June 2018c

84 85 about the evolution of The Medical Pavilion Bahamas, and what the future holds for this remarkably innovative healthcare facility. The following is an edited transcript of our conver- sation: BVC: Dr. Brown, what spurred you to create The Medical Pavilion Bahamas? Dr. Brown: “I’d always wanted to practice Cardiology back home in the Bahamas at the level to which I’d become accustomed during my training to become an internist and cardiol- ogist in Canada, Jamaica, and the United States. So, when I returned home in 1990, I started The Bahamas Heart Centre in Nassau because there was not any significant cardiology infra- structure available from which to practice. It took personal sacrifice, private investment, and borrowing money to get my initial set of cardi- ac equipment, and to open The Bahamas Heart Centre (which was primarily for consultative and non-invasive cardiology) at a cost of about US $300,000. Since then, my investment and commitment to advancing healthcare has in- creased exponentially, and we’ve expanded not only in Nassau, but in Grand Bahama, and other islands and countries as far south as Jamaica and the Eastern Caribbean. “In 1993, we bought and renovated a 1,200-square-foot house (now known as The Medical Pavilion Bahamas) with a view to housing all of our cardiac services under one roof. The plan was to expand same to 5,000 sq. ft. Then, I was approached by a heart surgeon (our present Minister of Health in the Baha- mas), who asked to join me in the new centre. We really didn’t have the space – as it was just for my wife, Dr. Corrine Sin Quee-Brown, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist, and I – but the opportunity to add cardiac surgery was THE ME THE MEDICAL PAVILION BAHAMAS too much to pass up. So, I increased the size of the building to 10,000 sq. ft., more than doubled the cost, and we brought a valuable service to the Bahamian people. At that point, we changed the name to The Bahamas Chest Centre, Home to The Bahamas Heart Centre. We also accommodated Pediatric Cardiology, Cardiac Anesthesia Consultants, and even- tually Pulmonology to truly have developed a full-fledged Cardiovascular and Thoracic Service for our Bahamas. “In 2002, we joined with several colleagues to build a cancer centre, inclusive of radiation therapy, because while heart disease was the number one killer, cancer is number two. At that point, it was no longer a Chest Centre alone, so I renamed it The Centreville Medical DR. CONVILLE BROWN