MANILA, Philippines - While many Filipino doctors are migrating overseas in search of the proverbial greener pastures, a team of young Filipino ophthalmologists, all trained abroad, is quietly building a growing practice locally through a unique medical facility they put up to bring world-class eye care and services in the Philippines.
Called the Eye Republic Ophthalmology Clinic, this facility is a hospital-based, subspecialty-practice eye clinic network for eye surgery that is patterned after the EyeMD group practice at Boston ’s Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (Mass. Eye and Ear), the primary teaching hospital of the Harvard Medical School in ophthalmology and otolaryngology (ear, nose and throat or ENT). Beginning with one clinic located across the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila, Eye Republic now has a network of clinics in three leading medical tourism hospitals in Metro Manila, namely the Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Muntinlupa, The Medical City in Pasig, and St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City. It will open a fifth clinic at St. Luke’s Medical Center Global City in Taguig by Valentine’s Day this year.
“From the start, my partners and I decided not to compete with hospitals by establishing clinics within their facilities and refraining from owning stand-alone ambulatory surgical centers so as not to present any conflict of interest,” explains Dr. Manolette Roque, Eye Republic president and CEO. “This allows us to provide excellent patient care while utilizing state-of-the-art technologies in the hospitals we are affiliated with.”
A prominent ophthalmologist in the Philippines whose practice includes cataract and refractive surgery with subspecialty work in uveitis and ocular immunology, Roque heads an eight-man team of eye surgeons who serve as the exclusive ophthalmologists of Eye Republic. They likewise make up Ophthalmic Consultants Philippines Co. (OCP), a Securities and Exchange Commission-registered general professional partnership.
Roque, who went to Massachusetts Eye and Ear for fellowship training and observership, was, in fact, offered a position at the Harvard Medical School but opted to return to the Philippines instead. “At least three of us have been offered employment in our respective training institutions abroad,” he notes. “Each of us chose to return to the Philippines for numerous varied reasons, but we all agree that it all boils down to quality of life, family support, and service to Filipinos.”
While Filipinos – including balikbayans – continue to comprise the bulk of Eye Republic ’s patients, it likewise caters to a growing list of foreign clients from overseas. The clinic’s cataract and refractive surgery program (which features the latest iLASIK or all-laser, bladeless procedure) is proving especially attractive to these medical tourists.
“People from all over the Philippines , the US and over 30 other countries come to us for treatment,” says Roque. “ Eye Republic has grown slowly albeit steadily over the years, and we are aware of the exponential growth of our clients from abroad. We value our overseas clients and recognize their role in our progress.”
To fuel its growth, Eye Republic primarily relies on what Roque calls a word-of-mouth clientele (“Clients satisfied with our services serve as our ambassadors spreading goodwill all over.”). However, it also makes extensive use of the Internet.
Roque, who builds his own websites and programs in PHP, is a firm believer in the power of the Information Superhighway. “The Internet is a boon to medical tourism’s growth in the Philippines because it allows us to compete with all our neighboring countries,” he says. “In our case, EyeRepublic.com is our link to the world.”
And for Roque and his partners, it could also well be their link to the greener pastures that other Filipino doctors are desperately searching for.