Interview with Dennis P. Serrano, President and CEO, St. Luke’s Medical Center

25 Oct Interview with Dennis P. Serrano, President and CEO, St. Luke’s Medical Center

How would you describe the state of the current healthcare sector in the Philippines compared to other major nations?

The Philippines’ healthcare system has made significant strides towards achieving world-class standards. Despite ongoing local and global challenges, our country’s hospitals now rival the best in the USA, Europe and Asia. Efforts by the Department of Health and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation or PhilHealth have notably expanded access to healthcare, particularly in rural areas. Recent initiatives include substantial subsidies for dialysis patients and extensive renovations of government hospitals. The imminent launch of universal healthcare aims to further increase accessibility nationwide, which has made substantial progress over the past few decades.

How does St. Luke’s Medical Center stand out from other hospitals in the country?

At St. Luke’s, we take pride in being among the top hospitals in the Philippines, if not the top. Our mission is to deliver cutting-edge healthcare to Filipinos and ensure it remains accessible. Over the past few decades, we have bridged the gap in medical technology and reduced the need for medical travel abroad. St. Luke’s provides advanced options in cancer, cardiac and minimally invasive surgeries that are comparable to leading hospitals in Asia and the West. Our vision is to elevate healthcare standards so that our people have local world-class care options in critical areas such as cancer, cardiac diseases and gastrointestinal health. Children are increasingly affected by developmental diseases such as coronary artery disease and diabetes mellitus, which pose challenges that demand our attention.

Over the past few decades, we have modernized our medical approach and aligned it with Western hospital standards, particularly in the area of minimally invasive surgeries. St. Luke’s leads in laparoscopic and robotic surgeries nationwide. We pioneered the Da Vinci robotic system and have utilized it for 14 successful years in nearly 3,000 cases. Both our Quezon City and Bonifacio Global City hospitals now offer advanced robotic and laparoscopic surgeries in segments such as gynecology, urology, thoracic, cardiac and general surgery. We envision a future where minimally invasive procedures are standard. We have invested in state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization equipment that enables percutaneous coronary interventions such as heart stenting. We are pioneering successful trans-aortic valve replacements, which is a rarity in many hospitals.

Our newly inaugurated Center for Coronary Care is set to publish outcomes from more than 250 cardiac procedures across both hospitals. In cancer care, we are establishing the country’s most advanced molecular laboratory and paving the way for precision medicine. Through next-generation sequencing we aim to tailor treatments based on genetic profiles and ensure targeted therapies for each patient’s cancer. We perform image-guided surgeries for the brain, spine and ear, nose and throat areas and orthopedic procedures using our advanced brain lab. St. Luke’s is pioneering theranostics in nuclear medicine, which utilizes radio ligands to both diagnose and treat cancers. For instance, we can use prostate-specific membrane antigen radioligands such as lutetium to effectively target and eradicate prostate cancer metastases throughout the body. Our facilities include state-of-the-art imaging such as three Tesla magnetic resonance imaging units and 1,152-slice computed tomography scanners spread across both hospitals alongside cutting-edge linear accelerators for cancer treatment.

What expansion plans does St. Luke’s Medical Center currently have?

Our third hospital, St. Luke’s Asiana near Manila Bay in Paranaque is scheduled to open by 2029 after breaking ground in October 2024. This expansion aims to elevate healthcare standards across our conglomerate of three hospitals within the next five years. By leading advancements in private sector care, we aim to set a new benchmark that inspires other hospitals to match our level of excellence nationwide. This commitment extends to preventive healthcare, including pioneering nutrigenomics to predict and prevent future diseases through personalized dietary strategies based on genetic testing. Our goal is to demonstrate what is achievable in healthcare and benefit everyone from patients to healthcare providers.

How committed is St. Luke’s Medical Center in staying at the cutting-edge of healthcare technologies?

We prioritize groundbreaking research, both basic and clinical, and are pioneering the use of artificial intelligence in hospital processes. While advancements in artificial intelligence are significant, we still believe the role of a doctor remains irreplaceable. We employ rapid artificial intelligence technology in our radiology department for initial readings of emergency radiographs, with all results verified by a radiographer. While artificial intelligence shows promise across many industries including healthcare, it is still met with cautious optimism. This was made evident at the recent Becker’s Hospital Review in Chicago. Despite its potential, we must address its deficiencies in healthcare’s life-saving context.

Our future third hospital in Asiana will integrate the latest advancements in artificial intelligence and connect with our Quezon City and Bonifacio Global City locations to potentially form a network of smart hospitals. This vision emphasizes automation and data-driven decision making while preserving personalized and human-centered care. Leveraging information technology and big data has the potential to revolutionize medicine on all levels, including policy, research and surgical advancements.

