Expanding its reach abroad

Pacific Healthcare's latest foray into India taps into the growing demand for aesthetic medicine in the subcontinent, reports TAN SU YEN

A PATIENT getting dental implants at Pacific Healthcare walks into Dr William Chong's dental surgery confident that he will go home with shiny, new teeth by the end of the day. The same emphasis on rapid tests and rapid results - or fulfilment, as the case may be - is to be found in just about all of Pacific Healthcare's specialties from aesthetic medicine to cardiology, O&G to ENT. The reason is obvious - the group's patients are typically affluent and time-strapped businessmen or professionals, and their family members.

Says Dr William Chong, executive director and CEO of Pacific Healthcare Holdings: 'People who have built successful businesses or who are at the peak of their professions can't afford to wait around. They want top quality healthcare but they may only be able to set aside one day for their health needs or those of their loved ones. With regional patients, we may even be looking at half a day. It is not uncommon for patients to fly home directly after an appointment with us.'

Set up in 2000 to offer quality medical specialist services under one roof, Pacific Healthcare's emphasis on a quick turnaround has helped the group win over many foreign patients. Today, 53 per cent of the group's patients are foreigners, including expatriates living in Singapore and medical tourists from the region. Indonesians form the bulk or up to about 75 per cent of medical tourists with the rest coming from Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Indochina and the Indian subcontinent.

Says Dr Chong: 'Patients from the region generally look to us for preventive healthcare and cosmetic medical and dental procedures. They have a great deal of confidence in Singapore's reputation for world class medical services.'

Equally confident about its prospects, Pacific Healthcare is actively extending its reach beyond its headquarters in Orchard Road's upscale Paragon building. The group recently signed a memorandum of understanding with India's Wadia Group to set up a cosmetic medical specialist centre followed by a full-scale medical spa in Mumbai. The cosmetic medical specialist centre to be set up under a 50:50 joint venture is expected to cost S$1 million and will feature Pacific Healthcare's core competencies such as plastic surgery, dermatology, and cosmetic and implant surgery. Says Dr Chong: 'The Wadia Group runs two hospitals and operates several healthcare businesses in India so they are well-placed to help us establish a presence in Mumbai, India's largest and most trend-setting city. Our venture with Wadia ties in perfectly with our business philosophy of combining financial prudence with strategic growth and expansion.'

The Mumbai venture isn't Pacific Healthcare's first foray into India. It has been operating a medical centre providing multi-disciplinary specialist healthcare services, laboratory, diagnostic radiology and aesthetic services in Hyderabad since 2005. The centre currently operates out of rented premises but Pacific Healthcare expects to complete construction of a hospital incorporating a medical specialist centre by 2008.

Winning approach to patient care

Pacific Healthcare offers elective medicine and specialist medical disciplines built around patient needs, reports TAN SU YEN

DENTAL surgeon Dr William Chong isn't the sort to baulk at the thought of marching to the rhythm of a different drumbeat. As a young dental surgeon in the '80s, he took time out from the demands of practising dentistry to pursue his research interests in what was then the emerging field of bone regeneration and dental implants. Today, Dr Chong is widely recognised as a leading clinician and lecturer in Implant Dentistry not just in Singapore but also in the region where he is a course director and examiner with the Australian Society for Implant Dentistry.

In 2000, another sort of challenge beckoned. Together with fellow dental surgeon Dr Sandra Chu and top plastic surgeon Dr Martin Huang, Dr Chong identified a gap in the healthcare market, which was a dearth of integrated healthcare providers. To plug the gap, the trio turned medical entrepreneurs and recruited a team of reputable specialists from the main disciplines in medicine and dentistry to form MD Specialist Healthcare.

The key founding members of this group are Dr John Tan (general and vascular surgery), Dr Lim Tai Tian (cardiology), Dr Yung Shing Wai (orthopaedic surgery), Dr Lee Wei Hong (OBGYN), Dr Damian Png (Urology), Dr Ravi Seshadri (Otolaryngology), Dr Adrian Tan (neurology), and Dr David Tay (prosthetic dentistry).

The group soon grew rapidly with the addition of more specialists. All the medical and dental practices were eventually aggregated under a larger holding company, and thus was born integrated healthcare provider Pacific Healthcare.

