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EF: Could you elaborate on Dasa's role and footprint in Brazil? And what importance does the hospital division have for the group?
EG: I have been with Dasa since 2010. We were ranked number one in Latin America and five worldwide in the diagnostic market.
In 2017, we achieved our target of being the largest player in our market worldwide and discovering a new problem in the field: Although we made timely diagnoses and detected diseases in their early stages, patients were not receiving treatment. As the Brazilian healthcare system is fragmented, patients would simply get discharged. When we observed patients with early-stage cancer diagnostics returning to us six months later with brain metastasis because they had not obtained adequate care, we realized that being the largest diagnostic company was great; however, we still needed to solve Brazil's healthcare challenges.
Dasa decided to put an integral vision on healthcare. We bought a healthcare management firm and merged it with a hospital company. These mergers occurred during the pandemic, integrating Dasa's outpatient and inpatient groups and increasing the employee number from 25,000 to 50,000. We bought ten hospitals in one year, encountered staffing challenges, and had to recruit the best talent who shared our mindset and culture.
We were slowly returning to normal operations in 2022, the first post-pandemic year. Our biggest challenge was successfully integrating data and information transparency, as one key objective was eliminating the wasteful spending within the Brazilian healthcare system.
Our main focus was identifying patients with our diagnostics network and getting them to the hospital early for treatment. Due to technological advances, we can now find diseases early with AI and communicate better with doctors to navigate patients through our oncology and surgery centers. Treatments that used to take three to four months can now happen in seven days, drastically changing the outcomes of diseases like breast cancer.
Nowadays, our revenue in hospitals is higher than our revenue in diagnostics. Nevertheless, hospitals are a very challenging business. They operate 24/7 and are much more complex than a diagnostic company. At Dasa, every patient we see in our ER is a failure from our perspective of early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. We aim to successfully navigate primary and secondary care patients, providing the required assistance and avoiding unnecessary emergency treatments.
In our hospital business, our primary focus revolves around strengthening our secondary care network. Additionally, we have one area specifically dedicated to oncology. Thanks to our focus on prevention, early diagnostics, and early treatment, adding to lower costs and better outcomes, Dasa's oncology unit grew 40% in 2022, and 39% from January to September 2023. Despite joining the market only two years ago, we are now Brazil's third-largest oncology chain.
Operationally, we recruited the best person to help us improve our efficiency, maintain a close relationship with our doctors, and foster medical education while offering patients exactly what they need. Embracing new digital opportunities, we are building our own digital platform, bringing more efficiency to our model. There is always room for improvement. But we are happy to announce that about eight million Brazilians are already using our platform every month.
EF: How can public and private health policies be better integrated to build a stronger and fairer health system in Brazil?
EH: Only 25 percent of the Brazilian population has adequate healthcare because access is too expensive. We are working on projects to address that issue. If our model succeeds, we will be more competitive in terms of costs and have more people migrating from the public system to the private.
Our primary goal is to provide more cost-effective and higher-quality services, encouraging more individuals to transition to the private system and reduce the burden on public healthcare. By transferring 10 percent of patients from the public system to the private system, we can increase the per capita funding, thereby enhancing healthcare services for those who switch and those who remain in the public system.
EF: What strategies are you using to reach the remote regions of the country in your goal to improve access?
EH: In our diagnostic sector, we deliver B2B services and extend our reach to patients in remote areas through our dedicated logistics team. Although there are smaller laboratories in less populated cities equipped to handle specific types of examinations, we also facilitate the transportation of samples to our central processing facilities for more complex exams.
We also offer these B2B services for the public system and do not segment the production quality. By attending to private, public, or B2B patients, we are able to provide more complex exams at a lower cost. These patients can then be registered on Nav, our platform, which has enabled us to reach approximately 23 million people across Brazil. Out of this total, ten million are direct patients, while the remaining half receive our services through our B2B partnerships.
EF: What role is Dasa playing in advancing oncology treatment in Brazil? Are there any specific technologies or innovations that have significantly impacted the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in Brazil?
EH: When it comes to technology, Dasa has all the latest advancements available for oncology patients. However, our efforts are focused on two distinct goals.
Firstly, our emphasis is on improving the patient experience. I personally witnessed the pain my father endured during his battle with cancer, particularly during infusion procedures and examinations. To alleviate such suffering, we have brought together a team of over 70 individuals with unique experiences dedicated to enhancing the patient's journey.
Secondly, we are dedicated to speeding up diagnosing and treating patients at an earlier stage. This year, we plan to release data on the costs and outcomes in the field of oncology. Our primary contributions to oncology lie in the realm of early diagnosis and prompt treatment.
EF: How are you handling patient data and navigating data protection laws?
EH: Data security has always been a top priority for us. We do not assess individual data or patients without consent. We believe in maintaining ethical practices when it comes to sharing patient information, primarily through trusted doctor-to-doctor relationships aimed at seeking second opinions. Our policy allows doctors to exchange information with their peers to enhance the quality of diagnosis and treatment.
We took great care to ensure strict adherence to data protection regulations. Cyberattacks on several institutions have underscored the importance of data security, prompting us to bolster our safety levels even further.
EF: If you had the opportunity to establish a healthcare system in Brazil that prioritizes innovation and sustainability, what would be the three fundamental pillars upon which you would construct it?
EH: My first pillar would be access to information, as it plays a pivotal role in the effectiveness of our healthcare system. In an era where chronic diseases are claiming lives at an alarming rate, often without patients even realizing their condition, having comprehensive healthcare data is indispensable for building a robust system.
The second pillar centers on informing patients about what actions to take when health issues arise. We need digital transformation in healthcare to empower our patients with the understanding of their disease.
Finally, once these foundational elements are in place, the third pillar is establishing clear protocols for patients to follow. With approximately 400 million lab exams conducted annually, Dasa is confronted with a vast amount of data. Our challenge is to evaluate, integrate, and develop protocols for appropriate responses. As a service provider, we are now building integration models of shared risk.
EF: What are some of the initiatives that Dasa is rolling out to improve education for patients and physicians?
EH: The challenge for educational institutions is to grow with quality. In our case, medical education takes place within our hospital settings. We have partnered with /Ânima/, one of the largest medical institutions in the country, and are helping them train our future doctors. We currently offer more than 500 positions for residency, and upon completion of their training, we extend further opportunities within our medical centers, where they can collaborate with our top doctors.
Additionally, we hold more than 1,000 specific medical events every year for healthcare professionals. These events are essential for keeping doctors abreast of the latest technologies integrated into our healthcare system.
