Dr. Conville S. Brown, MD, MBBS, FACC, FESC, PhD.: Bringing Transformation to the Healthcare Sector in The Bahamas and Caribbean Countries
Top 10 Black Executives Redefining Business in 2023
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 was 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 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. The same was 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 11th, 2012, (10/11/12). Both of the
forgoing is 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 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 Lifesaving, 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 C
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