A leading cardiologist is planning to construct a multi-million dollar stem cell lab in The Bahamas.

Founder of the Bahamas Heart Association, Dr. Conville Brown said he hopes to build the $2.5 million lab at his Collins Avenue facility.

The news comes on the heels of Dr. Brown’s medical breakthrough last week. In conjunction with the Orlando-based Advanced Innovative Medicine, he successfully performed the first cardiac stem cell treatment in The Bahamas.

The treatment was done on a 62-year-old American man who was experiencing heart problems after suffering a heart attack in 1989.

The man had advance cardiac disease, which means he had blockage of blood going to his heart.

Dr. Brown said a team of 15 people took one year to prepare for the procedure; a major injection for local medical tourism.

“I think that it is a very significant advance for a number of reasons. One, it represents an advance in medicine so that you are able to develop a whole new arena for diseases that are not curable or were difficult to manage,” he said.

“On the medical tourism side, it presents a niche because it provides a service for people outside the country where they could not have gotten that service where they came from.”

Dr Brown further admitted that the procedure is an expensive one.

“A lot of technology is involved particularly when we talk about stem cell therapy. The generation of the development of the expansion of the stem cells is a procedure that generally attracts a price of $20,000 to $30,000 just for the cells. The general price is somewhere easily in the $40,000 to $50,000 range and that’s essentially around the world in a number of centres,” he explained.

“In the case with our particular patient, the cost was significantly reduced because our cost of operation here in The Bahamas is less.”

Dr. Brown said the government is planning to establish guidelines for physicians wanting to practice stem cell research or treatments.

When it comes to the stem cell facility, the cardiologist said he wants to create a one-stop shop.

“We want to set up our own stem cell manufacturing facility. It’s all about giving the patient the convenience of a one-stop shop. The patient could actually come to The Bahamas, have their blood drawn, their cells processed and administered all under one roof and then fly back home and it’s all done at one place at one time with one price and one package,” Dr. Brown said.

The facility is expected to be completed within the next six months.