王焘出身官宦世家，曾长期掌管弘文馆书籍，得以博览宫廷所藏医籍。他历时数十年编成《外台秘要》，广泛辑录唐代及以前重要医方文献，保存了大量已散佚医籍的内容（如《小品方》等），是研究唐以前医学的重要文献汇编，「外台」取意其曾任地方官职，「秘要」意为珍秘要方。

Born into an official family, Wang Tao spent years overseeing the imperial library's collection, giving him access to a vast range of court-held medical texts. Over decades he compiled the Arcane Essentials from the Imperial Library, drawing together important medical formulas from the Tang dynasty and earlier — preserving substantial portions of texts that would otherwise have been lost entirely. The compilation remains an essential source for reconstructing pre-Tang Chinese medicine.