Founder Chairman & Managing Director | Aster DM Healthcare
Aster DM Healthcare’s founding leader, Dr Azad Moopen is a renowned visionary in the medical field. The icon has gained a global reputation by founding and building Aster DM Healthcare into one of the leading healthcare providers in the GCC and India.
With a vision to make quality healthcare affordable and accessible for people across the world, Dr Moopen’s dynamic work benefits millions as it expands around the world. With over 36 years of impassioned leadership, the entrepreneur and philanthropist has played a tremendous role in shaping the healthcare delivery system across geographies, in partnership with governments and authorities.
His efforts to build a world where quality healthcare services are available for all at their doorsteps, has led to Aster DM Healthcare emerging as one of the leading and most trusted brands in healthcare with 30 hospitals, 121 clinics, 459 pharmacies, 19 labs and 140 patient experience centres.
Healing A Society
It was in the year 1987 that Dr Moopen founded the first of the clinics that would represent the multinational corporation that Aster OM Healthcare would go on to become.
Established to make quality medical care easily accessible to all, the company’s three brands – Aster, Access and Medcare cater to all segments of the society. Together, they serve 20 million people per year in India and the GCC. While Medcare offers premium services and facilities that cater to high-income groups, Aster provides value-based care to the middle-income group.
Access focuses on increasing the availability of healthcare services to lower-income groups that generally struggle with accessibility. Dr Moopen’s extraordinary expansion plan acted out over three-and-a-half decades has extended the company’s reach to a whopping 30 hospitals, 121 clinics, 459 pharmacies, 19 labs and 140 patient experience centres across seven countries.
Apart from improving lives by providing treatment ranging from primary and secondary care, it has also saved numerous lives through specialized tertiary and quaternary care of the highest standards, using cuttingedge technology.
All Aster hospitals, clinics, and labs are certified and accredited by premiere institutions. In UAE, the hospitals have earned Canadian and JCI accreditation, while the labs offer ISO-certified services.
Every Indian Aster Hospital is NABH accredited. The heady combination of state-of-the-art equipment and futuristic healthcare tech, with over 28,000 employees bringing dedicated and uncompromising service to its customers has elevated Aster to a household name that represents top-notch quality care at affordable prices and exceptional quality medical solutions.
This allows it to more effectively tap into the burgeoning medical tourism industry in India, a feat that has far-reaching implications on a social level. An extensive network of well-placed clinics and adjoining pharmacies further the recognition and reach of the brand among the population, with the 3,279 doctors and 7,473 nurses of extraordinary talent solidifying its stellar repute.
One Who Stands for All
The still-growing medical giant has not gone unnoticed by the global healthcare industry. Indeed, both Dr Moopen and his company have been the recipients of a host of awards, accentuating the positive impact that they jointly have on the communities around them.
Ranging from awards that recognise excellence and growth to far-sightedness and sheer talent in an industry that saves lives on the regular, Aster boasts one significant award that no other Middle Eastern or Indian healthcare business has received yet.
The group’s deep inclusion of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals into its ESG policies has earned it a coveted position in the Corporate Knights’ Top 100 Global Sustainable Corporations in the World.
That aside, Dr Azad Moopen doesn’t rest on his laurels when it comes to securing the long term care of a community. Under his care, Aster DM Healthcare boasts of a nearly 60 per cent female workforce and focuses on environmentally friendly energy conservation practices across its various hospitals, clinics, and centres.
The group also dispels decades of accumulated medical learning and best practices via its educational arm; DM Education and Research Foundation. The charitable educational trust has launched two thriving institutions: Dr. Moopen’s Medical College and Aster MIMS Academy.
A Battle of Global Proportions
The pandemic opened the eyes of the world to the fragility of the human body. Whilst great acts of service in the face of the disease uplifted our hearts by highlighting the strength of humanity, Dr Moopen falls strongly into the category of those who chose to act and empower the struggling masses during troubled times.
The pandemic revealed the heart of the legend, which has remained unwavering in its ideology after all these years. His personal actions included mobilising his network and enlisting them to aid in the mass Covid-19 screenings he delivered to areas in Dubai and India that struggled with medical facility access. Dubai also saw his team manage numerous isolation camps and provide thousands with food, supplies and shelter.
The camps also received free access to Aster’s medical tele-consultancy service, while Aster Volunteers’ mobile medical services transported critically ill patients to hospitals. Numerically speaking, his efforts helped more than 318,490 people. On a human level, the impact of his choices goes much further.
Under Dr Moopen’s guidance, Aster OM Healthcare sprang to action by reassigning all of their key hospitals as Covid hospitals, creating a powerful backlash against the virus ravaging the world.
The Group’s priorities were immediately aligned with the changing situation and adapted to it by doubling down on the very goal that founded it in 1987-increased healthcare access for all. Aster pharmacies quickly launched home deliveries to better help customers access healthcare through medication and supplements.
Aster was one of the first healthcare players in the UAE to embrace telehealth services, with 800 doctors across five countries providing 100,000 consultations within eight months, making it an unmitigated success. A teleconsultation app was made available to the public to further the spread of healthcare accessibility, with the second wave bearing witness to over 100 Aster doctors providing free virtual consultation to those unable to access medical relief in their immediate surroundings.
Lastly, the healthcare group pooled its medical expertise by having the best critical care experts across operations and locations oversee the treatment of critical patients through the e-lCU model, whilst simultaneously forming a central expert hub of information and COVID specialised knowledge.
Growing with Surgical Precision
The year 2018 saw Aster OM launch its IPO in India, funding its future projects in India that focus on medical tourism, opening new hospitals, clinics, and labs, and branching out into new medical spheres.
The UAE can also expect the introduction of my Aster- region’s first integrated digital health solution. The firm collaborated with the Indian Institute of Science (llSc) to create a unique artificial intelligence lab in India.