Bumrungrad International Hospital Plc (BH) has launched sports medicine and lifestyle services at its VitalLife Wellness Center to leverage global trends and the ageing local population.
"We are determined to improve our healthcare services with this expansion," said Artirat Charukitpipat, chief executive of BH.
Mrs Artirat said the centre is developing new programmes for patients based on BH's three missions of holistic healthcare by implementing big data and artificial intelligence in healthcare systems and uniting medical professionals by creating strong teamwork.
According to the 2017-23 global opportunity analysis and industry forecast, the global market value of sports medicine is estimated to rise to US$11.2 billion by 2023, from $6.61 billion in 2016.
Alisara Arirachakaran, who specialises in orthopaedic surgery, sports medicine and arthroscopy as a physician at VitalLife Wellness Center, said sports medicine and lifestyle services are particularly popular with athletes, amateur sports lovers and the elderly.
"Concerning athletes, we treat musculoskeletal injuries and analyse bone structure to design programmes that prevent further injury," said Dr Alisara, herself a figure skater. "We also focus on improving the life quality for the elderly. As Thailand is an ageing society, we've devised solutions for graceful and healthy ageing. Moreover, the elderly often have osteoporosis and knee and joint pains, which can tremendously affect their mobility and lifestyle."
Dr Alisara said the centre integrates physiotherapy, conservative treatment and surgical interventions in implementing sports medicine and lifestyle programmes.
Innovative medical equipment is used to improve the accuracy and safety of patient care. VO2 Max testing with high accuracy helps the team effectively design a personalised diet and exercise plan to suit individual cardiovascular fitness and endurance capacity, resulting in successful fitness training.
The Keiser A420 machine, used to determine the fitness level of professional soccer players, analyses muscular power, which can accurately track the progress of therapy.
The team of physicians and experts take a multidisciplinary approach. Team members at the centre include orthopaedic surgeons, physical medicine and rehabilitation, anti-ageing and preventive specialists, nutritionists and physiotherapists. They customise effective diet and exercise programmes for athletes, sports lovers, patients with special needs and older people, so they are physically and mentally healthy.
VitalLife Wellness Center contributed 521 million baht to BH's total revenue of 18.5 billion in 2018.
BH's net profit in the first quarter of 2019 was 1.08 billion baht, flat year-on-year. Net profit was 4.15 billion baht last year.
As of this month, BH operates 580 licensed beds and has capacity for over 5,500 outpatients per day. The company has an international patient centre to accommodate patients from abroad.
In 2018, 629,000 international medical episodes were treated at the hospital. The top three revenue contributors by country were Myanmar, Oman and the UAE.