VitalLife Scientific Wellness Center bags two Healthcare Asia Awards

It won the Patient Care Initiative of the Year and Service Delivery Innovation of the Year awards.

Incorporating a precision and personalized medical approach, VitalLife Scientific Wellness Center introduces the future of medicine that tailors prevention, diagnosis, and treatment to a person’s unique biochemical and genetic makeup, lifestyle and environmental exposures.

Its international, culturally sensitive patient care system is committed to creating a positive patient experience that pays careful attention to every service detail before, during, and after care.

For this, VitalLife bagged two awards during the recently concluded Healthcare Asia Awards 2019.

Winning both, Patient Care Initiative of the Year Award and Service Delivery Innovation of the Year Award for Thailand, VitalLife has further affirmed its status as a gamechanger in the industry.

VitalLife offers an alternative approach from traditionally lumping patients together under a broad category of diseases. Considering a patient’s unique biochemical and genetic makeup as well as his or her lifestyle, this personalized medical approach has ensured a more successful outcome.

With this innovation, the company assures early detection of disease at the molecular level. VitalLife's personalized and precision approach has also reduced harmful side effects and has contained costs compared to a trial-and-error approach to disease treatment.

Esperance, VitalLife’s integrative cancer center, has also successfully implemented key aspects of this innovative model into cancer care.

Esperance doctors utilise DNA sequencing technologies for early detection, management and personalized treatment.

Using special algorithms, a computer scours data on thousands of gene variants, hundreds of anticancer drugs, and millions of drug combinations in order to find the treatment that best targets the tumor’s abnormalities. VitalLife is the only facility in Thailand that uses DNA sequencing with the renown IBM Watson for Genomics system. Personalized treatment therapies may include new immune or virotherapies, old-line chemotherapy, hormone therapies, or drugs that are not specifically approved for cancer.

Oncologists at Esperance select the appropriate drug for each patient according to his or her unique tumor profile. This precision approach in conjunction with complementary cancer therapies has led to a five-fold higher Stage IV cancer survival rate when compared to patients who have been treated with conventional therapies only.

VitalLife's care model aims to empower patients to take charge of their own health.

The company provides colorful, easy to understand educational resources that offer basic scientific explanations about each patient's lab markers as well as science-based lifestyle, nutrition and supplement recommendations.

Thanks to this initiative, VitalLife saw a 35% improvement in patient compliance and treatment outcomes.

VitalLife has also expanded this method for treating Alzheimer’s disease.

With help from avant garde software, VitaLife physicians analyse the underlying pathologic drivers of Alzheimer’s, which include genetic variations, insulin resistance, poor diet and sleep, lack of exercise, chronic inflammation, and toxicity.

High risk patients are then educated about these modifiable drivers as VitalLife physicians introduce preventive therapies to improve sub-optimal biomarkers linked to Alzheimer’s disease, since early intervention is key to developing effective therapy for this disease.

Besides developing an innovative approach to patient care, VitalLife has also implemented the InterSystems TrakCare electronic medical record (EMR) systems that unifies patient administration and clinical capabilities.

Upon implementation, the hospital has achieved high patient satisfaction ratings. Due to the use of electronic communications, journey time for patients has been reduced, making the entire admission, treatment and recovery process more efficient.

The initiative has also cut down the company’s carbon footprint as its paper usage dramatically decreased.

To cater to all patients, even those who hail from far and wide, VitalLife, together with Bumrungrad, provides a special department devoted to international patients at the Medical Coordination Office (MCO).

Comprised of more than 250 care experts from over 35 countries, this special department ensures that the barriers of distance and language will not hinder patients from receiving world-class healthcare.

Their unique and complimentary services have been designed to provide streamlined access and individual cultural support for international patients, with the MCO team serving as a guide and partner for them before, during, and after their medical care.

Prior to patient care, VitalLife’s international MCO team pairs the patient with a compassionate and knowledgeable member of the international medical concierge who speaks the patient’s preferred language and adheres to the patient’s culture.

The concierge schedules medical appointments with the most appropriate doctors or specialists and organizes the patient’s transportation and accommodation for the medical visit.

The concierge also assists with visa requirements as well as financial and billing arrangements so that the patient’s medical visit can be as comfortable and convenient as possible.

During care, the assigned concierge will be by the patient’s side to answer questions, provide language interpretation services and accompany the patient to his or her appointments. He or she will also confirm the patient’s financial arrangements and connect the patients’ family with any religious or spiritual needs.

After treatments, the MCO team answers post-care questions and addresses concerns about the patient’s medical treatment and follow-up care. As each patient becomes part of the VitalLife family, care continues even after treatment.

The Healthcare Asia Awards 2019 was held on May 23, 2019 at the Conrad Centennial Singapore.

This year's nominations were judged by a panel consisting of Abhay Bangi, Partner, Life Sciences & Healthcare Lead, Ernst & Young; Dr. Loke Wait Chiong Executive Director, Healthcare Sector Leader, Deloitte; Dr. Zubin Daruwalla, Director, SEAC Health Industries Leader, PwC; Chin Chee Choon, Advisory Leader, Nexia TS; and Willy Leow, Partner, Risk Advisory Services, BDO LLP.

Check out the event photos during the awards night here.

If you would like to join the 2020 awards and be awarded as one of the most outstanding healthcare companies in the region, please email Julie Anne Nuñez at [email protected].