Rising from the confluence of the travel and wellness industries, and driven by increased demand for alternative and natural remedies, medical tourism has emerged as a strong and momentous trend across business sectors. In the latest episode of The Polymath Project, Blueliner CEO Arman Rousta was joined by special guest Shomari Scott of Health City, the preeminent medical tourism hospital in the Caribbea, for an exciting discussion of the impact and future of medical tourism.
The interview in its entirety can be viewed below, or accessed through the following, unabridged transcript.
ARMAN ROUSTA:
All right. Good afternoon everybody, and welcome to The Polymath Project. Today is Thursday, July 20th, 2023. I hope everyone’s having a wonderful summer so far. I am very excited today to have an old and longtime friend, colleague, a man that I respect greatly for the things he’s done both personally and professionally. Shomari Scott, welcome to the show. I’ll give a brief background and then we’ll speak to Shomari’s vast experience. He’s currently Chief Business Officer at Health City, Cayman Islands, one of the preeminent medical tourism hospitals and medical facilities in the Caribbean and the world. He’s been at that post for 10 years, and we’ve worked together, me from the Blueliner side, during that period. And before that, Shomari was the director of tourism for the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism and did a fantastic job there. And he’s a father of three, an amazing family man, friend, sports fanatic . . . We’re going to get into all that during the conversation today. Shamari, welcome to the show, man. Thanks for coming on.
SHOMARI SCOTT:
Oh, man, it’s great to be here. Great to be here, and great to see you as well. And, you know all those great things you said about me, you know I’ll pay you afterwards. <Laughs>
ARMAN:
<Laughs>. Hey, man, we go back a long time, but it’s a shame that I haven’t seen you in person in a while. Obviously we had the whole Covid situation, but I miss seeing you and I’ve missed that beautiful set of islands. A lot of people don’t know about those sister islands. It’s like one of the best kept secrets there in Cayman. How’s life days?
SHOMARI:
Yeah, as, as you can see, I have the palm trees behind me and the beautiful Caribbean Sea there. Life is great in the Cayman Islands. Obviously we had a little bit of a bump in the road with Covid but this year tourism has been going bang buster, so you definitely need to get back. The great thing is that all of our hotels and restaurants used the break during Covid to spruce up all of the facilities or to have new additions to the facilities and new service lines. So even though the Cayman Islands has always been high quality as a tourism destination prior to Covid, now we’re even much further ahead just due to all of those investments. So our tourism is going great. All the restaurants are full, the hotels are full. The beaches are still as beautiful as they were before. And we even have a few attractions in addition to what we had previously. So everybody’s great here in the Cayman Islands.
ARMAN:
Oh, man. That really making me itch to come out. And before we jump into the business side and all that, let’s actually stay on this, because this is very exciting to me. And I think for our audience—and by the way, welcome our audience who’s in from LinkedIn Live. It’s the first time we’re going through LinkedIn live. I think that it’s great. LinkedIn is the professional business network. So it makes sense that presentations and thought leadership and education . . . these kind of conversations would be very useful there. And we’ve connected to different groups in the wellness space as well as tourism. So welcome to anyone who’s joining from there. So let’s, let’s stay on this because we’ve worked with and come there so many times, and I always tell the story to people that when you work with the Cayman Islands, and this was when you were in the post of director, you can’t be an agency or do marketing for the Cayman Islands without coming and experiencing the product. That’s like a mandate that you guys have. And it makes sense. Those, those fam trips, those tours are just so wonderful, so wonderful, so many experiences, Stingray City, et cetera. So what are some of these new attractions? I mean, maybe give me one or two. I know you have a big crowded house there with mostly boys, right? What are some of the things the boys like? What’s cool for different groups coming in?
SHOMARI:
We always have those true and tested attractions, Stingray City, which many years ago now– you aged me by talking about how long I was in tourism <laughs> and working with you, but, still to this day, the Stingray City tour is one of the best outdoor adventure tours in the world. And it’s in the wild. So you actually take a boat out to an area where you can actually stand in the sand. So it’s in the middle of the sea, but then you get to stand in the sand and with your tour guide you’re actually able to feed the stingrays, touch the stingrays. It’s like velvet underneath. And the top is like a cat’s tongue. So it’s an interesting texture. So it’s a puppy’s tongue underneath a cat’s tongue on top. I remember TripAdvisor saying we had the number one adventure tour in the world, three years running based on one of the tour operators that was specifically going to Stingray City. So that’s always very unique. The only place you can actually touch stingrays in the wild, very safe. And that’s still one of the top attractions.
ARMAN:
And don’t forget kissing the Stingray.
