Futuristic. Smart. State-of-the-art. None of these adjectives can really do justice to King Hamad American Mission Hospital and the vision of the man behind the shiniest new jewel in the Kingdom’s healthcare crown. A vision that places the preservation of health, and innovation, building a healthcare ecosystem and growing medical tourism in the nation at the forefront of its strategy.
Life N Style spoke to Dr George Cheriyan, Corporate CEO and Chief Medical Officer of the American Mission Hospital, who gave us a tour of the mammoth (72,615 sqm) King Hamad American Mission Hospital complex in A’ali with its sprawling (14,615 sq m) landscaped garden area before it officially opens its doors to patients.
You said in your speech at the inauguration, that KHAMH is a futuristic, smart hospital with technologies designed to create a holistic healing environment that extends beyond the four walls of the hospital – please tell us more about these technologies as we stand beside this lush green garden, which I believe is your effort to provide a healing environment and hosts a 500 underground parking area underneath.
Dr George Cheriyan: The concept of healing should include healing of the body, mind and spirit of man. But, for long, healthcare has just focused on the body. If you don’t attend to the mind, which is responsible for 80% of all somatic illnesses, you would only be healing the patient partly, not wholly.
When we conceived this new hospital, our aim was ‘holistic healing’. It was to bring nature within the four walls of a hospital, or at least as close together as possible. It was also to take technology within the four walls of a hospital, outside into the community, and into the patients’ homes. That’s because patients heal best in their home environments.
And how can technology help that healing? Within the four walls of the hospital, we have paid particular attention to the glass that brings in natural light and that shows the beautiful greenery outside. We have fountains and water features that actually provide the soothing calmness that the mind needs.
But more importantly, we also have technology that will also allow us to take this healing into the homes of patients where they feel most relaxed. Thanks to emerging tech like IoT – Internet of Things – from our command centre in the hospital, we can soon easily monitor and help the patients who are in their homes.
It is from this concept of holistic healing that the future of health comes.
This world-class hospital will doubtless increase medical tourism to the Kingdom as you have tied up with one of the best hospitals in the world. Tell us about these associations and what they will bring to KHAMH.
Dr George Cheriyan: A smart hospital by itself does not make for a world-class healthcare system. It involves multiple other links within the ecosystem.
Even Mayo Clinic, the world’s best hospital, on its own, is not a global healthcare system. It provides care for patients who go to Mayo. Similarly, this King Hamad American Mission Hospital by itself doesn’t make for a total healthcare system.
It is when our hospital collaborates across geographic boundaries and when we exchange expertise in technology, that we can build an ecosystem that is effective.
We knew, right at the outset, that collaboration is the only way. And that it will have a ripple effect. Our collaborations can make us, truly and totally, world-class.
The Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI), which has a 300-year history, has got a branch here in Bahrain for 15 years. It is a not-for-profit organization with a long legacy, like AMH. They have been training with us for years but now RCSI has got its own location on the fifth floor of our new hospital. So, ours is a teaching hospital for RCSI students. And our collaboration brings in research and training, with teaching.
Collaborations also help in attracting good physicians and surgeons, who can prepare and train a new generation of healthcare providers. These collaborations will go a long way in bolstering Bahrain’s healthcare ecosystem.
With Mayo Clinic, through our first phase of collaboration, we are aiming to bring the very best to Bahrain. And Mayo is not easy to partner with; because its standards are very high.
So unless they see that there is synergy in this partnership, they would not collaborate, and in that aspect, we feel we have delivered for the country.
What are the new areas/specializations that you will be expanding into with the KHAMH?
Dr George Cheriyan: At the opening of the King Hamad American Mission Hospital, I said this is not just another hospital.
It is world-class expertise that is locally delivered. If you need a consult, for a complicated problem, you don’t have to travel all the way, either to Mayo or to any other place. You can come here, and we would source that expertise for you.
Concierge medicine is to bring to the patient, affordable, high-quality, healthcare that is world-class. At King Hamad American Mission Hospital, we can do that regardless of speciality.
So I believe we have every specialty here and if a patient needed something very special, exclusive, or rare within primary, secondary, or tertiary care then King Hamad American Mission Hospital can source it. And deliver it at an affordable cost to the patient.
The hospital was launched on the 26th of January 2023, to coincide with the date the first AMH was set up in 1903, for this, the construction work was carried out all through the COVID period – tell us about how you managed this mammoth operation while simultaneously handling the patient influx and care during the pandemic?
Dr George Cheriyan: Yes. The opening was exactly on the day on which our first hospital opened 120 years ago.
However, this wasn’t planned. We planned to have the hospital completed in about 24 months by around November 2022. But, as we were nearing completion, we realized that celebrating the 120th anniversary, which falls on the 26th of January, with the official opening date of the new hospital would be wonderful.
For this to happen, we had an excellent project management team on site. That’s what kept the project moving.
The joker in the pack, however, was COVID. So at any one point, we had up to a thousand people working on-site. A thousand people! We put a clinic in the heart of the building site to make sure that we screened the people who came in, to build here.
The American Mission Hospital is said to be the first hospital in the Arabian Gulf. And it has a long association with Bahrain. Tell us how did it all begin?
Dr George Cheriyan: You see, the modern history of Bahrain is strongly connected to our hospital. the founder, Samuel Zwemer came here in 1892 and started a little dispensary in the Manama Souq. That was 130 years ago!
In a couple of years, he went to Baghdad, met and married British-born Australian missionary nurse Amy Wilkes and brought her to Bahrain. And together, they treated and cared for the patients in their first dispensary near the Hindu temple in the souq area.
Later they moved to a house where the Al Raja School stands today. It was, in fact, Amy Wilkes Zwemer who started the school. She called it the Acorn School which became the American Mission School, and which later became known as the Al Raja School.
Seeing the acute need for healthcare here, the Zwemer couple kept requesting the Arabian Mission organization for a full-fledged hospital run by trained physicians. And that’s how, the doctor couple, Sharon J Thoms and Marion Wells Thoms, from the University of Michigan, arrived in Bahrain in 1900. These American missionaries requested the then Hakim of Bahrain, Shaikh Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa, to sell them a piece of land to build a hospital. And after they bought it, they built it and opened it in 1903. It was originally called ‘Mason Memorial Hospital’ because a family from New York, with the name Mason, donated substantial amounts for its construction.
What is the most valuable piece of advice that you have got? And what is the advice as a medical professional you would like to share with our readers?
Dr George Cheriyan: The piece of advice that I’ve got is, “Always stay humble”. There are always people who know far more than you and are far smarter than you. And that is true.
The advice I would give to your readers is to remember that health is the most precious commodity. You can have everything in life but, if you do not have health, you have nothing.
It is up to us to preserve health. The future of healthcare is keeping people healthy, rather than fixing health when people have lost it. So the only advice I have for people is — stay healthy. That is your biggest life savings.
While this is just a fragment of our profound conversation with Dr Cheriyan, the true essence of the interview can be enjoyed through the video. Click on the link to watch the full video