Says Dr Chong, who is an executive director and chief executive officer of Pacific Healthcare Holdings Ltd: 'Back in the late '90s Martin and I were seeing many patients who wanted to have cosmetic surgery and their teeth fixed at the same time. However, many of these patients were slightly older, and often overweight with attendant problems like diabetes and a higher risk of heart disease. We felt that putting together a team of specialists that would combine the elective surgery we perform with healthscreening and medical management for these patients was not just prudent, it was simply good healthcare.'

It was also a move that resonated with the cash-rich and time-strapped medical tourists who formed the bulk of their patient base. Says Dr Chong: 'Many of our patients were foreigners, so the challenge was to deliver a higher quality of care under one roof in the truncated time that they had here in Singapore.'

Today, 13 out of the original 15 in the team of specialists from 2000 are still with the group. Over the last six years, Pacific Healthcare has widened its reach to encompass specialist medical care, general practice, dentistry, health screening, wellness services as well as the operation of nursing homes, day surgery centres and a psychiatric hospital. This multi-disciplinary approach to healthcare yields benefits that transcend practicalities. Dr Chong explains: 'Having all the disciplines under one roof makes things more convenient for patients, but more than that, it allows for active collaboration between specialists of different disciplines and this yields clear clinical advantages for the patient.'

Dr Chong illustrates his point with the example of a sinus infection, a common problem afflicting many working adults. He says: 'In many cases, maxillary sinusitis has a dental origin. The infection from a badly decayed tooth actually spreads from the tooth into the jaw bone and out of the jaw bone into the sinus cavity. There is an actual communication between the mouth and the nose that manifest itself as sinusitis. Treating either the tooth alone or simply washing out the sinuses will not solve the problem. The ENT surgeon and the dental surgeon have to treat the patient concurrently and the dental surgeon can then close the defect from the oral cavity.'

The group's core competencies in the fields of cosmetic surgery and aesthetic medicine, cardiology, obstetrics & gynaecology, and implant & aesthetic dentistry cleverly combine the allure of elective medicine with quality specialist medical care. In elective medicine, Pacific Healthcare's particular strength lies in identifying conditions that are most effectively treated through a combination of aesthetic medicine and aesthetic dentistry.

Take, for example, patients who complain that their faces continue to look larger and chubby despite dieting, exercise and losing weight. According to Dr Chong, more often than not the problem is related to constant teeth grinding that leads to enlarged jaw muscles or masseters. In addition, many of these patients have widened cheek and jaw bones.

'In many of these cases the problem manifests itself as a broken tooth. So after I treat the broken tooth with a crown or implant, I often refer the patient to plastic surgeon Dr Martin Huang who may inject some Botox into the jaw muscles and possibly 'slim down' the face further with surgical contouring of the cheek and/or jaw bones. 'The Botox reduces the biting forces and cuts down the teeth grinding. The interesting thing is that when you tell patients that Botox reduces the biting forces, they may not respond as fast, but when you tell them it will slim down their jaw line, they sit up and take notice.'

Another example of how aesthetic medicine complements aesthetic dentistry and vice versa is illustrated in the case of a woman patient in her late sixties whose smile didn't quite match her rejuvenated facial features (see accompanying photos). Dr Chong explains that because our chin muscles weaken as we age, only the lower teeth were visible when the patient smiled. To improve her smile, Dr Chong, trimmed the patient's lower teeth and covered them with porcelain crowns on the same day and repositioned her gum. Not surprisingly, the patient's smile was vastly improved after her treatment.

Looking ahead, Pacific Healthcare is set to continue providing high-end specialist healthcare services integrating the latest technology with the best standards of professional care. If Dr Chong has his way, this focus on quality healthcare will be adopted consistently throughout the group from trauma situations such as stroke management to preventive procedures like health screening.

Dr Chong explains: 'Take, for example, something as fundamental as a blood test. You could take a very basic approach and simply test for cholesterol and triglyceride levels. However, over and above these you can look at things like homocysteine, C-reactive protein or insulin levels to get a clearer picture of the patient's risk of heart disease or diabetes. These are the next level of tests that offer a better insight into the patient's actual risk profile.

'At the same time, just because all these different tests are there doesn't mean we run every test on every patient. What we should be concentrating on is finding the right combination of tests for that particular patient. Regardless of the technological advances we now enjoy, medicine is still about the human touch. We must always bear in mind that the patient is an individual, not a disease entity.'

Source: Business Times, 27 October 2006