FM SEPTEMBER 2018 ISSUE - digital edition

straight talk
“MEDICAL CURRICULUM IN INDIA
IS MOSTLY THE SAME AS THAT
I STUDIED 40 YEARS AGO”
One of the serious concerns
in the Indian healthcare scenario
at present is the absence of a
compulsory continued medical
education (CME) system for doctors
to update themselves with the fastevolving
changes in medical science.
It is high time the government put
in place a strong law that restricts
the practice of doctors who do not
undergo a certain period/number of
well-designed and recognised CME
programmes every year. The Medical
Council, or any other competent
health authority, should have the
powers to make doctors comply
with this law, says Dr Azad Moopen,
Chairman, Aster DM Healthcare
Group, who built one of the largest
hospital networks in India and the
Middle East countries. Moopen, a
successful doctor-entrepreneur who
strongly believes that a fully updated
medical education system and a
medical fraternity abreast with the
latest knowledge is an essential part
of quality healthcare, engages
in Straight Talk with
C H UNNIKRISHNAN and
SUMIT GHOSHAL, Edited excerpts.
India is seeing an increasing trend of individual doctors
taking up multiple roles as clinician, researcher and
entrepreneur as they chase bigger growth trajectories in
life. You have been a very successful doctor-entrepreneur.
What is the key advice that you can give to the aspiring
entrepreneurs who want to set up hospital chains or
corporate hospitals?
Entrepreneurship needs a completely different skill-set.
The professional skills of a doctor may not always help one
to be successful as an entrepreneur. One very important
thing that these aspiring doctor-entrepreneurs must do is
a preparation, preferably for at least five years, by taking
a sabbatical to learn the different aspects of the business
before jumping into their own venture. This includes a deep
study on market opportunities in multiple geographies, as
it could be a multi- or single-speciality hospital, or even
creating a completely different model to cater to a need that
exists. Another important requirement is to get trained in
management. Would-be entrepreneurs should do a 2- to
3-year internship at a large hospital or a course in a reputed
institute on the management of finance, HR, technology and
so on. This will help them avoid many mistakes that a maiden
entrepreneur could potentially make. They may think that it
can be managed, but the fact remains that a professional
approach is required in all these aspects. Frankly speaking,
I haven’t done this . I learnt it by committing mistakes, and
from my experience, I can say that they can avoid most of
those mistakes with this preparation. The third important
thing is the access to funding, where you have to have good
people or institutions who are on the same wavelength of
thoughts to support you. It is also important that, at the same
time, one should also look at access to capital from a bank
or an institution. But, one thing that they should make sure is
that the leveraging of loans should be at a respectable level,
because the debt:equity position for the hospital business
cannot be compared with that of other businesses. A hospital
will take at least 5 to 10 years to establish its brand and gain
patient trust, and it is easy for one to get into a debt-trap if
they can’t hold on until that time.
You mentioned that updating the skill-set and
knowledge are the most important elements in a quality
58 / FUTURE MEDICINE / SEPTEMBER 2018