SHOMARI:
Right. And the seven years of good luck. No, I must admit, I haven’t gone as far as kissing the Stingray, but many of us have. Many of us have. But I haven’t done that. I save my kisses for special people.There you go. But now just to mention that, what’s really been taking off, and it would’ve been towards the tail end of my career at the Department of Tourism, is Crystal Caves. And it’s a natural habitat that’s in their Eastern districts. So Seven Mile Beach is your cosmopolitan area. You have the Kimpton, the Ritz, beautiful beaches, lots of restaurants. And then if you want a more rustic type of vacation, you can even come to the eastern side of the island, which, right there, nestled within a lot of the condos and the few hotels that we have on that side is this beautiful natural attraction that you can go through, you can see all of the various structures that are there. We have bats that are actually in there as well. We have different flora and fauna, great tour guides. My understanding is of the actual employment at Crystal Caves, it’s 100% Caymanian. So you’re getting the true authentic Caymanian voices and stories as you go through. And my son actually loves Crystal Caves and they have certain crystals that are there that obviously you have to purchase. And he always makes sure that “you have enough money, dad.” And I’m like, “Yes, I do.”
ARMAN:
Which one of your boys really loves it?
SHOMARI:
Levi. So that’s the middle one. He is the real adventurer. I’m not a fisherman. My father’s not a fisherman, but somehow through my grandfather and my grandfather’s father, it’s passed through the genes. And he figures out which one of his friends actually has boats. And he’ll let me know, I’m going over to so-and-so’s house and we’re going fishing. I’m like, “Oh, okay, go right ahead. I can’t help you with that.” So he’s really our nature lover and he loves Crystal Caves, just based on the nature, and the amazing natural environment that’s there. Levi really loves it. And it’s one of the top attractions now that has grown over the years in, in the Cayman Islands.
ARMAN:
I’ve been there a couple times and I took Aydin, my son, but he was young at that time. He was four and a half.
SHOMARI:
Right, right.
ARMAN:
But he loved it. He loved it at that time. I mean, he’s eight now, so we gotta get out there, man. We get out there again soon. You know, you mentioned the local Caymanians, and I know that’s always been part of the mission. Obviously, as you said, Cayman is a beautiful place to come to live. You got the expats, you got a lot of, you know, immigration coming in and people as well. So it’s a really nice mix. But you’re right, it’s always great to have the locals. They’ve got the history. And, I mean, speak about your own history. You were born in Cayman?
SHOMARI:
So I am a multi-generational Caymanian. My roots come from one of those beautiful smaller islands that you’re talking about in Cayman Brac. So my grandmother and grandfather from my father’s side were both born in Cayman Brac. But what was interesting is my grandfather, my great-grandfather was a seaman and he was lost at sea. Typically happens back in the days, that was the only industry we had in the Cayman Islands because, just based on the topography and the soil, we didn’t have any goods for export from a farming perspective. So a lot of our men had to leave to go make money being merchant marines and such on the sea. And my great-grandfather was one of them. He had married a young lady from from Jamaica who was my great-grandmother.
And she was in the Brac with my grandfather when he was lost at sea and then moved back to Jamaica. And it was interesting because back then Cayman belonged to Jamaica and a lot of our schooling would’ve happened in Jamaica. There was a street in Jamaica that had a lot of Caymanian families and my grandmother went there to actually go to school and to visit some family. And my grandfather was on the sea and he came back to look for one of the captains. And he saw the house, he saw the woman, he said he was gonna marry. And then after one week he told her he was gonna bring her a ring. And sure enough, after he came back, a year later, he had a ring, they got married and that’s it. And they moved back to Grand Cayman eventually.
And here I am today. So it’s a very interesting story that a lot of Caymanians share history with Jamaica. And when you talk about the inclusive nature of Caman, the reason we believe that we’re so inclusive is that we had industries of the sea and captains of the sea that went and interacted with so many different nationalities across the world and understood that it takes a lot of different skill sets to actually achieve your goals when it comes to shipping. And they eventually came back home and brought that same energy with them knowing that then over time we allowed persons from the outside to come to help us build this economic miracle that we have today called the Cayman Islands. We’re the fifth largest financial center, one of the top tourism destinations. And that’s part of why, even though we were doing very well in tourism, when I stepped aside, I had told people in two years we’ll have the greatest number of visitors in the history of the Cayman Islands.
And then I’ll be looking for that next opportunity, because I didn’t see myself as a lifetime civil servant. And sure enough, it was two years early, but this project came up. We had already hit that tipping point that I knew no matter what, we would be able to achieve those numbers. And I said to myself, what best can I do for the Cayman Islands now that tourism is doing well, if not start another industry? And that industry was the potential of medical tourism. Now a lot of people thought it was crazy because, you know, Caman isn’t known for its healthcare. But the fact that we were going to have a model, I understood that we were going to take from an HR parent organization. And Dr. Shetty, we’lll get into speaking about him as well. He had a vision that a solution isn’t a solution if it isn’t affordable. That’s one of the actual quotes that you’ll get from him.
And he talks about the fact that a hundred years after the first heart surgery, you know, 80% of the world’s population either can’t afford it or can’t gain access to it. And he was able, when going back to India from the UK—because he’s originally from India, went to the UK, worked for Guy Hospital in the UK, one of the top top hospitals there as a cardiothoracic surgeon. And he wanted to reduce the cost of, for instance, a coronary artery bypass, which would be one of the typical surgeries that a heart surgeon will actually do. He wanted to reduce it by half, if not 75%, so more of the population in India can gain access to it. And he was able to do that through his efficiencies and some of the other areas that we’ll talk about later in the podcast.
