Same Company, Different Operating System: The Neurodiverse Journey of Carlos Bazan

Discover Viatris

By: Niki Kapsambelis

August 27, 2024

Here is a short list of things you should know about Carlos Bazan: he went to medical school at 30 -- after first attending law school - and put his talents as a cosmetic surgeon to work by helping vulnerable patients.

He produces audiobooks for commercial audiences and narrates free audiobooks for blind people. As a registered farmer in Central Florida, he grows the most delicious avocados and mangos.

And he is neurodivergent, something he strives every day to help people understand.

Six years ago, when Carlos was hired by one of Viatris' legacy companies, he felt lucky to have landed the job - because, despite his many accomplishments as a person on the autism spectrum (AS), he has sometimes struggled.

"All AS people are actors," he said, noting that neurodivergent people will sometimes imitate the gestures, speech, and walking patterns of people around them to try and fit in. If other people in the room laugh at a joke he doesn't understand, he will laugh, too. The effort can be exhausting, as is the fear that no matter how hard he tried, he didn't quite succeed in deciphering the people around him.

A high achiever by nature, Carlos loves rules, instructions that follow a logical sequence, and language that is mostly literal. Figures of speech - for example, "it's raining cats and dogs" - are lost on him, but there is one analogy he likes to use when explaining himself to others: "The autistic brain has nothing wrong in it. It is the same computer, all the hardware is OK," he said. "It just happens to use a different operating system."

Today, as a member of Viatris' Medical Affairs team, Carlos is the most senior pulmonary Medical Science Liaison, in charge of 12 states in the southeastern U.S.

Recognizing that neurodiversity is not necessarily visible, Carlos hopes that Viatris will pioneer inclusion so that people with autism will feel free to explain themselves to others and feel welcomed and included.

He said support might look like a subtle nod of approval during a presentation or providing more logical and detailed instructions for a task. It might also mean fine-tuning day-to-day operations and expectations to consider the differences of neurodiverse people.

"When a company is more inclusive, the business benefits," he pointed out.

"Teams that are more diverse will always provide a richer spectrum of answers and a wider range of innovative solutions," Carlos said. Neurodivergent people pay such great attention to detail and think so differently that they often come up with alternative solutions-from a different vantage point or a perspective that you (as a neurotypical person) didn't think about."

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