Concierge Medicine Europe (CME) is a private clinic in Prague that is setting a new trend in healthcare – lifestyle medicine. Founder and CEO Wolfram A. Schleuter and sales director Michaela Löblová explained how this innovative concept differs from classical medicine.
Let’s start with your view of the Czech healthcare system, Mr. Schleuter. How do you rate it?
I think that the Czech healthcare system is at a very good level. Czech doctors are excellent, many of them are known to be true experts in their fields. However, in medicine – more than anywhere else – a big problem is the lack of time. When you go to a general practitioner, they often have up to 3 thousand clients in charge. During a visit to the office, they can only spend a few minutes with each patient, which does not allow them to get to know the patient well and know about all their problems. General practitioners only have time to treat health problems, but they do not help people stay healthy.
Your clinic takes a slightly different approach to health care than we are used to. Where did you draw your inspiration?
I was inspired by my own experience when I was a patient at the Mayo Clinic in the USA, which has a reputation as the best hospital in the world. It was here that I was introduced to the term lifestyle medicine. It is a medical specialization based on Evidence Based Medicine, i.e. built on evidence from clinical studies. In it, the doctor does not just treat the disease, but has enough time to use positive interventions in the client’s lifestyle, such as healthy nutrition, active exercise, quality sleep, and more. This is the way to prevent and sometimes even reverse chronic diseases. Thanks to this, he helps people stay healthy. But this can only be done if the doctor has enough time for each individual. After my experience at the Mayo Clinic, I began to educate myself in this field – I attended the lifestyle medicine program at Harvard Medical School in the USA and became an ambassador for the Czech Republic in the European Association of Lifestyle Medicine. Our doctors also receive training in this area. The philosophy of our clinic is that each doctor has a maximum of 650 clients, so that they can devote enough time to them and use their knowledge to provide comprehensive health care for each client as an individual.
Lifestyle medicine is therefore a new concept in the Czech Republic. Can you introduce it in more detail?
First, the doctors have fewer clients, which allows them to provide more individual care. In urgent cases, we guarantee examinations on the same or next day. Doctors work with a team of specialists and subspecialists, such as nutritionists, lifestyle medicine coaches or personal trainers, to help clients achieve positive changes in their lifestyle and thus improve their health. We also offer a six-hour examination for managers, which is a unique program where they can comfortably visit six specialists in one day, undergo examinations with them, and receive a detailed summary of the results with medical recommendations from their personal doctor. Within our clinic, we have more than thirty medical specialties under one roof, so we can provide comprehensive health care in a time-efficient manner without long waiting times. We are also proud to be the only provider in the Czech Republic of a unique treatment for back pain using the American MedX device. It has been clinically proven to reduce back pain in 85 percent of cases with a six-minute treatment once a week. Back pain is a very debilitating condition, and in many cases this machine offers an alternative to surgery.
One of your programs is 360° Prevention. In that name, I sense the principles of holistic medicine and the search for connections between physical and psychological states…
The 360° Prevention program is specifically designed for clients who want to have a dedicated personal doctor who works individually with patients and enables them to achieve optimal health. In addition to regular health care, it includes extended preventive check-ups, body composition analysis, and other aspects of tailor-made care. It is a holistic approach based on medical evidence. The program also includes personal coaching in lifestyle medicine, including nutritional counseling, optimal physical activity, stress reduction, mindfulness, healthy sleep, and the like, so it is truly a holistic program.
And what are your development plans?
We opened our first clinic in Prague in May 2021 and we plan to open more in the future.
Madam Director, you have experience with Czech private care clinics. What does CME have in addition?
Most private medical service providers focus on preventive medicine in addition to regular health care. Concierge Medicine Europe goes one level higher in this regard. In addition to covering key medical fields in one place, we are also a Center of Excellence for Preventive and Lifestyle Medicine. This provides clients with specific health services that support positive lifestyle changes, which, according to the latest research, help extend life by 10 to 12 quality years. As Director Schleuter mentioned, thanks to the care of a multidisciplinary team of doctors, we help clients to prevent the development of serious civilization diseases and using lifestyle medicine methods, we are also able to reverse some diseases and return a person to a healthy state. This applies, for example, to high blood pressure and related health complications or type 2 diabetes, which are diseases fundamentally influenced by lifestyle. But this is only possible in the primary stages of the disease without further complications. The sooner a client comes to us, the higher the chance that we can restore their good health.
You offer a wide range of programs – can you introduce the main differences and say who they are intended for?
Our care is suitable for everyone who wants to live the longest and highest quality life possible. We offer a wide range of programs for adults and children so that everyone can choose and choose the scope of care that suits them. The programs differ in the scope of services. All include the care of a personal doctor who takes care of a maximum of 650 clients, and they also include the care of selected specialists, various types of preventive examinations, professional consultations in the area of lifestyle or vaccinations. The analysis would take up too much space. However, I can mention that the highest VIP Premium Concierge program includes an evaluation of the proposed treatment by a specialist from international Centers of Excellence or coverage of treatment in the best European hospitals. And in most programs, clients can also use the aforementioned MedX device for diagnosing and treating back pain. Our client center will gladly provide a detailed overview of the services in our programs to those interested.
Lifestyle medicine is a new trend that Concierge Medicine Europe is bringing to the Czech Republic.
Wolfram A. Schleuter
A businessman of German origin lives and does business in the Czech Republic. He is the founder and CEO of several successful companies in the tourism industry, and is currently engaged in managing companies in the field of innovation in the medical field. He graduated from the London Business School and the European Leadership Institute, where he received an MBL degree. He completed professional programs in healthcare at Harvard University in the USA in the field of public health and lifestyle medicine, and now serves as CEO of Concierge Medicine Europe, which operates a private clinic of the same name in Prague. She is also the Czech Ambassador to the European Lifestyle Medicine Organization (ELMO).
Michaela Löblová
The Commercial Director of Concierge Medicine Europe (CME) graduated from the Faculty of Law at Charles University. She has worked in various commercial positions in corporate companies, such as the global research and analysis company AC Nielsen, the media and advertising company POS Media, and until recently as the Commercial Director of the private polyclinic Program Health Plus.