But then he was saying, how can I now prove this concept in the west? And he chose the Cayman Islands, which is probably one of your higher cost jurisdictions: we have high GDP, great services across financial sectors, tourism, and other industries. But with that comes some higher costs of doing business. And if he could actually reduce the cost of tertiary healthcare in a high cost jurisdiction, making it affordable, it would prove the concept and actually allow people on this side of the world to gain access as some of the highest quality healthcare, but disassociating that with high cost and, and making it affordable. So when he had that talk to me I kind of understood what we were doing, which had never been done before. So that innovation that Cayman Islands is known for as well is more or less we were taking a fully functional hospital with all of the leadership, all of the top physicians that have now thousands of surgeries that are top-notch, top in class from a healthcare perspective, with the nurses, the anesthesiologists, the quality control control team, and more or less picked the building up, brought it across the seas, and dropped it in a beautiful location.
Somebody who previously would’ve been born in the Cayman Islands or would’ve been a resident in the Cayman Islands, wouldn’t have had the ability, if that’s the only place they had their medical career, to have the thousands of surgeries and experience to become that top notch individual. And that’s why a lot of the other islands wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford some of the equipment just because you don’t have the throughput as well as the doctors who would’ve been trained at that level. So we were able to do that in the Cayman Islands almost a decade ago, because next February will be our anniversary of when we actually cut the ribbon to say we’re open. But April would’ve been when we were actually licensed to be able to have our first patient.
And we’ve been able to show that it can be done. And for instance, our cardiac bypass all inclusive–you know exactly what it’s gonna cost before you come–will range anywhere, depending on the level, between $22,000 and $30,000 U.S. And I even have an article that’s right there on my board over here that you can’t see that talks about what I learned from my $190,000 open heart surgery. So, in New York and other areas, it can cost you anywhere from one 90 to two 50. Imagine having the same quality of outcomes—and even better, because we actually track our KPIs–in the Cayman Islands, in a beautiful location for a fraction of that cost between $22 and $30,000 US.
ARMAN:
It’s miraculous. I remember when you were still at DOT and we were there in the east end, you know, with Gene, Gene Thompson, and I wanna talk about him a little as well. And we took that little tour, and the construction guys were there. Dr. Shetty was there. They had their hard hats on and they were laying the first bricks, they were laying the foundation. And when he spoke, I mean, I want to get into Dr. Shetty and his vision, and . . . not even eloquence, just his, his aura, right? I know you’ve been out to India to kind of see how they operate, and you were won over, and that’s what kind of brought you over here. Now, as you said, a decade I know there was behind the scenes before the ribbon cutting as well, right? You already mentioned the expertise, the skill, the efficiencies, the equipment . . . what else? Maybe some of the intangibles or what is it about the vision? And you could talk about Arianna as well, right? Because they’ve run very successful operations . . . what, 20-plus, right locations? Throughout India as well?
SHOMARI:
Definitely. So they have over 6,000 beds, one of the largest healthcare organizations in the world. And obviously one of the largest in India as well. And, and Dr. Shetty really wanted to change how we go about thinking about healthcare. He’ll say, “You know, Shomari, look at your iPhone that you have today. And you know, is that the same cost as it was six years ago or a decade ago?” And if it’s obviously not one of the newest models, but one of the mid-range models, you’ll say, no, well, it, it actually costs less today. And he is like, “Okay.” And he’ll give you different examples that way. And he said, okay. So for most products and services, given time, given research, given innovation, the cost goes down. Correct? Just like that first computer, just like that first TV, just like that first car and, and you’re, “Well, yes.”
He’s like, “So why is it that healthcare is the only industry that with time, with research, with innovation, the cost not only increases, but exponentially increases over time to the point where it’s putting a serious burden on governments and the citizens. And that’s why a lot of time, even if you are insured, you may not be fully insured or you may not be able to actually access certain care even within the U.S. And I’m not sure if this statistic is still true, but it would’ve been a few years ago, the reason for it, the number one reason for personal bankruptcies in the US was healthcare; healthcare-related costs that persons couldn’t actually cover. And he said that’s wrong. And it should reach the point where healthcare is just like your iPhone is. Like now your iPhone, if I take that away from you, you might actually believe you’re gonna die, but you actually won’t.
But why is it that access to something that is life or death actually means that if you can afford, therefore you get the best, and if you can’t, then you’re left to your own devices, and many perish. And he wants to turn that paradigm upside down. And that’s why, through the model that we’re able to offer here, even at Health City in the west with some of the costs that we have and the highest quality of outcomes you know, it’s been covered by USA Today, our Health City. It’s been covered by PBS. Harvard Business Review has also had stories on us because it’s a unique model that’s usually, you know, if you’re going to get a Ferrari, you’re gonna pay Ferrari prices. And it’s interesting, when we have patient testimonials, they say it’s like the Ritz-Carlton, right? Not only from the quality of outcomes and the fact that they fixed the issue and at an affordable price, but the service here, it’s like the Ritz-Carlton of Healthcare. So we’re able to actually offer a service to save lives, help to reach even children in need, right? But do it at an affordable price, or at a price that that person, if they need to rearrange their finances, can do it and still afford it. For instance, using a family in Guatemala as an example, the young child had a cardiac issue. And in the US it was anywhere between a hundred and $200,000 just to hold a bed. Now, the family came from enough means that they thought they would be able to afford it, but they couldn’t afford a hundred thousand dollars just to hold a bed.
