Introducing Dr. Ali Alqahtani, a consultant chronic pain, and musculoskeletal medicine expert in functional medicine and anti-aging medicine. Dr. Ali Alqahtani is also the Owner and Founder of Orthopain Center, Riyadh. From having the best academic background to getting his training recognized by the top global institutes, and finding his center, Dr. Ali Alqahtani’s journey is nothing short of an inspiration.
In this insightful interview, Dr. Ali Alqahtani shares his perspective on challenges, changing priorities of his business, and unique services, while offering invaluable lessons for aspiring entrepreneurs in this industry.
Beginnings First
We started the interview by asking, ”Could you start by telling us about your career path?”
Ali Alqahtani shared, “In 2000, I graduated from National Guard Medical City (Double Board in Family Medicine). Until 2007, I practiced chronic disease medicine and sports medicine. However, I felt disappointed about the conventional Western medicine approach to chronic diseases and chronic pain where it was not able to prevent or reverse such diseases. The treatment is not based on diagnosing the underlying root causes of such diseases and doesn’t prevent these diseases’ progression nor do they prevent premature aging or premature death.
Eventually, in 2008, I was sent by the National Guard Medical City to Canada to do a subspecialization in pain relief, but after completing 1 year in the fellowship training, I was not satisfied with the goal of pain relief and thought of asking the university to create a more comprehensive fellowship training that deals with all kinds of chronic pain where the focus would be to learn to treat the underlying causes of all chronic pain syndromes rather than only pain relief.
I raised a proposal to McMaster University for this and after 6 months of studying the idea, by McMaster University and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, my idea was accepted and approved to start the newly created training. I studied all kinds of chronic pain extensively and Comprehensively from the perspective of conventional Western medicine and also from the perspectives of functional/integrative medicine, complementary/alternative medicine, and regenerative medicine.”
He added, “My training was recognized as the most extensive and comprehensive training available in Canada, and was the first graduate from this program in 2010. I contributed to the development of new and more advanced chronic pain fellowship training under the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada which started 6 years ago in Canada. My training was recognized and acknowledged by McMaster University, Harvard University, the Canadian Academy for Pain Management, and the Saudi Ministry of Health. Currently, I’m a member of the Canadian Academy for Pain Management Training faculty.
After graduation, I started to practice my new specialty at the National Guard Medical City in Riyadh until 2014, when I founded my small medical center in the private sector in Riyadh (Surgery Alternatives Chronic Pain Center). Until now this center is the first of its kind and the only center in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. At present, we offer advanced services that achieve cure or great improvement in most complex chronic pain, musculoskeletal dysfunction/disability.”
Spark Behind The Idea
We were curious to learn the factors that influenced him to come up with this unique idea. So, we asked, “What inspired you to develop the idea of your company?”
Ali responds, “After completing my fellowship training in Canada and practicing chronic pain medicine from 2010-2014, I realized that most chronic pain patients in Saudi Arabia, Canada, and all over the world are misdiagnosed (60% of chronic pain patients in the USA are misdiagnosed). I realized that chronic pain is not refractory to treatment or cure, what is refractory is medical education and training. I recognized the substantial gaps in chronic pain and lifestyle-related chronic disease management. Therefore, I decided to move to the private sector to have the freedom to implement an advanced model of care aiming at achieving the safe and highly cost-effective reversal of chronic pain syndromes, premature aging, and chronic diseases.”
Evolving Priorities
To learn more about the priorities of Dr. Ali’s business and how it transformed over the years, we asked, “How have your priorities in business evolved since you first started?”
He shared, “The priority of my business was chronic pain services as it’s very common and is very poorly and unsafely managed. I decided to implement a smart business model that achieves the following goals consisting of:
– Creating service and clinical models that are integrated and ensure safe, smooth, and clients satisfying services.
– Provide clinical services that are highly patient-satisfying and provide radical solutions along with being safe and unique while bringing high revenues at low cost.
– To keep doing targeted training, reviewing and comparing published research, and learning from world-leading experiences
– To focus on an effective and ethical marketing plan. By now the main source of our patients is word of mouth
– To expand the services to treat degenerative brain diseases, premature aging, and lifestyle related chronic diseases
– To open up other branches in and outside the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.“
Adaptability Amidst Challenges
While challenges are an inevitable part of the business, with the correct strategies they can be handled and mitigated at the right time. So, we asked, “What are the most challenging situations that your company overcomes?”
