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A MEDICAL HUBIN A RAPIDLYCHANGING REGIONDr Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, former surgeon turned airline and health care tycoon, sees Thailand having a formidable future as a centre for international medicineDr Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, now president of Thailand’s largest private health care group and CEO of Thailand’s first privately owned airline, began his career in medical school. He pursued a doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine at Siriraj Hospital and became a surgeon at the same hospital. Five years later he grew discouraged by the need to constantly absorb piles of textbooks in order to rise to the top of the field.An interest in tourism influenced Dr Prasert to found his own business – the private airline Bangkok Airways and the first private airport on Koh Samui. Unexpected obstacles in the airline business, however, helped guide him back into the medical industry.The founder of Bangkok Hospital, Dr Prasert is now CEO of Bangkok Dusit Medical Service PLC (BDMS), a health care service group that is the largest shareholder of many leading hospitals in Thailand including Samitivej, BNH, Phyathai and Paolo Memorial. According to an annual ranking conducted by Money & Banking magazine and the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy, Chulalongkorn University, he was the wealthiest investor in the Thai stock market for the second straight year in 2014. Likewise Forbes magazine earlier this year ranked him as Thailand’s eighth richest person, with a net worth of US$2.8 billion.Elite+ spoke to Dr Prasert about his successes and the future course of the business in a rapidly changing region.Hospitals in“our group can be compared toYou are ranked as the richest investor of the Thai stock market...I wouldn’t say I’m a real stock trader. The shares in the Thai stock market that I hold belong to our company group, such as in BDMS. We do not invest in other shares. Originally BDMS was Bangkok Hospital, but as we earned more capital we bought some shares from Bumrungrad and all shares from Phyathai and Samitivej hospitals. It could be called a stock investment, and we are merging the health care businesses into one company.+ Elite 7houses in the same family. We are mergingthem into o”ne community