Rethinking the legacy way of doing things: PPO Serve’s Dr. Brian Ruff & Dr. Visegan Subrayen talk innovative healthcare - TopCo Media

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Dr. Brian Ruff and Dr. Visegan Subrayen sit at the helm of PPO Serve, who offer innovative solutions for the delivery of care. They identified inefficiencies with doctors working in silos, instead of multidisciplinary teams, and a global lack of patient-centric management systems. Dr. Ruff, CEO and co-founder, is a rheumatologist with a qualification in Health Economics and experience in both the private and public sector. Dr. Subrayen, COO, spent time as a clinician before moving into hospital management and going the entrepreneurial route after his MBA.

In the latest Business Unusual podcast, Fiona Wakelin, Topco Media Group Editor engages in conversation with Dr. Ruff and Dr. Subrayen to discuss thinking differently about the healthcare system. They give an overview of how they are bringing innovation to the primary healthcare sector, breaking traditional, isolated ways of working and why collaboration is important. 

Key takeaways to listen out for in this podcast:

• You need to start somewhere. Find something to focus on and do what you can.
• Rethink the traditional way of doing things. The status quo needs to be challenged.
• Collaborate; you cannot work alone. Working in silos makes getting information and providing the best service difficult.
• You do not have to rely on huge investments and infrastructure. Re-engineer the service so you can focus solely on its delivery.
• Public-private partnerships are important. You need to develop a relationship with the state and regulators.
• Focus on who the service is for. Your products and services need to be customer-centric.
• Do things incrementally. A start-up needs to do things step-by-step instead of trying to do everything at once.
• Seek help from other sectors. There’s always someone who can add an element to your work that may be outside of your expertise.
• Market forces are important. There has to be competition. Whatever the product or service is, the market should be allowed to play a role.

Dr. Brain Ruff is the CEO and co-founder of PPO Serve. He’s a rheumatologist with a qualification in health economics. Dr. Ruff was part of the the Gauteng health system’s transition from apartheid and spent a short at the National Treasury. At Discovery he worked as the Head of Strategy on the Executive Committee. Using his insights and research, Dr. Ruff co-founded PPO Serve in 2015.

Dr. Visegan Subrayen is the COO of PPO Serve. Dr. Subrayen is a dentist with a masters in business administration. Following his commercial studies Dr. Subrayen moved into hospital management, with experience as a senior manager. Before joining PPO Serve he was a consultant working in hospital commissioning. Dr. Subrayen also has two entrepreneurial ventures under his belt. Dr. Subrayen is the Head of The Value Care Team and GP Care Cell at PPO Serve