We were able with an air ambulance and to have the procedure (the family found Health City) that we were able to save that young life for $35,000. So that’s a scenario, that the gentleman said, without Health City being here, “It’s a godsend. I don’t know what we would’ve done.” And he hates to think about it, but his child probably wouldn’t have been able to get the procedure that they would’ve wanted. And there’s so many stories like that. I remember Dr. Shetty, when I was in it with him at the very beginning, and we were driving in a vehicle and he said, “Shomari, breathe in.” So I breath in and he said, “So, what are you breathing?” I said the air. He is like, “Okay, Shomari, we’re gonna go back to Biology 101. What in the air are you breathing in to be alive?”
And I said, “Well, let me think . . . oxygen.” And he’s like, “Yes, Shomari. Oxygen wasn’t a trick question.” And I was thinking it was a trick question because obviously I’m the marketer and didn’t have the scientific background.
ARMAN:
<laughs>What’s the catch?
SHOMARI
<laughs> But he said, “Yes, the oxygen.” So he is like, “So you need oxygen to be alive, correct?” I said, “Well, yes, obviously, I need oxygen to be alive.” But then he looked at me and he said, “But is oxygen your reason for being?” I said, “Well, no, it isn’t my reason for being.” He said, “Okay. The reason I give you that analogy is that as a private healthcare facility, we’re going to need to raise revenue and make money, right? To be able to afford the best equipment, to hire the best doctors, to have the best staff, to give the best outcomes possible. So that revenue, that you as a marketer are going to bring through the doors, is gonna help us to do all of that. But that money you bring through the door is just the oxygen. That’s what keeps us alive. But that isn’t our reason for being, our reason for being is to make sure that we’re as efficient as possible so we can lower the cost, so that we can reach as many people as possible in order to be able to save as many lives and to change as many lives as possible.” And then he mentioned, “You know, there’s a high cost jurisdiction that just based on the overhead and the actual cost of doing business, if they wanted to give away a surgery to save a life or to raise funds, especially if it’s a child, it would actually cost a hundred thousand dollars.” He said, “So they can raise a hundred thousand dollars to save one life.We want to get our efficiencies to a point where the actual cost is, let’s say $10,000, to save that life. So if we raise a hundred thousand dollars to have charitable giving, we can save 10 lives versus one life.” And that’s why we drive, obviously, to reduce costs, to make it as cost-efficient as possible so as many people can gain access. And we get our babies from Bolivia and from Haiti and from Fiji and from Kenya and from Mongolia that come from all these different places to see us right here in the Caribbean, in the Cayman Islands, because we’re able to say we can do this, this really complex cardiac pediatric surgery for 10,000 or 5,000 or 15,000. We get droves of babies here through charitable giving to be able to save those babies that otherwise would perish.
And that’s the real reason why Dr. Shetty is there. He mentioned while we were driving in the car, he said, “Shomari, I’m a cardiac surgeon.” I was like, obviously, yes. And he’s like, “I remember many years ago, somebody kept calling to speak to me, but you know, I’m a cardiac surgeon, I’m busy. So I’m like, take a message, I’ll speak to the person.” Later, an individual just kept saying, “No, I need to speak to Dr. Shetty.” And he kept telling his assistant, “Well, we’ll just get them to come in. I’ll see the person because I can’t make a house visit. I can’t take the diagnostic equipment with me, so they need to come in anyway.” And the person just said, “No, no, I can’t come in.” And then eventually he said, “All right, let me take the call.” And it was a gentleman. And he said his first thought was it was somebody that probably was of means that wanted him to come and meet the house visit because they didn’t want to necessarily come through the regular doors at a hospital to, to see him.
But when he spoke to the person, he said, “I can’t tell you what it’s about but all I can tell you is if you make this house visit, it will change the rest of your life.” And he said, “Right then”, and there he understood and he could feel that, you know, it was God talking and saying, alright, go ahead and make that house visit. When he made the house visit, it was Mother Teresa! And obviously the gentleman was somebody associated with Mother Teresa. And he said, “Well, Mother Teresa, why wouldn’t you just tell me it was you? Because obviously I would’ve come.” And she’s like, “No, no, I knew that you were the type of person that if we are persistent, you, because of your caring heart, would come to see me. And sure enough, you proved me right in regards to the fact that your heart is so caring that even though you had no clue what it is, you heard it was important enough and you came and you showed up.” And she said, “I’m here because I want your gifts to be spread so that we can help a lot of, obviously Mother Teresa’s life, the children that were from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to be able for those that needed to get cardiac surgery to be able to get.