Ali responds, “Till date, since the advent of the company, we have overcome several challenging phases. System bureaucracy during the first 3 years had to be the major challenge we faced during the initial phase. Later, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic hit us with a severe financial crisis. And, lastly, we also had to face conflict of interest with competitors and ignorance industries.”
“What’s the key strength to overcome it?”
He added, “The key strength is success with patients. Most of our patients had failed to find a solution for their complex chronic pain or suffering when managed in other health institutions and medical cities before they came to our center. Patience along with my specialty and the provided services, which are science and evidence-based have to be other key components in overcoming challenges.
Setting The Business Apart
To stand out as a strong business, it is paramount to develop and offer unique services. So, we asked, “What makes your company stand out from other businesses in your industry?”
He shared, “We implement a unique model of care that is based on a new specialty that is still rare worldwide. We diagnose and treat the underlying causes of chronic pain and premature aging rather than focusing on symptom treatment. We use mostly natural and safe treatment options. We have thousands of success stories with complex refractory chronic pain or chronic disease problems.”
Measuring Success
We further asked, “What KPIs do you use to measure your business growth?”
Ali Alqahtani shared, “We consider patients’ satisfaction questionnaires to measure and ensure progressive improvement in all outcomes along with employee satisfaction questionnaires. Medical records contain structured data about patients’ management and outcomes. And, we also have financial periodic reviews including external reviewers.”
Current Offerings
To learn more about the current projects and services offered by Dr. Ali Alqahtani, we asked, “Tell us something about your services. What are you working on currently?”
Ali Alqahtani replied, “We provide a comprehensive treatment protocol, namely, the M2R2HS3 protocol, which includes:
– M = Mind-body therapies including medicinal food.
– M = Medications (Conventional)
– R = Regenerative treatment (dextrose prolotherapy, stem cells, autologous blood, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, fasting )
– R = Rehabilitative treatment.
– H = Herbal medicine
– S = Supplements(dietary)
– S = Social prescribing
– S = Surgical treatment.
Most commonly treated problems include neck and upper back or shoulder pain, lower back pain, knee and joint osteoarthritis, headache, nerve pain, sports injuries or pain, rheumatoid arthritis, and autoimmune diseases. Moreover, our anti-aging, degenerative brain diseases and other chronic diseases program will start in 2 months, which aim at reversing aging, Alzheimer’s, and other chronic diseases.”
Effective Teamwork
Focusing on effective teamwork is essential when it comes to business success. We asked, “How do you build trust with your employees and boost productivity without causing burnout?”
He shared, “Through respect and care, transparency, support and motivation we focus on building effective teamwork. We have a program to improve employees’ well-being, sleep, stress, and focus. We realize that a large proportion of people nowadays including employees and managers have problems with stress, mental focus, sleep, and quality of life. That is in addition to the loneliness epidemic.”
Staying Ahead Of The Curve
“How do you stay on top of the latest technologies and trends in your industry?”
He shared, “With continuous updates and review of new research along with follow-up with key world-leading centers and institutions we ensure our team is updated with all the latest technologies. Also, we focus on the synthesis of new approaches in a way that matches our patients’ needs.”
Words Of Wisdom For Beginners
We ended the interview by asking, ”What advice would you give to starting entrepreneurs?”
He shared, “I’ll start with the things entrepreneurs should not do. Being impractical and unrealistic about sales and marketing should be a big No. Instead, define your specific idea and goal while finding a rich and stable country with a growing economy to execute your idea. Ensure finding advisors who are both successful and expert in similar business.
The hardest part is not establishing the business and running it, rather it is sales and marketing. Focus on questions like, is your product marketable or how to get noticed and reach the target audience? Early in business focus on the business’s pumping heart, which is the cash flow engine. Focus on products that give higher revenues at lower cost on the project. Early in the project, keep testing the cash flow model to reach one that works.
“Also, avoid lack of preparedness and creativity in facing obstacles or not taking enough action. Starters should learn and have a bag of tricks to face tricky obstacles, especially with business evolution. When success is reached for one product, then focus on it.
Do not fall into the trap of materialism and success. Running a business without conscious glorious cause is equivalent to having a life without purpose.” He concluded.
Connect with Dr. Ali Alqahtani on LinkedIn.
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