Dr. Conville S. Brown, MD, MBBS, FACC, FESC, PhD.: Bringing Transformation to the Healthcare Sector in The Bahamas and Caribbean Countries

In July of 1990, when Dr. Conville S. Brown returned home to The Bahamas, he found that many of his family, friends, and countrymen could not afford his Cardiology Services, albeit because of the cost of Cardiology, not himself. He says, “Necessity is the Mother of Invention. It was either wait for the government or others to develop a cardiology service with infrastructure, (human & physical), or do it myself. I clearly chose the latter, over which I would have more control of my destiny, however difficult. I always wanted to be a doctor from early childhood and to help others.”  

Dr. Brown is the Chairman, President, CEO and Founder of The CSB5 Group Of Companies at The Medical Pavilion Bahamas. (The CSB5 Group is comprised of Dr. Conville S. Brown, Dr. Corrine Sin Quee-Brown, Conville Stephan Brown, Corey Samuel Brown and Dr. Chelsea Samantha Brown).    Having graduated from the University of the West Indies Medical School in 1982, he completed his residency in Internal Medicine and subsequently his fellowship in Cardiology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (6/1990). As a Healthcare Developer, he always felt that the initiation, development, and/or propagation of a healthcare service, especially advanced healthcare services, must be coupled with enhanced access to the less fortunate amongst us. Hence, that led to the development of his Signature Partnered Care Model, 3.0, in 1990.

The Partnered Care Model is originally a Tri-Partite Public-Private Partnership, (TPPPP). He recognised that the government, private, and user sectors could not afford the healthcare burden for his country alone, and thus recommended and enacted a partnership, (Private Sector Initiated and Led), to share the burden in an attempt to reduce costs and improve access. Insured

patients are billed 100% of the country’s fees, while self-paying private patients are billed 75%, thus receiving a 25% discount, and government patients, who are neither insured nor able to afford private care, are billed 50% of the fees, thus receiving a 50% discount. The Government then acts as a regulator and safety net while many such patients are able to access services on their own, now that billings would have been halved. There is little to no capital outlay for the Government while the Private Sector leads, funds and owns the service and infrastructure.

Hence his slogan,

“Controlling The Cost of Quality Healthcare While Providing Affordable Access To ALL Via Partnered Care!”

The Medical Pavilion Bahamas

The Medical Pavilion Bahamas, The Flagship Centre of Partnered Care, hosts a variety of advanced medical service offerings for Life-Threatening Catastrophic Illnesses including Heart, Cancer and Kidney Disease, with Dr. Brown’s Signature Partnered Care Model utilized routinely to make said services more affordable and hence accessible to ALL.

The Bahamas Centre for Heart Disease, Ltd., (BCHDL), doing business as The Bahamas Heart Centre, (BHC), first opened its doors in the summer of 1990. Dr. Brown, a young Bahamian cardiologist just starting out in private practise, came up with the idea to establish a private, free-standing facility to enable the development of comprehensive, ambulatory cardiac care after seeing the need to develop and expand cardiac services to battle the country’s leading killer. As a result,

The Bahamas Heart Centre – Bahamas Chest Centre, (BHC-BCC), was born in 1993, as a renovation of a 1,200 SF house to a State-Of-The-Art 10,000 SF Ambulatory Medical Facility.

This was accompanied by the introduction of a State-Of-The-Art Imaging Centre in The Bahamas Imaging Centre, (BIC), with multiple modalities including general radiology, nuclear medicine and nuclear cardiology services.

The Bahamas Chest Centre was formed to host The Cardiac and Chest Teams, inclusive of cardiovascular and chest specialists, (internal medicine, pulmonology, adult and paediatric cardiology, cardiac and thoracic surgery, and anaesthesia), collaborating with specialists from The Bahamas Heart Centre (clinical, non-invasive, invasive, and interventional cardiology). Since then, Dr. Brown’s aim of bringing the greatest cardiovascular medical care to The Bahamas and beyond has brought together a number of internationally renowned specialists.

The Centreville Medical Pavilion was conceived in late 2001, after 9-11, and the BHC-BCC evolved with the development of expanded facilities up to 30,000 SF and containing a State-Of-The-Art Cancer Centre in Radiation Therapy Services Bahamas Ltd., (RTSBL), in 2004, and later to be called The Cancer Centre Bahamas, (TCCB), in 2006. TCCB also became the Only Coveted American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO)-Accredited Cancer Centre in the world outside of North America.  

The Pavilion has since been renamed The Medical Pavilion Bahamas, (TMPB), at 40,000 SF, especially in anticipation of further centres within, and elsewhere, as in The Medical Pavilion Antigua, (TMPA), Home to The Cancer Centre Eastern Caribbean for The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, (OECS), 9 countries, 600-700,000 population.

Advancing in the Hospital & Health Care Industry

Having engineered and led a number of de nouveau advanced healthcare services over the past three (3) decades in The Bahamas via his Partnered Care Model, meant that The Bahamas had several such services long before many other Caribbean countries.

Dr. Brown’s Partnered Care Model, or variants thereof, were also utilized to facilitate the development of several similar Advanced Healthcare Services with a basis of improved access in the Bahamas and other countries where said variants were utilized:

• Guyana, 2008, Cardiac Surgery Program at The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.