So she traveled with him and when he was showing her the hospital and the ICU bed and the sea of babies that they help every single day, you know, he touched one of the babies, picked up the baby and showed to Mother Teresa and said, “Now I always wanted to ask somebody close enough to God why he would do this. The babies had hardly had a chance at life, but like, why would God do this and not create a life that was ready to go?” And she smiled, she touched his shoulder and said, “You’re asking the wrong question. The right question is, why did God give you the talent in your hands? Why did God give you your vision so that you can heal all these babies and you can actually through your outreach, reach as many people in need as possible?”
And from that day forward, he even more so doubled down on his vision of wanting to help people without means, because that is what healthcare is about, but doing it through the private sector. So through innovation, you can innovate, you can do it more cost efficiently, and you can get the highest quality of outcomes whereby in other systems at some point in time, you know, over time equipment gets old, and, as such, it’s a unique model that is high quality, delivering the highest level of outcomes, but yet at prices that people can afford. And also doing great things from a charitable perspective. Right now we’ve probably helped to save over 650 lives of young people who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford the types of surgeries that we’re giving.
ARMAN:
That’s incredible. That’s incredible. It’s such a testament not just to his character, but also–and I’ve been in person with him too–the strength of that vision. Makes you want to work to bring that vision to life as, as you’ve made a whole career shift and dedicated yourself. And I know you’re not alone in that. There’s hundreds of people in the staff, doctors, people that have moved, changed their life, moved to a whole new continent to see this through. And it’s wonderful to hear that that model was established in the east, so to speak, and that’s now come to the west and hopefully is already a role model for others to study and try to replicate. And what I really love in what you described Dr. Shetty’s vision is really this balance between, let’s call it, the socialism, and the socialistic forces and all in one altogether care for our weakest and, you know, aiding everybody, right?
Like that sign that’s in front of the hospital they wanna talk about, but balancing that with, you know, just the forces of business and . . . and call it capitalism, right? At least in the US that’s often so polarized. It’s like, “it’s this system or it’s this system.” And that’s never the way I felt it. I always felt, why can’t we earn money and have a good living while doing good right? While bringing our gifts to the world? I know you believe that as well. I think it requires kind of a little bit of a spiritual basis because we don’t just live in a purely material realm here. There is an essence and a spirituality and something that pervades everything. And it’s just balance in the midst of that, and a lot of skill and efficiency over the last 10 years.
SHOMARI:
Definitely. Yeah. And even to that point Arman, you know, I was a civil servant, right? I was in the government system that is built on the premise that it’s for the public good, everything that we’re doing, you know, it’s for the public good, it’s for the Cayman Islands, it’s for the people of the Cayman Islands. So to make the switch to come to a for-profit entity . . . It was interesting that it was an easy sell for me. And the reason it was an easy sell for me was because the doctor has shared his vision and the fact that he actually said that the only way to do this and to reach as many people as possible and to give them the best healthcare is through innovation, is through the private sector, is through what we do, but having those values that align that everybody’s rowing in the right direction.
And yes–we need the oxygen in the room to survive and we need the revenue to survive and to do great things as a healthcare organization. But that isn’t our reason for being, because he even made the comment that, you know, if God was to come down and to say, John Doe, who is already a multi-billionaire, I can give you, you know, anything in the world, there’s nothing that God would be able to give or buy for that individual. But there’s so many people like that, that there’s nothing that they can buy, but their purpose is to make more money. Right. And he’s like, why is the purpose to make more money? You can buy anything you want right now. And he said, that’s why you always need to be aligned with your true purpose, and his true purpose here is to change healthcare and make sure that anybody, in any walk of life, can get the highest quality of healthcare.
And that’s our purpose. And now we need to make the revenue on the other hand, and have the efficiencies and have the innovation to join that together to make it happen. So I say it was an easy switch, but being in a very comfortable government job that was doing very well, and the stature that would come with that, it was difficult to go into the unknown. Right. And it’s up east and it hadn’t been proven really elsewhere in the Caribbean, and it was a totally new concept, but the fact that I really saw what he had done in India. I’ll never be able to save a life, right? But I will be able to help to create another industry in the Cayman Islands, which will help to save lives based on some of the work I’m doing. And that was fulfilling for me. And that was enough that I said, “You know what, even if I’m not successful, if your children can look at you and your parents can look at you and say, you know what? His heart was in the right place. He did the right thing. That’s, that’s all that matters.” And here we are 10 years later and successful.
ARMAN:
Hundred percent, man. I’m sure you’re making your whole family proud, and all of Cayman Islands, because I know it’s not a big island. I think it’s population is 70,000 or so.
SHOMARI:
Yeah. So we’re around 73,000 officially, but probably after Covid we’re closer to 80,000. Small in number, but large in stature.
ARMAN:
Well, you got 2 million plus visitors coming also. Yeah. It doesn’t feel small at all.
SHOMARI:
We’re one of the top financial services countries in the world. So we’ve always batted above our weight. And now we’re doing that with healthcare as well, which is what’s interesting. We always have three prongs for any industry that we wanna bring here. And that’s quality leadership and innovation. And you can get that from the tourism sector. We were one of the first—now I’m aging myself, I was an intern at the time—but we were one of the first destination marketing governmental agencies to have a website in the Caribbean many, many, many years ago when websites were new. And that’s because we understood the innovation that was needed back then from a travel tourism perspective. And then obviously all the innovation that happens from financial services, and now we’re doing that in healthcare as well.
