A 32-YEAR-OLD overseas Filipino worker (OFW) and registered nurse from Davao City made history of being the youngest and only Filipino to be included in the top 100 list of healthcare professionals by an international award-giving body.
Dan Lester Dabon, chief executive officer and founder of DLD Healthcare Consulting Service, was one of the recipients of the 2020-2021 Top 100 Healthcare Leaders Award by the International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare (IFAH) ceremony recently held at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, USA.
Dabon told SunStar Davao in a virtual interview on Wednesday, August 18, that it was an honor to have the opportunity to represent his advocacy on a global platform while carrying the badge of being a dignified millennial Filipino.
"For me, I'm not really looking into recognition. Being recognized is just a bonus. For me, my main drive was only to pursue what I love, and what I am passionate about, and that is to internationalize healthcare standards in the Philippines," he shared.
He did not expect to be a part of the roster, which is a "humbling experience," considering most of the IFAH award recipients in the roster were in their 50s.
The IFAH is considered to be among the world's top healthcare conferences that gathers experts and explores the latest innovations in the healthcare industry.
The Top 100 Healthcare Leaders were carefully selected by the awards committee based on five parameters, namely: overall reach, industry impact, spirit of innovation, future-readiness and market demand.
A registered nurse in the Philippines, his journey in the healthcare field was driven by his experience.
Dabon graduated from his nursing course at Brokenshire College in Davao City in 2010. He was able to serve as a nurse at the Davao Doctors Hospital.
He left the country in 2011 and worked as a hospital nurse assistant in Abu Dhabi in 2012.
Starting from the bottom, Dabon dared to do more by pushing himself to grow more.
Dabon had been working with world-class health care facilities in Abu Dhabi. His experience motivated him to open his own healthcare consulting service company.
“My goal is to slowly change the paradigm to internationalize the healthcare standards, especially in my country, the Philippines,” Dabon said.
This had motivated him to establish DLD Healthcare.
During his free time, Dabon had been helping his fellow healthcare professionals, especially colleagues in the nursing industry. Since then, he has helped a lot of nurses in the country to land a decent job in the UAE.
“I was here in the UAE when I set up a Facebook group page. I wasn't bored, I think but it's about me being passionate to help,” he said.
With the growing number of people seeking his help, this had driven him to start his consultancy service firm in the Philippines.
In 2018, Dabon obtained his Masters of Science in Healthcare Management at the Swiss Business School in Abu Dhabi.
The following year, he set up his company in the Philippines in 2019, coincidently during the Araw ng Dabaw celebration.
Aside from running his consultancy company, Dabon is also a Covid-19 frontliner. He is currently a risk management officer at a government-owned organization in Abu Dhabi, which also is the largest ambulatory care in the Middle East.
With the current Covid-19 pandemic, which changed the global landscape of the healthcare system, he plans to continue sharing his knowledge. He believes that healthcare standardization does not only focus on the "business aspect," hence, it is more on the quality and patient's safety."
He also owes his mentoring skill during his short stint as a TV host for GMA Davao’s defunct variety show “Kuyaw!” from 2005 to 2007.
“You have to embrace and love what you do, and always challenge yourself,” Dabon said.