A Vision for A Circular Healthcare Experience
3 Questions with George Barakat
By Jamie Bussin
On Episode #155 of THE TONIC Talk Show/Podcast I spoke with Jack Nathan Health’s George Barakat about his vision of future healthcare clinics. Jack Nathan Health was listed and began trading on the TSX stock exchange in October. The money raised in the public offering will be used in a number of different ways to improve the healthcare products and services provided to Canadians. This is an excerpt of the interview.
How will the public offering impact Jack Nathan Health Canadian patients? This public vehicle that we recently launched is going to help us move towards our combined vision, from a retail standpoint, of medicine and how we actually provide greater benefit to the patient ultimately and how the patient’s own ecosystem, today and in the future, is going to be reflective of how they manage their family’s healthcare. As a private company we opened up medical clinics with Walmart Canada. In future we’ll also be erecting clinics outside of Walmart as stand alone clinics that will operate as a hub and spoke experience with more comprehensive service offerings for ancillary specialist services, such as a lab, diagnostics, physiotherapy, primary health care, walk-in and family. There’ll be other services such as med-spa and medical weight loss. With the hub and spoke model, consisting of smaller footprint locations at Walmart and larger stand alone locations, we can create a healthcare ecosystem with more comprehensive experience for patients. Referrals for ancillary services will be instantaneous. A doctor will make a recommendation and the referral will be executed the same day.
Let’s explore the patient experience in a little more depth. What is the “circular health care experience”? It begins with the patient searching for a medical centre or clinic. That could be on-site at one of our locations or a digital experience. But before they walk through the door you have to start with scheduling. Patients need the peace of mind that they can execute an appointment without endless searching. That’s the entry point. Once registered as a patient they’ll understand that there’s quite a caveat of product offering that could align to their preexisting condition. From there the appointment is created, with the positive experience of not having to endure too many points of interaction. After the appointment we want to make sure that we’re in contact with the patient, inquiring as to how the experience was for the patient, whether they’d like to book another appointment, is there a referral that we can schedule for them, if they’d like to register other family members. In that way we’ll complete the circle of care by including the patient’s ecosystem – their family, and provide ease of access to treatment and access to the necessary information for their healthcare.
What is your vision for the future of healthcare? Our vision is very simple. We want to provide combined access to primary care physicians. By doing so we’ll create turnkey operations so that the physicians have a better place to live. But also for specialists and lifestyle health practitioners too. Creating a circular healthcare experience by connecting the patient community through technology, for appointment scheduling, patient services and health and lifestyle product purchases that are all physician recommended. The vision is based on three pillars – growth, connectivity and community.
For more information about Jack Nathan Health and its cofounder, George Barakat, visit jacknathanhealth.com For the full interview visit thetonic.ca