ARMAN:
Yeah. So I wanna dig in a little more on a couple things. One is going into what’s actually happening at Health City, because I remember the first building, and then I know there’s been expansion there. But your role, right? You came in in kind of a marketing role, right? And now you’re Chief Business Officer. So can you talk about that a little bit? You’ve always been involved in the business side, and it’s always been fascinating to watch you operate, you know; like basically working with the doctors hand in hand, and obviously learning a lot. You’re not a surgeon, but you have a lot of language and understanding, I’m sure, now, that you didn’t have before. I feel like you were never just purely on the marketing side for them, but I know your title changed and your scope has changed. How’s that been for you, just personally, professionally?
SHOMARI:
It’s absolutely fabulous. So obviously I came in first as the director of marketing and sales because we needed oxygen in the building. We needed that revenue in the building. And it was really doing a job from a PR perspective to get the brand out there so that the Caribbean and certain entities within the US as well as Canada, for instance, understood what we were offering, why we were here. And the fact that it is a solution for you. So, you know, getting our dusting off and making sure that we understood what our unique selling propositions were within each country that we’re going into. Because, it could be different, right? Depending on the healthcare makeup there, the capabilities of the payer market, whether it’s government insurer or private insurer or self-pay. And some islands have mixes, some are heavily one way, some of the other.
And it was really just making sure that we were able to package Al City in a way that we were solving issues for either individuals or governments, and then get that air bridge on, on airlines to bring in patients. I didn’t think about it before, but my tourism hat helped out in ways that we didn’t know before I did the research. Even the cruise lines. So they’re self-insured and they’re looking for high quality services for their crew members. One cruise line can have close to the Cayman Islands population as crew members across various ships that all, you know . . . they have carpal tunnel that needs to be operated on. They have cardiac issues that need to be dealt with. And it was just making sure that I was finding the right customers and the right targets and to put them in contact with Health City and solving that gap that they would’ve had, and solving that problem.
And then, as my role has expanded, we’ve expanded into helping other countries, right? Whether it’s from a consultancy perspective in helping some of the primary secondary care from a technology perspective or from a running-of-the-hospital perspective to make it more efficient. So our goal is always to make it more efficient and to get the best out of either the people and/or the processes, and obviously the equipment that we have, and we’re helping in other Caribbean countries with that. Now, obviously, the higher levels of surgeries will always come to Cayman, but if we can help them to solidify primary and secondary care in those countries, we’re helping to elevate those countries through partnerships to a different level, whether it’s in the governmental sector or in the private sector. And my father always tells me, when you leave this world, the one thing you leave with is your people’s memories of you and your name and what your name actually stands for, and anything that I’m doing and the team that we have, the great team that we have, we always ask the question, if we were to leave after we have a relationship of a year or two years, did we leave that relationship either making that country better or the network better or the framework better?
And if we haven’t, that means we haven’t seen success. And that’s why even though obviously we want the Cayman Islands to be successful, we want Health City to be successful, we wanna reduce costs, but we also want to help those countries to elevate wherever necessary so that they can see the benefits of a relationship with Health City, which once again is helping Dr. Shetty’s vision, to help them to reduce costs, to help them gain better access to healthcare. However Health City is able to do that, that’s what we look forward to being able to achieve.
ARMAN:
That’s amazing. So it’s elevating the whole region in a sense, because that’s an island that’s very accessible from most places in the US, if not everywhere. It’s an hour flight from Miami, right?
SHOMARI:
That’s correct. Well, an hour from Miami.
ARMAN:
As you said, with the growth in tourism and, and even a little bit of population, they’ve continued to grow the airport.
SHOMARI:
Definitely.
ARMAN:
It’s been a while since I’ve been there, but last time I was there I saw that project.
SHOMARI:
We developed and it’s continuing. Based on projections for the future, we need to move more quickly than we thought; build the other phases in order to handle the visitation that’s coming in.
ARMAN:
Yeah. The visitation from all sectors, as you said. Including medical tourism. So let’s speak now a little bit more towards the US audience, in terms of, what are the kind of things that middle-aged guys like myself and others can expect? What might be coming down the pipe? Like, a little bit of the trends you’re seeing in medical tourism? I know Health City’s always at the cutting edge, if not ahead. So what are some of the cutting edge things now that you’re putting into place that you see coming forward and how can we access that? Like what’s a good . . . you know, “Hey, you’re coming here for a vacation with your family, why don’t you book a day or check in?” It doesn’t always have to be an emergency, right?
SHOMARI:
Definitely. So I mean, from a general tourism perspective for persons who would like to have an executive health check, usually would take a day to two days in, in some of your other high quality institutions within the US we have gotten it to a point where just based on our size and our efficiency, we’re able to give you a full health check in half a day with your results at the end speaking to your physician. And this is more or less taking that car in for that diagnostics check, just to lift up the hood and make sure everything is working correctly. We’re able to do that right here at Health City at an affordable price. It’s probably a fifth of what it would cost for less than a thousand US dollars. You’re able to have your full executive health check here in the Cayman Islands.
