“I consider this award as a reward for whatever little I have been able to contribute in the area of health care and to alleviate the suffering of the needy people”, said Dr. Azad Moopen after receiving the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, India’s topmost honour for overseas Indians.
Dr. Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman, DM Health Care and MIMS India is a renowned physician turned enterpreneur based in the UAE. He was honoured the award by Government of India for his exceptional and meritorious contribution to social and humanitarian causes, his leadership qualities and committment to provide best medical facilities to the people of Gulf countries and India.
Dr. Azad hails from a very respectable Moopen family of Kalpakanchery in Malappuram, Kerala. His father, Mr. Ahamed Unni Moopen was a social activist and was actively involved in the freedom struggle of the country in 1940s.
Dr. Moopen has a brilliant academic record. Following his graduation from Farooque College of Calicut, he did his MBBS and passed out with a Gold Medal. He went on to do his MD in General Medicine from the Government Medical College, Calicut and diploma in Chest Diseases from Delhi University. He worked as a lecturer in Calicut Medical College for five years. In 1987, he went to Dubai and started a successful career as a practicing doctor. He established a chain of health care institutions in the Middle East. He has 70 units which include Hospitals, Policlinics and Pharmacies spread over UAE, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The group employs around 2,000 people and plans to expand the chain from 70 to 300 by the year 2015.
Dr. Moopan is firmly committed to his motherland and is actively involved in the development of health care activities and humanitarian initiatives in India. He established the 600-bed Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences (MIMS) at Calicut at a cost of Rs. 60 crore in 2001. MIMS offers quality health care at affordable cost to the people of Malabar. MIMS was the first Multispeciality Hospital in India which received accreditation from the National Accreditation Bureau of Hospitals (NABH). Recently another MIMS hospital was inaugurated at Kottakkal. The MIMS hospitals provide direct employment to around 2,500 people.
The DM Group plans to set up similar hospitals in other parts of the country. The DM Medicity at Kochi in an ambitious project with an investment of Rs. 1,500 crores. MIMS Academy Trust with Dr. Moopen as Chairman is setting up a campus in 32 acres near Calicut. It has more than 1000 students in the various disciplines of medical science. The MIMS Academy is looking at establishing a Medical College soon in Mananthawadi of Wayanad district. He is the Vice Chairman of the Social Advancement Foundation of India (SAFI), a non-profit organisation is the process of establishing a Deemed University in 450 acre land Malabar. The major trust is to provide access to students from backward communities to the areas of Science, Technology and Management.
Dr. Moopen is also the Vice Chairman of 3 international schools in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam in Saudi Arabia with a combined strength of 600 students.
Dr. Moopen has been is the forefront of many philanthropic and social activities. The DM Group envisioned the ‘Save Little Heart’ programme in Dubai in 2009. He is the founder of M.A Moopen Memorial School for the deaf at Kalpakanchery. MIMS Charitable Trust under Dr. Moopen is extending free and subsidised medical treatment to the poor. The trust established a rural health centre in Vazhayur Panchayat near Calicut and adopted 7,000 BPL population for free medical care. He has also started the MAM community Dialysis Centre in Badagara, Calicut to provide free and subsidised dialysis to poor patients.
Dr. Azad is blessed with a very supportive family. His wife Naseera helps him in his business and charitable work. His eldest daughter, Alisha, is a Chartered Accountant married to Navin. They are in New Castle, UK with son Noah. His second daughter is a Business Management Graduate settled in Dubai with her husband Anoop and daughter Layah. His youngest daughter, Zeba, is studying MBBS at Manipal.
The philosophy of the DM group as defined by Dr. Azad Moopen has been that health care is not a business and profit is a by-product rather than the main goal. His strong belief is that the resources that God has bestowed on him must be used for the benefit of the needy.