Interview with Dr. Yuan-Te Lee, MD. Owner and Founder of Doctors' Doctor Clinic

David F. Lo, BA, MBS1,2

Dr. Lee is a former National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) superintendent who is now part owner of a new medical clinic in Taipei, Taiwan. The clinic is called Doctors' Doctor Clinic (roughly translated) and is located on the 3rd floor of the Taipei World Trade Center International Trade Building. He received his MD degree at Tokyo Medical School in Japan and worked as a professor at China Medical University teaching courses in Internal Medicine.

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The trend today in Taiwan is that patients often develop a mistrust in a doctor, not following his or her directions and throwing away medications. Dr. Lee’s goal is to fix this gap and fix this relationship so that patients will begin to trust their doctors, ask more questions, and get better medical information in return.

Thus, at the Doctor’s Doctor Clinic, Dr. Lee aims to create the best experience for the patient. If you compare this clinic to other hospitals and clinics, you will see that this clinic
spends a lot more time with patients. Under the Taiwanese National Health Insurance system, doctors see hundreds of patients in one morning or afternoon and do not get to spend quality time with patients. At Doctors' Doctor Clinic, doctors only see a small number of patients, educating the patient and building that important patient-doctor bond.

The consequences for this better relationship are that this clinic is one of the most
expensive clinic in Taiwan. Dr. Lee hopes that in the future, they would be able to develop a
better balance between cost and service so that patients will still get high-quality treatment at a more affordable price so that they do not need to sacrifice cost for treatment. He wishes that this clinic will allow more freedom for patients who want a better option.

Leadership is extremely important in this environment. Although it is not as stressful as a whole department in a hospital, having the correct leadership with strong leaders who know what everyone is doing is key to running a smooth and successful clinic. There are around 30 doctors at the Doctor’s Doctor Clinic, so communication is really important so that the flow of patients is smooth and simple.

When a new doctor is signed onto the practice, they follow a “trial” or “warm-up” period
where he or she follows a more experienced doctor around to get used the location of equipment and facilities. During this 1-2 week period, they get to learn the staff, learn how to use the healthcare management system and learn how to use the devices. They are kept up to date with new treatments, software, and policies at a computer station at the back of the clinic. They also get to spend quality time with their colleagues because they will often be working together so having that relationship built early on is extremely important.

Dr. Lee was inspired to become a leader by his father was assistant chief of surgery at a
local Taipei hospital. He was a very kind doctor and everyone looked up to him. He treated
everyone like they were part of his family and gave great advice to both patients and staff. He developed this a kind of respect and admiration from his peers, not only through his skills as a surgeon, but through his skills as a leader, bringing about great changes that helped both the hospital and the patients that visited that hospital.

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​Dr. Lee's Leadership Insights

• Build strong relationships with their staff and co-workers
•  Create strong business models – ones that can be replicated on a large scale.
•  Focus not only on the short-term (patients) but also the long-term (future patients and how to improve the overall experience)
•  Communication is important, not only with patients but also with own staff.
• Treat patients like your own family, treat co-workers like your own family

The 4 Questions and His Responses (Translated from Chinese)

1. What advice do you have for a future leader in your career? 

Study hard, stay healthy, and seek experiences outside of your comfort zone. Often doctors put all their blood, sweat, and tears into books and don’t pay attention to your health. But as a doctor, it would be ironic if you yourself are not healthy. As for leadership, don’t wait until you are a doctor to become a leader. A leader starts training for his or her whole life in preparation for that important job or task. Start now by joining clubs, starting a business, or learning a new skill. It will help you in the long run.

2. What are three key challenges you face as a leader in the science / technology sector of business and how do you currently maneuver to lessen the impact or to negate the impact?

1. Smooth transitions between doctor to doctor, 2. Finding the balance of not over-examining and not under-examining a patient, 3. Public relations

Like in any hospital system, there are always gray areas in when to call a certain specialty or use a certain specialist. At our clinic, we have specialists from all areas from immunology-rheumatology to endocrine, so it is important to know when to utilize them properly. Not being able to do so can not only cause paperwork problems, but also lead to problems with the flow of patients and also cause damage to the doctor-patient relationship. At the same regard, finding the balance of not over/under prescribing or over examining is also important. Doing something over the top is not only a waste of money but also time and trust with the patient. Doing something too little will cause you to miss important information that would have been helpful in a diagnosis. Finally, public relations is extremely important for a company. At first, we had no designated person involved with PR and we had a small crisis that occurred during the beginning of our operations. Since we were one of the first high-end private clinics in Taipei, news and people started to comment and worry that we were trying to dismantle the National Health System in Taiwan and poach good doctors away from hospitals. Of course, we were not doing any of that but get bad press and over exaggerations nonetheless. So it is important as we move forward in the future to develop a good relationship with the media because even if you treat patients with the utmost of care, it won’t matter if you have no patients. We do our best to solve these challenges by doing the best we can and learning from others. We have a network of other leaders of medical clinics and share information and resources.

3. Where do you see your business growth coming in the next 3 – 5 years?

I hope that we will be able to grow this business so that we will able to have a clinic in every major city in Taiwan and hopefully the rest of the world. Currently, we are based only in Taipei and we hope to expand this model to other parts of the country.

4. What attributes will be needed in the leaders in your company in the future and why?

Proactiveness, compassion, and knowledge. We want doctors to be proactive and ask the
questions that the patient may not have even thought of. We also want them to emphasize with the patient, put themselves in their shoes, and focus on delivering courtesy and compassion to all. Finally, we want all leaders to be knowledgeable about not only their medical training but also with the newest news and trends.

How I got in contact with Dr. Lee:
First, I contacted my great-uncle who is a retired cardiothoracic surgeon who suggested I call Dr. Lee’s office. I explained my assignment and background and arranged a call on Monday, September 4th at 10PM. Not only did we talk about leadership and medicine, Dr. Lee also talked to me briefly about his personal thoughts about the medical industry in Taiwan. As to the insights document, he said that it is fine to include his name (Dr. Yuan-Te Lee), number (2 2872 9980 +86), and company info (Doctors' Doctor Clinic). Like Dr. Cheng from my first interview, Dr. Lee wished me good luck in applying to medical schools and to keep in touch.