So that’s where your regular visitors that may already be here or, or traveling for leisure. However, within the US we have agreements with self-insured companies that are looking for, because they’re paying in, right? They’re actually paying for their healthcare, for their actual employees that are looking for high quality, low cost jurisdictions to be able to send their employees. So what they do is they give them business class, you can take a companion, you can get your knee replacement, your shoulder replacement. Now we see a lot of manufacturing companies that would have long-term employees that are starting to wear out their shoulders, their knees and such . . . spinal surgery . . . And, because we’re giving them back so much savings, at times they, depending on which company, they share some of those savings, for instance, up to $2,000 with the employee who actually travels now. So not only do you get a beautiful vacation and a beautiful good destination, have top-notch medical equipment and physicians that fix the issue . . . You also get someone in your back pocket when you go back home as well. And, and that’s been working really well from a self-insured model with companies working directly with Health City or sometimes through third parties where that’s what they do right here at Health City.
ARMAN:
That sounds wonderful. That sounds wonderful. And, as you said, it’s the efficiencies. It’s the ability to go out, have the trip, and then also have your recovery happen in a place where, you know . . . And you guys have some rehabilitation services as well for people that are staying home.
SHOMARI:
Definitely. We actually have condo units right on site for any patient that has to stay longer than your typical stay, so we control the cost, right? So that was another thing. Obviously being a tourism destination, it ebbs and flows with high season, but we want it to be able to offer one cost. So we have accommodations that when you need to have a longer stay, you can stay there and still get your medical attention. And it’s for an affordable price that you know ahead of time. And companies love that. The cruise lines love that. Individuals also love the fact that we’re able to do that as well.
Arman, you mentioned what’s to come. So now, persons who don’t know the Cayman Islands, we’re in the Eastern Districts, really only half an hour from town, 45 minutes if you’re driving slow. However, just understanding the need for our crew members from cruise ships that come off on a daily basis, those that only need diagnostics to drive up to East End and drive back, can be a little bit onerous at times. We’re actually developing a new hospital that we’re going to offer to obviously the entire community, but medical tourism right in the center of town. There’s a beautiful new city that’s called Camana Bay and we’re within the Camana Bay campus. Right now, the first phase is we’re offering radiotherapy for those cancer care patients that need not only chemo or surgical but need some radiotherapy. We have the actual radiotherapy center that’s once again a fraction of the cost of more expensive healthcare networks, such that persons obviously locally will gain the benefit, but as well from elsewhere in the Caribbean.
And we’re looking to see if there’s a need in other areas as well. And then come April of next year we’ll have that new brand spanking new hospital that will be able to also offer neonatal care for premature babies. And we call them million dollar babies when they go into the US because that’s usually what it costs. And once again, it’s gonna be a fraction of that. So a lot of times individuals will have maximums of their insurance that will go up to $500,000 or $750,000 lifetime. And if it’s a million dollars to hold a bed, they can’t afford it, we’re going to be able to give that solution so that they’ll be able to gain help for their premature babies. And with our neonatology unit and wing that we’re bringing up in Camana Bay we’re gonna have the full slew of orthopedics, cardiac, neuro, general surgery, spine surgery . . . everything right under that one roof as well.
Still keeping the east EL campus and having obviously the longer ICU stays will be in the East End campus, but you’re more of your daycare procedures will happen in the Camana Bay facility. And Doctor Shetty right? It would’ve been probably about eight years ago that he realized that, as much as they’re doing in healthcare and physical build and physicians and equipment, technology is where it’s going. So they would’ve hired over 200 software engineers and as such over eight years ago. And they’re working on different, obviously electrical medical records that are doctor friendly, that you’re able to track patients over time remotely and as such, and in the near future, we’re looking at having a lot of interconnectivity from persons who are at home into systems that we have physicians monitoring remotely, being able to speak to them remotely.
So his vision is, in the future, the majority of people won’t actually be coming to a hospital. The only time they’ll come is when they actually need surgery. The majority will be able to be treated or understand what’s needed from home. And, through telecommunication, you’ll be able to deal with it as well, as you can make home visits versus clogging your hospital system with individuals that actually don’t need to be there and can actually get high quality care from home. And that’s the new frontier, with wearables and linking into physicians systems and being able to . . . Last time he was in Cayman and we’re rolling that out as well on his phone, he’s able to scroll through his phone, obviously they’re secure and he’s able to see all of his patients that are back in India, what medication they got, you know, what their blood pressure is at that point in time and communicate with nurses when he’s even away and obviously their physicians there in the hospital as well. But to say, “No that isn’t the amount of medicine we need. Let’s try this again.” And he’s able to do it remotely. So he has a hospital in his hand. Right.
ARMAN:
That’s wonderful.. Listen, I mean, most people don’t love the idea of going to the hospital. So if they can get the service, the advice they need, like the way we’re talking now, that’s what people would prefer, as long as they’re getting the right advice quality. And I know that you guys also have those second opinions and the ability to do telehealth, which, I think, even if you know you’re coming and you need to come for a procedure executive health check, to have a 15 minute check in with your doctor that you’re gonna meet on island beforehand is very efficient all around.