• Antigua, 2015, State-Of-The-Art Radiation Therapy and Cancer Care for The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, (OECS), at The Cancer Centre Eastern Caribbean, (TCCEC), at The Medical Pavilion Antigua. Same developed by Dr. Brown at the invitation of then PM Baldwin Spencer in 2009 and endorsed by The OECS Heads of Governments’ Meeting in Anguilla, 11/2009, specifically using Dr. Brown’s Partnered Care Model.

• Jamaica, 2018, new private Interventional Cardiology Program and Cardiac Wing at Medical Associates Hospital following the Partnered Care Model via Partners Interventional Centre Jamaica, (PICJ).

Dr. Brown is a principal of the last two centres in Antigua and Jamaica.

Dr. Brown has developed several other centres for Advanced Healthcare Services at The Medical Pavilion Bahamas, including but not limited to: –

1.      The Breast Centre, 2008, the first free-standing facility dedicated to breast cancer screening, diagnosis, treatment, and support. Also the first to provide Digital Mammography and Computer-Assisted Diagnostics with Image-Guided Biopsies.

2.      The Dialysis Centre Bahamas Ltd., 2010, the western hemisphere’s first fully digital, non-reuse haemodialysis centre.

3.      The Partners Clinical Research Centre, 2011, has collaborated to bring world-class, ethical medical research to The Bahamas, with publications in the likes of the New England Journal of Medicine, (NEJM).

4.      The Partners Stem Cell Centre, 2012, is the first centre in The Bahamas to successfully perform Ethical Cardiac and Peripheral Vascular Stem Cell Implantations on October 11^th  2012, (10/11/12). Both of the forgoing are actively involved in international research and registries for innovative therapies better performed in The Bahamas as Advanced TransNational Medical Procedures where we exercise “FDA Rigour In Our Non-FDA Jurisdiction.”

5.      The Specialists’ Centre, 2016, A Surgical and Interventional Centre for Innovations, Diagnostic & Therapeutic, in Multiple Specialties as an Ambulatory Surgical Hospital and Interventional Centre, (ASHIC). Also serves as Home to The Institute for Advanced Medical Procedures, be they medical, surgical, interventional, device or pharma-based, as well as The Pavilion Interventional Cardiology Centre, (PICC).

6.      The Sunrise Medical Centre Hospital Complex, 1996, The first private hospital in The Bahamas outside of Nassau, situated in Freeport, and to serve Freeport, Grand Bahama and The Northern Bahamas. Was a mainstay of hospital-based care after the devastation of Hurricane Dorian for almost 2 years.

7.      The CSB5 Collins On Sixth Commercial Complex, 2020. A new 72,000 SF commercial and multipurpose complex that will set a new standard for the inner city of the Capital, Nassau.

Dr. Brown’s Definition of Success

Dr. Brown describes the intellectual, human and financial capital that facilitates success, while the absence or paucity of either component(s) can present major goal-impeding challenges with increasing levels of difficulty. A leader should lead by example and passion, and espouse and show the value of what he or she can do and promote To Help Others.

As per Dr. Brown, the status quo is not always the most efficient or efficacious, and expectedly, innovations can be enhancers or disruptive, and may therefore not be met with open arms, but more likely with roadblocks. Dr. Brown sees real success as the task and/or idea, vision for development, planning, implementing, executing, and accomplishing the same with benefits to others and the community. He says, “Without such efforts, more of those less fortunate will be denied access to Life-Saving, Advanced Healthcare Services; an absolute travesty of National and International Proportions and Implications.”

Attaining Global Recognition

In Partnered Care, The Private Sector typically leads the way in designing, developing, funding, owning, and operating healthcare infrastructure, and then providing said services at a reduced rate to government and self-paying patients, as mentioned above to improve access. The Model, thereby, has been able to provide many advanced healthcare services in several developing countries in the Caribbean, and at minimal capital outlay for low-resource governments and countries, as shown above.

In recent years, the Partnered Care Model 3.0 evolved to 5.0 to include Industry and Philanthropic Sectors to enhance the accomplishment of its mission, hence a Penta-Partite Public-Private Partnership, (PPPPP), for Advanced Healthcare Services.

At The CSB5 Group Of Companies, Dr. Brown is responsible for its vision, mission, overall operations and funding, as well as physician-in-chief, for all of its healthcare services. He also assists with administrative, financial, management, and clinical functions to varying degrees. The one word that truly describes him is “determined”. He was selected as Person Of The Year, 2009, in The Bahamas upon the Official International Utilization of his Partnered Care Model of Healthcare Development for Developing Countries, by Prime Minister Hon. Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda, and The OECS Heads of Governments, to develop The Cancer Centre Eastern Caribbean, for their nine (9) countries and some 600,000-700,000 population.

Wishes To Provide Affordable Healthcare That Is More Accessible  

Dr. Brown’s vision for The CSB5 Group of Companies, Healthcare Division, is to Develop Advanced Healthcare Services while making them as affordable as possible using his Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the form of his Partnered Care Model, 5.0, Penta-Partite Version with Private, Government, User, Industry and Philanthropic Sectors. He says, “I want to better establish our services, and improve access, even by the development of our own Payer System, (In Progress).

My Personal Goals: Lead The CSB5 Group of Companies to successful achievement of their goals, and Establish a Succession Plan to ensure continuity of these important services to our country and beyond.

Advice: Go For It And Do Not Allow Someone Else To Define You.”

Dr. Brown also wishes to encourage as many colleagues as possible to invest in advancing the healthcare systems in developing countries while ensuring maximum access to those whom they need to serve.

“Striving For Excellence With A HEARTy Smile

While Ensuring Affordable Access To ALL Via Partnered Care”