Young Tạ Minh Tuấn, a Systems Engineering graduate of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, CEO of HELP Joint Stock Company and lead instructor at YUP INSTITUTE, was honored as a social entrepreneur in 2011 for his initiative to develop a family doctor system to meet community healthcare needs and improve awareness and effectiveness of preventive healthcare among Vietnamese people.
Sowing the Seeds of Ideas
At the end of 2007, Tuấn's family fell into crisis after receiving the devastating news that his father had cancer. Watching his father go from strong and healthy to weak and haggard left Tuấn deeply troubled: “If he had taken preventive measures and had timely health checks, would my father have developed this terrible cancer?”
With active treatment and lifestyle changes following medical advice, Tuấn’s father’s health improved markedly. This gave Tuấn the idea for a company providing home healthcare, advice and examinations. He shared: “Preventive healthcare raises awareness that prevention is better than cure. Advice also helps people develop healthy lifestyles suited to their circumstances. This friendly examination and treatment model also eliminates the time spent queuing and waiting at hospitals.”
Beginning plans to implement his idea with nothing in hand, Tuấn spent two full years studying Vietnam's healthcare system to gain completely new knowledge. Without family support, he still persisted because he saw an underserved healthcare market. If done well, the business could generate profit and contribute greatly to society. Tuấn met friends and partners to share his idea and invite them to invest. In 10–2009, Tuấn and 20 like-minded members officially launched the HELP project. For an entire year, everyone agreed to work without pay to research the market, build human resources, raise capital, and complete legal procedures.
The birth of a private doctor at home
Although he lacked formal healthcare education, Tuấn wisely chose to collaborate with highly qualified people such as Lý Trường Chiến, former Unilever marketing director and Chairman of Trí Tri Education Group; Nguyễn Anh Vũ, formerly responsible for human resources at Unilever and ABBank; Dr. Huỳnh Ngọc Long, Deputy Head of the Interventional Information Department, Ho Chi Minh City Heart Institute; and Dr. Lê Hoàng Tường Lâm, Head of Nephrology and Hemodialysis at Nguyễn Tri Phương Hospital.
Tuấn always remembers the ‘11th-Hour Rule’: dawn follows darkness, so work patiently and seek solutions and new directions. During the project, he and his colleagues sometimes faced difficulties that seemed insurmountable. Tuấn confided: ‘After completing project research and stabilizing the team, I could not raise capital. Once funding was secured, legal difficulties arose because privately funded home healthcare was so new.’ In 12–2010, HELP Joint Stock Company officially began operations under the motto ‘prevention is better than cure.’ Doctors visit homes for examinations, healthcare, testing, and lifetime health-record storage to improve disease monitoring and prevention, offer health and disease-prevention advice, provide health consultations, and design lifestyles suited to patients' work.
Live for more than yourself
With the philosophy of helping ‘because life is very short, we need to help others and live the most meaningful life possible.’ Besides wanting to offer customers convenient, effective healthcare and help the community improve awareness of preventive medicine to reduce hospital overload, HELP uses profits from its customers to provide free healthcare to people in difficult circumstances. Currently, Đặng Văn Trường and Trần Thị Thùy Linh (Hamlet 2, Đa Phước Commune, Bình Chánh District), a couple with disabilities, receive lifelong free healthcare from HELP's doctors. Ms. Thùy Linh shared: “Every time our child was ill, taking him to hospital was very difficult. Now doctors come to our home to examine us and answer health questions, so my husband and I feel very reassured. We are truly grateful to the doctors for caring for us and our son.”
Young social entrepreneur Tạ Minh Tuấn is also founder and Executive Chairman of the “Giấc Mơ Đôi Chân Thiên Thần” charity fund, supporting people with disabilities who are passionate about literature or the arts; Deputy Director of Song Long Co., Ltd.; and President of the Master Chapter of BNI Vietnam. In every role and position, Tuấn strives to do his work well. He shared: “I want each day of my life to have value and meaning. That is why I must work tirelessly to contribute more to the community and society.”
Mốt Vietnam Magazine, December & January (2011–2012) + January & February (2012) Issues
Chương trình liên quan tại YUP Education: The Journey – lộ trình phát triển doanh nhân
