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At one level in the direction of the top of my Zoom dialog with Howard Podolsky, chief govt officer of the Abu Dhabi-based Cambridge Medical and Rehabilitation Middle, I prompt that he sounded much more like Dr Anthony Fauci, the American public well being advisor, than he did President Trump.

“I’m a health care provider at coronary heart. It’s all about being good and following the science,” Podolsky mentioned, leaving little doubt as to how he views the massive debate happening about the right way to react to the COVID-19 pandemic. “From a political and a pandemic standpoint, it breaks my coronary heart to see all of the craziness within the USA,” he added.

Podolsky, who has labored within the medical sector within the Center East since 2012, has watched the progress of the pandemic within the area and the world with an professional’s eye because the starting of the 12 months, all of the whereas operating the enterprise that has performed a giant function in assuaging strain on the general public well being sector within the UAE because it battled the an infection.

Cambridge is a specialist operator within the post-acute medical subject, offering care and rehabilitation therapy for long-term illnesses to sufferers from all age teams with completely different medical wants.

That perform was of essential significance when circumstances have been rising and hospitals have been beneath risk of being overwhelmed within the early spring. Many COVID sufferers have been in pressing want of intensive care therapy, typically involving air flow, and hospital capability was beneath pressure.

“The authorities noticed a critical and important want, and we had the flexibleness to take non-COVID sufferers to release acute care capability, giving them the capability to surge up if wanted,” Podolsky mentioned.

That co-operation between Cambridge and the UAE medical authorities has continued because the first wave of the virus. Podolsky’s two facilities in Abu Dhabi and in Al-Ain have been taking post-COVID sufferers who’re not infectious however should want ventilator therapy, or are in remedy to wean them off ventilators, which is one in every of Cambridge’s specialties.

“Many sufferers not have to be in intensive care however nonetheless want therapy. All our employees are educated and educated within the science and know-how of transitional ventilator weaning. It will possibly take months and even years. We are able to incorporate them into our long-term rehabilitation companies,” he mentioned.

Cambridge is the one supplier of long-term, publish acute care within the UAE, providing amenities for in-patients by its 106 beds within the capital, 90 in Al-Ain, in addition to out-patient and homecare amenities.

Final 12 months, it noticed a spot out there in Saudi Arabia, and opened up in Dhahran, the house of Saudi Aramco, the place it already had a relationship with the oil firm’s long-term medical accomplice, Johns Hopkins.

“Saudi Arabia was a logical place for us,” Podolsky mentioned. Not solely did the a lot larger inhabitants than the UAE make it a market wealthy in potential, but it surely was additionally comparatively underserved by way of post-acute care and rehabilitation amenities. “It made sense for us to discover the chance to develop a platform for long-term care within the Kingdom,” he added.

BIO

BORN: Toronto, Canada 1965

EDUCATION

• Graduate from Buffalo College of Medical Science
• Graduate from St Louis College College of Regulation
• MBA from Washington College College of St Louis

CAREER

• Varied senior govt positions in US healthcare organizations
• Group chief of employees, SEHA Abu Dhabi
• Govt in residence, TVM Operations
• Group chief govt officer, Cambridge Medical and Rehabilitation Centre.

Cambridge constructed a 60-bed “brownfield” centre in Dhahran that takes referrals not simply from Johns Hopkins but in addition from different elements of the Saudi healthcare system. “There’s a large ‘mattress hole’ in Saudi post-acute care, and we’re alternatives elsewhere, across the large inhabitants facilities in Riyadh and Jeddah,” Podolsky mentioned. Cambridge might look to accumulate a possible centre, in addition to do a “brownfield” construct.

The medical sector within the Kingdom is among the areas earmarked for giant enlargement beneath the Imaginative and prescient 2030 plan to diversify the economic system, and hospitals, clinics and medical facilities have been mentioned as attainable topics for privatization beneath the Imaginative and prescient.

Podolsky was a medical physician earlier than he studied regulation and enterprise within the USA after which joined SEHA, the Abu Dhabi well being companies authority.