SHOMARI:
Right. Definitely. And that was what we were doing before Covid, right? So that was part of the process where the doctor had to speak and see the patient and obviously we would get the medical records that they would have prior to coming to surgery so that through our international team, that was already happening, right? So it was just interesting during Covid when Zoom took off and teams took off and really ingrained cuz you couldn’t actually meet again in person. We were already ahead of the game and had used that technology, and it wasn’t hard for us to just pivot and to be able to then move everything online. We were already doing a portion of our daily activity online just based on the innovation that we have within the hospital.
ARMAN:
That’s wonderful, man. So, so just in summary, for those that don’t know the Cayman Islands, I think it’s fantastic that you have this new location and services more in the central area where most of the hotels are. And it’s just more accessible, especially for those people, as you said, especially the cruise ships, they don’t have as much time or a short trip and it’s not always easy to get out to the East end. So I think that’s a huge addition. Congratulations on all of that. I’m gonna let you go soon, but I’d be remiss if we didn’t at least mention someone who was influential in Health City as well as in Cayman in general: Gene Thompson, who I know is someone you were close to as well. Can you say a few words about Gene and what he meant, you know, to Cayman, to you personally? He’s someone I wanna make sure we talk about.
SHOMARI:
So Gene Thompson is one of those stalwarts of Cayman Society. Health City wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for him. So obviously you need a visionary, like a Dr. Shetty who is willing to, with his team, make a leap to come to a little known place, to the Cayman Islands from India. I always ask every doctor, “Did you hear about Cayman Islands before?” And I’ve never heard one of them say, actually, “Yes, I heard of it prior to this project.” So they’re going into what they thought was the wilderness even though we’re a beautiful destination. But you needed Dr. Shetty and his team, the vision, and then you needed the government of the day—and that entire team with their vision–to say, “Yes, this is a good thing.”
And there were certain laws and such that needed to be changed to allow for this type of project to happen. But then the glue would be Gene Thompson, who was the glue on the ground that made sure to connect, both made sure to move every boulder one step further until it was downhill running until we would have what we have today. You know, people will remember him obviously as the developer in regards to the various buildings and various projects he would’ve developed. From a tourism perspective, the first Dolphin attraction, which added to the tourism product—he was the driving force behind that as well.
ARMAN:
Is that still Dolphin Cove? What the name of that attraction?
SHOMARI:
Yeah, they’re both under the same ownership now. But Dolphin Cove was the original dolphin area that was there. But even more so than that, just because of all of the lives that Health City has saved, people couldn’t foresee, right, all of the lives, young lives you know, middle-aged lives and even some grandparents that Health City has either helped the quality of life or actually helped to save a life that they’re now seeing the ripples of that 22 year old who got in an accident, had a pole through the chest, not to be too graphic. And if Health City wasn’t here, he would’ve perished. And now years later, he has a family and he’s contributing to society. Those intangibles people couldn’t foresee before he came here. And they will always think about Gene Thompson being one of the driving forces that brought Health City here and all of the lives that he would’ve touched based on the fact that he lost his father to cancer, right?
SHOMARI:
And he wanted to eventually reach the portion whereby we would have cancer care here; care that probably he couldn’t save his father, but will save generations in the future. And it was to the point that when we actually have radiotherapy, we have named it the Gene Thompson Radiotherapy Center. After him, knowing that that was the main reason that he wanted to do it. And we’ve reached that part now. It’s just said that he isn’t here physically to see it, but we know that he’s spiritually there seeing it a hundred percent. And understanding that we did achieve what he wanted to achieve as well.
ARMAN:
Yeah, that’s wonderful. He’s such a positive and energetic and inspiring individual. I remember when he got up and spoke in front of DOT and then, when we went over, as we said before . . . and that’s all part of “It takes a village”, right? It takes a village, it takes a team and the visionaries and I’m so happy that I was able to be part of it and can’t wait to come back very soon.
SHOMARI:
Look forward to seeing you.
ARMAN:
Yeah. Spend some time with you. Before I let you go, I know you’re a big Miami Dolphins fan.
SHOMARI:
Oh yes.
ARMAN:
The upcoming NFL season: gimme your ESPN take.
SHOMARI:
Hey, Super Bowl or bust man. Super Bowl or bust man. You know, we got Vic on the defensive end. Now, as the head of the defense, one of the best defensive coordinators that the league has ever seen, you know we’ve increased our offensive potency just in case, just in case we have a good backup quarterback. But we know Tour is gonna make it throughout the season. I’m gonna show you that last year wasn’t a fluke. Yeah, I saw Tyreek actually, and he said 2000 yards and Superbowl this year is the goal.
ARMAN:
Cool man. Well, look, I promise not only am I gonna see you in Cayman this year, but maybe I’ll see you out in Miami and we’ll spend some time when you’re out there for the game.
SHOMARI:
Definitely.
ARMAN:
Thank you for taking time today. I know you got a lot of meetings going on. And, yeah, say hello to the family and to Shetty and the whole team from Health City and keep doing what you’re doing, man. God bless.
SHOMARI:
Thank you, brother.