What larger efforts is the hospital making to care for the local community outside of its regular operations?

St. Luke’s Hospital is 121 years old and has two foundations: the St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) Foundation and the HERE Foundation. The former has been our corporate social responsibility arm for the past few decades and actively organizes medical and surgical missions across remote areas of the Philippines, including critical areas such as hernia repairs, gallbladder surgeries, cleft lip and palate corrections and occasionally breast and thyroid surgeries. These missions are crucial in areas with limited healthcare access and where conditions such as untreated breast cancer and severe goiters are unfortunately common. We aim to make a meaningful impact on healthcare accessibility in underserved communities. We support communities by sourcing hospital essentials such as soap and slippers from local producers, providing employment and reducing plastic waste with organic materials. In northern Tarlac and Pampanga, we are assisting communities through housing, community centers and solar-powered streetlights. SLMC Foundation aligns with our hospital’s vision to extend high-quality care beyond our facilities and is supported by generous donors who enable free treatments and medications for those in need.

The HERE Foundation’s mission is to tackle healthcare access disparities across the country. It is currently working on three projects that involve producing research and developing solutions. We collaborate our research with the government alongside SLMC Foundation to influence policy making and program development. We aim to elevate the standards of healthcare beyond our hospital walls.

What is the hospital doing to promote education and training of healthcare professionals?

St. Luke’s Medical Center College of Medicine was established nearly 30 years ago and graduates 150 to 180 students annually with one of the highest board exam passing rates in the country — around 97% to 98%. Located at our Quezon City campus, it is renowned as a top medical school. Our hospitals also offer residency and fellowship programs across various specialties. Many graduates often become leaders in their fields and contribute significantly to medical education and healthcare leadership nationwide.

The Philippines is a major supplier of healthcare personnel globally, with our nurses highly sought after in Europe and the United States along with medical technologists, phlebotomists and other specialists. Despite facing a continuous brain drain, we have established units such as our healthcare academy to continuously train and retrain our healthcare workforce. Each day we potentially lose one nurse to opportunities abroad, totaling more than 300 nurses annually from our two hospitals alone. We support their career advancements and ensure they represent us and the Philippines proudly. We also provide scholarships to nursing students to foster a steady influx of new healthcare professionals.

These initiatives aim to address broader healthcare needs and challenges. As a doctor specializing in surgery and kidney transplants, I see ample room for innovation and unconventional thinking on a national scale. Rather than dwelling on challenges such as nurse migration and inadequate insurance revenue, we must focus on pioneering initiatives that are not just confined to hospitals. We must inspire broader public policy changes. The HERE Foundation is dedicated to finding comprehensive solutions to these universal issues starting with innovative approaches at the hospital level.

What is the hospital doing to service regional healthcare needs outside of the Philippines?

St. Luke’s Medical Center serves as a key healthcare provider for the Pacific Islands region such as Guam, Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea. We have developed special programs to anticipate and provide tailored care upon their arrival, whether urgent or elective. This initiative has set a precedent in healthcare service and is endorsed by our Department of Tourism to showcase what our hospitals can offer. St. Luke’s is also a preferred choice for expatriates in the Philippines seeking high-quality care. We are accredited by Joint Commission International, the leading international accrediting body. Our accreditation ensures strong partnerships with major U.S. insurance providers such as Kaiser Permanente, Cigna Group and Tricare as well as local insurers. These entities offer seamless healthcare coverage that meets global standards for investors and expatriates alike.

What kind of opportunities currently exist for investors and business partners in the Philippines’s life sciences industry?

Investors exploring the healthcare industry in the Philippines will find abundant opportunities in areas such as hospital waste management to reduce carbon footprint and state-of-the-art diagnostic and imaging technologies supplied by global leaders like Siemens and Philips. There are also opportunities for information technology specialists in healthcare apps, with many startups innovating these areas globally. St. Luke’s Medical Center is actively embracing technology solutions such as smart queuing systems and patient navigators to enhance patient experience and operational efficiency. While our goal is to gradually evolve into a smart hospital, we are committed to adopting impactful apps and efficiency measures from the outset to optimize throughput, expand patient capacity and accelerate service delivery. We welcome collaborations on innovative technologies to further advance these initiatives.

Additionally, St. Luke’s Medical Center is interested in suppliers for essential medical equipment, from advanced monitors to safer supplies such as gloves. Process efficiency is crucial for future revenue growth. In 2023, our two hospitals handled over 2 million patient visits, including both inpatient and outpatient encounters. Despite our hospitals having around 400 to 500 beds each, managing such a high volume of patients requires continual improvements to our daily operations.