Cambridge launched within the UAE in 2014 with the backing of personal fairness buyers led by TVM Capital Healthcare, the massive international healthcare funding group. As with most medical operations within the area, it’s run as a business operation, and Podolsky mentioned that the COVID disaster has — on steadiness — been good for enterprise.

“We have been busy already, but it surely has been optimistic for us. In contrast to some medical companies within the areas, we have been by no means depending on whether or not a affected person decides on elective well being therapy,” he mentioned.

Non-COVID associated enterprise — whether or not in strokes or post-traumatic visitors accident care — has continued through the pandemic. “Life doesn’t cease as a result of there’s a pandemic,” he mentioned.

It was not too long ago reported that TVM was trying to exit its funding in Cambridge, almost definitely by way of a sale of its stake to a different hospital enterprise. Podolsky is guarded on that chance.

“Shareholders are at all times alternatives. Our focus is on creating worth for all our stakeholders — buyers, clients and sufferers,” he mentioned.

Is it the correct time to promote a medical enterprise in the midst of the largest international well being risk skilled for a century?

“It relies upon what sort of enterprise it’s. If it’s a enterprise that is determined by elective, discretionary choices by sufferers, possibly not. However we’re an integral a part of the healthcare eco-system within the area, and we’ve got embedded ourselves in it,” Podolsky mentioned.

The opposite issue that has difficult the medical enterprise scene within the UAE is the scandal that has overtaken NMC Healthcare, the Abu Dhabi-founded firm that has gone bust with billions of {dollars} in money owed and allegations of theft, fraud and forgery flying. Is there an “NMC low cost” utilized to the medical sector within the area?

“Healthcare organizations shouldn’t be painted with a broad brush. We’re based on integrity and governance, and TVM is targeted on that as moral and accountable enterprise apply,” Podolsky mentioned.

One of many NMC companies, ProVita Worldwide Medical Centre, was acquired from buyers together with TVM in 2015, and operates in the same phase to Cambridge. Many elements of NMC’s enterprise are believed to be up on the market beneath a method to scale back its excessive ranges of debt. “We’ll consider alternatives as they might or might not change into obtainable,” Podolsky mentioned.

Along with his physician’s hat again on, Podolsky talked extra in regards to the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the opportunity of a vaccine to halt the unfold of a virus that’s presently in a harmful “second wave” section in lots of elements of the world. He’s “cautiously optimistic.”

“I hope we might see a number of secure and profitable vaccines by the top of the 12 months, however getting them delivered would be the problem. Keep in mind we’re speaking a couple of vaccine for greater than 7 billion individuals, possibly with two pictures.

“However I don’t assume COVID goes away. It is not going to disappear, it is not going to be eradicated like polio. I feel there can be micro-outbreaks for a substantial time, and it will likely be a part of the general public well being ecosystem. We are going to simply must dwell with it, like we do with flu,” he mentioned.

A part of “dwelling with it” entails extra testing, which he mentioned may very well be an evidence for the massive rise in circumstances in some nations which have ramped up testing efforts.

The UAE is treating front-line well being staff with a Chinese language-made vaccine, whereas additionally co-operating with producers in different nations, however Podolsky has no time for “vaccine nationalism” by which nations attempt to be first with a remedy or reserve remedies for their very own populations. “It’s unlucky that we’ve got political points round public well being and pandemics. We have to observe the science and be clear, open and sincere,” he mentioned.

He additionally took some consolation from the falling demise charges from the illness, which he attributed to higher therapeutics and therapy. “We’ve received smarter about how we deal with sufferers to assist them overcome the infections and points with their immune response. As we get higher, we are going to see fewer fatalities,” he mentioned.

On the massive debate about whether or not the world ought to simply get on with its financial life whatever the well being risk to probably the most weak, he mentioned: “It isn’t a binary alternative. We must always shield probably the most weak — the outdated, the overweight and different excessive threat individuals — and take easy measures to focus on excessive threat individuals, like social distancing, carrying masks and washing palms,” he mentioned.