine, which helped build awareness of the pharmacist’s role in sports medicine. That work ultimately led to my recruitment into a clinical sports pharmacist role at Baptist Health South Florida, where I was able to integrate pharmacy directly into athlete care. From there, my focus has been on advancing the field of sports pharmacy and helping bridge the gap between performance, safety, and evidence-based medication use in athletes.

Pharmacy Times: What moment or experience solidified your passion for sports pharmacy and made you realize this was the avenue where you wanted to make an impact?

Welch: The moment that really solidified my passion was during graduate coursework in human performance, specifically an ergogenic aids class that focused on performance-enhancing supplements. Learning how often athletes unintentionally risk doping violations or use products without proper guidance made me realize there was a major gap in education and safety.

Pharmacy Times: For pharmacists and students who may be unfamiliar with this niche, how do you define sports pharmacy?

Welch: Sports pharmacy is a specialized area of pharmacy practice focused on optimizing the health, safety, and performance of patient-athletes and physically active individuals. It involves ensuring medications and supplements are used safely and effectively.

Pharmacy Times: What inspired you to start the Sports Pharmacy Network, and how do you see it shaping the role of pharmacists in athletic and performance-focused care?

Welch: My experience as a clinical sports pharmacist at Baptist Health South Florida exposed me to the power of true interdisciplinary care and shared decision-making in sports medicine. Being embedded within the sports medicine team, I saw firsthand the value a pharmacist could bring in supporting athlete health, safety, and performance. At the same time, it became clear there was a significant knowledge gap around the clinical expertise a sports pharmacist can offer and how that role fits into athlete care. I see the network helping shape the future of sports pharmacy by more intentionally integrating pharmacists into sports medicine teams, advancing clean sport education, strengthening medication management for athlete care, and providing evidence-based supplement guidance. Ultimately, our goal is to position pharmacists as essential contributors to athletic and performance-focused care, hopefully to one day see them on the sidelines.

Pharmacy Times: What opportunities do you believe hold the most promise for pharmacists interested in sports medicine, performance optimization, or athlete health—and what advice would you give someone considering this path?

Welch: There is growing opportunity for pharmacists in sports medicine through colleges of pharmacy that collaborate with university athletic departments, health systems that serve as medical providers for professional teams, community and consulting pharmacy roles, and positions like Team USA pharmacists who support medication management and supplement safety at the Olympic level. As awareness of the pharmacist’s value in athlete care expands, so do the ways we can contribute.

For those considering this path, my advice is to build a strong clinical foundation while actively seeking exposure to sports pharmacy through rotations, research, professional organizations, attending a sports pharmacy summit, and networking with practicing sports pharmacists who can offer mentorship. It’s a niche that continues to grow, and being proactive, collaborative, and well-versed in both clinical care and performance-focused medicine can open meaningful opportunities to make an impact.