Patrick Gruhn
Veltracon Medical a new medical and wellness concierge membership, is redefining global healthcare for the ultra-rich, combining cutting-edge medical innovation with unmatched lifestyle expertise. Here, co-founder Patrick Gruhn explains how they’re pioneering a transformative approach to health and longevity.
Patrick Gruhn is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25 years of experience founding and co-founding ventures across three continents, specialising in the private client sector. In 2005, he launched Switzerland Private Clinics, a pioneering luxury medical network, and the largest independent clinic network in Switzerland. In 2010, lifestyle management expert Tim Daum and Patrick co-founded Veltracon Lifestyle, bringing together their knowledge or supporting private clients with the best medical facilities. Now their new, exclusive medical membership service Veltracon Medical, combines world-class healthcare with bespoke lifestyle management, featuring advanced diagnostics, cutting-edge technologies and tailored preventive care, ensuring UHNW families receive premier support – wherever they are in the world.
I’m a third-generation entrepreneur – it’s in the blood. I was keenly interested in all things finance growing up in Switzerland, and got an MBA in business, beginning my career in asset management. However, I quickly realised there were more fun things to be done outside of finance. My family has always been interested in art, so I dabbled in art for a year or two, before going into the VIP lifestyle and medical service industry when I was 26.
Switzerland is known for its medical expertise – lots of people come here because of its excellent doctors. I was living in Montreux, a popular summer destination for wealthy Middle Eastern families. And around 2005-2006 I identified a niche catering to Middle Eastern and Saudi clients, establishing a network of clinics to provide tailored services for them. Switzerland Private Clinics was a multi-angle business idea, capitalising on the early days of the Internet and the simplicity of SEO. We were soon able to position ourselves as the number one private clinic network in Switzerland for medical and private education.
Solving problems is a very gratifying thing to do – to help someone in pursuit of wellness, whether for cosmetic reasons, or because they’re profoundly ill. I’ve helped people with three months of depression treatment or cancer, to modern anti-aging wellness and DNA analysis.
There’s absolutely a trend in longevity and buying more years, and you can place it on a scale that correlates to a client’s level of wealth. There are some who are moderately wealthy, and they’ll pursue preventative medicine in the sense of wanting the best doctors for checkups. Then if you scale the ladder a little bit, the readiness for extravagance is much higher – stem cell treatments, sleep coaching, cold shock therapy, infrared treatments, oxygen chambers… there are so many things coming out or that are still being developing.
The longevity industry has always been around. You can go back 1,000 years and find someone selling snake oils, or fountain of youth elixirs. And a lot of people are still in pursuit of miracles. There are certain things that seem like miracles, but they’re really just good science However pursuing the right longevity strategies can take discipline, serious effort and money. There’s data that already shows we’re living decades longer than we used to.
We have so much potential in our bodies, but cause and effect is not always clear, especially because the body is so forgiving. I recently read an article from a renowned German doctor, who explained that when you’re doing things wrong, your body often won’t alert you until the affected organ has already lost 70% of its capacity. And it’s incredible to think how resilient our organs are – whether it’s the liver or kidneys. They can continue functioning with less than a third of their capacity, essentially hanging on for dear life. But with just a few simple adjustments, a little discipline, self-care, and attention to what our bodies need, anyone can add years to their life.
There’s a fistful of simple things you can do that will tremendously impact your life. Getting enough sunshine, grounding yourself first thing in the morning by touching the earth for three to five minutes. Breathing exercises to oxygenate your body. Taking magnesium at night, and anti-inflammatory turmeric. Tweaking your diet a little bit and cutting out the sugar. The more we dive into this scientifically, the more we know that sugar is the culprit for everything – even Alzheimer’s: dementia is now called Diabetes Type Three.
The societal shift from hedonism to a focus on wellness is influenced by two things: the pandemic and a generational transition. The new generation is much more experienced and focused. More of our clients are fitting their residences with a sauna and a cold plunge, or the latest workout equipment. We just had a client who installed a 300 square meter gym in his villa. Others will try hair grafting, skin layer treatments, stem cell treatments and collagen. For some people, it’s as simple as just starting with a few supplements and the right routines.
Tim and I spend a lot of time working on our membership service, Veltracon Medical, to make it as holistic as it can be. We’ve worked with our clients for so long that we’ve learned so much about their wishes, their habits, their needs and things we can anticipate. But what makes us so unique and pretty much without competition, is that it’s so complete. We really understand the needs of our clientele, whether they want a longevity strategy, cosmetic improvements in one of the best clinics in Switzerland, or a dentist during a business trip to Tokyo. Most medical concierge services are restricted to a physical location or a set of experts employed by a clinic. Whereas we can really get you access to, for example, the guy pioneering longevity biohacking at Harvard, thought leaders, scientists or researchers – anywhere in the world.