THE HEART OF THE MATTER

The healthcare industry is traditionally slow to disrupt. But now we have disruption. Major disruption. Besides introducing digital transformation into the conservative industry, heart surgeon Dr David Khoo also wants to avoid the ‘car workshop model’ of the healthcare industry and instead push for preventive care, RACHAEL PHILIP writes.

Risk pro ling, digital transformation and the Internet of Things are not phrases one expects to hear when interviewing a heart surgeon. But this is no ordinary heart surgeon. This is Dr David Khoo Sin Keat, doctorpreneur. He is the founder and medical director of iHEAL Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur, a 12-year-old heart hospital, located in a mall, with 32 beds, two operating theatres, a catheterisation lab, intensive care, the works.

Located at Mid Valley City, the award-winning boutique medical centre, focuses on heart and heart-related specialities. It does angioplasty, bypass surgery and even bariatric surgery, and is known as the centre in the country specialising in less invasive bypass surgery.

Dr Khoo performs all bypass surgeries on hearts actively beating and, if possible, without the assistance of the heart-lung machine, we are told.

And then this confession.

“I am a heart surgeon and I am trying to operate as little as I can, not because I am not good at it but I think it is not the way.”

Dr Khoo is tired but hopeful. He is tired of what he calls the ‘car workshop model’, an appellation for reactive healthcare, when patients go in to get treated after something’s gone wrong. But he is hopeful for the changes he plans to bring to society with the companies he helms.

“Heart disease is the number 1 cause of death in Malaysia. Some 40 Malaysians die every day from heart disease. This shouldn’t be the case as it is a highly preventable disease,” Dr David explains.

Preventive or proactive healthcare, using sophisticated equipment paired with digital technology, can lead to early detection. This together with wellness programmes can save lives, not to mention the RM9 billion in productivity loss to the Malaysian economy annually.

“At iHEAL, we are not trying to practice the ‘car workshop model’ we are in the business of promoting good health.

We want to keep people out of hospitals by identifying diseases that can lead to death and intervening early.”

Digitising Healthcare

Besides the iHEAL Medical Centre, established in 2010, the group is also home to iGLOW that brings healthcare to the community to engage and empower them to take charge of their health, and OurCheckup that delivers digital health programmes designed to improve healthcare by using data collected from connected devices, and guided by medical professionals.

“The crucial step of monitoring and collecting data is that it must be engaging so young people are interested in prevention. Young people like the idea that they are in charge of their own destiny.”

Mobile And Accessible

Dr David said the three important stages when looking at the evolution of a disease are prevention, early diagnosis & treatment and maintenance. In the prevention stage, iHEAL wants to educate the population, make it easy for them to get checked and empower them with the necessary knowledge to change their lifestyle.

Dr David is passionate about iHEAL Medical Group’s mission to combat heart disease using its holistic 3E approach. The rst step is to ENGAGE the population.

Here, iGLOW adopts its Wellbeing@ Workplace and 10pt Cardiovascular Heart Check to raise awareness and risk pro le the population. The next goal is to EASE. iHEAL Medical Centre o ers a boutique environment championing less invasive treatments and worldclass heart scanning capabilities.

And nally, to EMPOWER, OurCheckup’s HeartCheck app empowers patients to be able to selfmonitor their risk factors with the help of their doctors using a cloud-based health data repository.

He stresses the importance of going out to the workplace and doing risk pro ling with employees. This saw the creation of Wellbeing@ Workplace or W@W, a program that aims to reduce healthcare costs by digitising health data to produce a corporate wellness plan.

“We believe in going to the marketplace. Companies can install a screening Healthpod on their premises to capture sta health data. Based on this, our sta runs personalised quarterly programs and activities at the workplace. Together with an incentive scheme, we hope to bring about a transformation in the lifestyle of the employees.”

Accessibility also means empowering general practitioners to make the diagnosis of heart disease. Patients should only visit the heart specialist when they require treatment. With a 640-slice CT scanner, diagnosis of Coronary Artery Disease can be quick, less invasive, and less expensive and be clinched at the level of general practitioners.

Inner Conviction

Dr David’s transformation from doctor to doctorpreneur came from the conviction that healthcare is about keeping people out of hospitals.

“We should be looking at the heart of the matter, which is leading a healthy lifestyle, eating right, maybe even removing the sugar subsidy. But all this is not taking o and the car workshop model remains a xture in society.

”A quote from Sir Winston Churchill proved to be a turning point for the doctor.

“To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are guratively tapped on the shoulder and o ered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and tted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment nds them unprepared or unquali ed for that which could have been their nest hour.”

“I have the experience from my training and studies, and the opportunity was right there, I felt I had to forge a change.”

He goes on to look for a location to set up his hospital and to secure funding. While the rst was found, funding was slow to come. Divine intervention, however, provided the a rmation and strength he needed to carry out his mission.

He tells of an experience on board an aeroplane, returning from the USA, feeling dejected after a potential investor backed out, when the passenger next to him collapsed after su ering a heart attack. He responded, proceeded to resuscitate her and set a line. The ight was diverted to Taipei where the patient was dropped o

“What are the chances of having a heart attack on a plane and sitting next to a heart surgeon? She left the plane with a pulse. As a doctor I felt it rea rmed me in my calling. I returned home with renewed hope.

“I am grateful to the owner of Mid Valley because they waited one year for me to get my funding.”

He says it was his forwardlooking personality that helped him make that metamorphosis from a doctor to a doctorpreneur.

“Like a caterpillar transforming into a butter y, I felt I was moulded for this. I have what it takes to bring change to society and to the healthcare industry. I like this quote from Confucius: The essence of knowledge is having it, using it.

In the healthcare business, one’s heart must be in the right place, he explains. In this context, Dr David’s mantra of ‘not taking from society more than he can give back’ serves him well.

In 2018 Dr David clinched The Star Outstanding Business Awards – Male Entrepreneur of the Year. By then his hospital had treated over 60,000 patients from 70 countries.

Beyond Malaysia

Dr David’s dream does not end here. Next year, he hopes to start construction of a heart hospital together with a heart health ecosystem in Dili, Timor-Leste, and eventually in other cities in Southeast Asia.

“We are 12 years old; and it is time to expand. I believe the market is ready.

We have to be in the Southeast Asia business as our population is not big. What we do here in Malaysia can be replicated in other countries in the region.”

He is also looking at an IPO in 2024 to expand in Malaysia and beyond.

“Is my work making an impact in the lives of people? This is what I ask myself. This was the impetus when I started this. As Jack Ma put it: businesses in the 21st Century must impact society and to be sustainable, it must impact a greater part of society. In this way, one can make a lasting impact on society and leave a legacy, and I believe iHEAL falls into this category” says Dr David.”