Since founding Atlas Surgical Group in 2003, Dr Shakeel Ahmed has been at the forefront of change. A gastroenterologist turned healthcare entrepreneur, over the last two decades, he has harnessed his vision to build the Midwest’s leading network of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs).

Dr Ahmed’s notable contributions extend beyond the ASC sphere. He has played a key role in developing a comprehensive healthcare network, including a range of medical facilities, diagnostic centers and surgical establishments across several states. His literary contributions include nine books on the topic of outpatient surgery, alongside hundreds of articles in leading national and international journals.

He is also the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, Surgery Business. He regularly speaks and lectures on the topic of ASCs for a worldwide audience. He consults to multiple governments on healthcare development and works as an advisor to various healthcare entities across four continents in the establishment of outpatient surgery centers.

The Case for ASCs

Ambulatory, or outpatient, surgery offers compelling advantages: lower costs, improved patient satisfaction and reduced risks, and it should be the standard of care in cases where applicable, Dr Ahmed argues. But for the moment he and other professionals like him are in the minority as private and public funding continues to flow to hospitals.

“There has always been – and there always will be – delays in recurring care at hospitals,” he continues. “There are also high costs and patient dissatisfaction.”

On the other hand, ambulatory surgery can come in at half the cost of a hospital setting.

“And patient satisfaction is twice as high and the infection rate is half,” he adds.

Dr Ahmed says it should be a ‘no-brainer’ in a country crippled by the expense of healthcare.

“There’s data out there that shows that if all the eligible surgeries were moved from hospitals into an outpatient setting in an ambulatory surgery center, the healthcare system would save US$100 billion over the next 10 years,” he says.

“Unfortunately, because of powerful lobbies, they still haven’t come to the forefront in the care of medicine.”

Changing the paradigm

That doesn’t mean there hasn’t been progress, however. Much of it has been spearheaded by Dr Ahmed.

What’s also spearheading the change is technology, particularly as minimally invasive procedures begin to replace complex, detailed and extensive surgeries.

“But these should be done in an outpatient setting at a lower cost to a system that’s at breaking point,” he notes.

To achieve this, Atlas Surgical Group is drawing upon robotics, AI and data-driven analytics to optimize surgical outcomes, reduce costs and improve operational efficiency. The next 24 months, in particular, will see a concerted push by Dr Ahmed to expand the Group’s footprint worldwide.

“There are centers across the globe that are adopting our model to diversify their healthcare environment,” he says. “There is significant demand for healthcare savings and there’s significant interest in any concept that brings about those savings, so around the world, people are galvanized to bring about those changes.”

Roadblocks do exist, however; namely what Dr Ahmed describes as a ‘lack of guidance’. “We are administrators, clinicians, businessmen, architects, electricians and plumbers all combined into one body and that’s not easy to reproduce,” he says.

It also doesn’t help that the people heading up the healthcare industry are business administrators, not physicians.

“From a dollars and cents standpoint, they are doing great, but from a patient satisfaction and concern standpoint, they’re not,” Dr Ahmed admits.

Atlas Surgical Group is, he says, working to change that paradigm.

What would make the most significant impact is the involvement of local and central governments.

“If there was one magical solution that I could offer, it would be for the powers that be to wake up and realize what needs to be done,” he says.

Leaving his mark

Dr Ahmed knows changing the system is an uphill battle, but he is hopeful that all roads will eventually lead to this model of healthcare.

“I look forward to that. I’m optimistic that the exponential growth that ASCs have achieved in the United States will be reproduced around the world,” he says.

“After all, those who have experienced ASCs and outpatient surgery love them. Hopefully it’s only a matter of time that it becomes the standard of care.”

It’s this core purpose that has motivated Dr Ahmed since his first day as a practicing gastroenterologist in the United States over 25 years ago. It was then that he noticed the discrepancy in the provisions of healthcare that existed between traditional hospital settings and outpatient surgical centers.

“If any of us can make a difference and leave a mark that is positive, we should do that. From a physician standpoint, this is the legacy that I will leave behind,” he says.

“We have made a change in the Midwest, we have driven a very significant improvement and a change in the concept of outpatient surgery. Atlas Surgical Groups perform tens of thousands of surgeries a year and that equates to hundreds of millions of dollars saved to patients, insurance companies and the system in general around the region.”