July 2002

DR. SAUL WILEN'S MISSION AGAINST TERRORISM
Feature article for the Bexar County Medical Society by Rudy Arispe

To support himself during medical school, Dr. Saul Wilen drove a cab in New York City at night. And as a hod carrier, he shouldered pallets of brick and mortar.

His juggling act as med student by day and laborer by night is long gone, however.

Today, Dr. Wilen, 56, is one of San Antonio’s best kept secrets. He is president and CEO of International Horizons Unlimited (IHU), a national consulting and educational resources company that specializes in terrorist prevention.

Following Sept. 11, the company’s expertise in prevention caught the attention of the big boys in Washington. Wilen has been in contact with key White House officials ever since.

Specifically, IHU developed a software program called Cybershield, designed to defeat terrorist threats. It includes horizontal data integration technologies and real-time applications to detect trends and prevent threats to the American people, government jurisdictions and the private sector.

The software, Wilen says, is based on IHU’s initial work in accountability in health care and education with a core foundation of supporting prevention strategies to solve problems.

“When Sept. 11 occurred,” he said. “Our joint venture partners in Seattle and San Diego were intrigued by what we had been working on for years and suggested that those same systems of information management, communication management, education management, and resources management within a school could be applied to multiple-data base, multiple agency sources of information.”

In horizontal data integration, information comes together simultaneously and is pre-sorted, compartmentalized and made immediately available so that if something happens on a specific day in Paris, New York or Chicago and is part of one’s database, all the pieces of information would be found in one place, Wilen explained.

“An analyst looking at this can say, ‘This goes with this and this goes with that. Aha, we’ve got a trend.’”

Cybershield also contains information on bioterrorism, agriterrorism, hydroterrorism, industrial terrorism and vital services terrorism, meaning electric and other power sources, oil and gas delivery and storage, and banking and finance.

As a member of the New York Electronic Crimes Task Force of the U.S. Secret Service, Wilen spoke in April to members of Congress and the New York State Legislature about the importance of federal, state, and local agencies integrating information “horizontally,” so that they are all able to contribute to terrorism prevention with the best shared information at hand.

“The information we need is available, but it is not shared or integrated in ways that make it useful,” he said. “Preparedness to defeat terrorist threats requires prevention, protection, intervention, and responsiveness. Preparedness efforts to date have neglected the components that support prevention. Prevention is the critical element offering the best strategy for success.”

With that, those at IHU view as optimistic the government’s abrupt focus on prevention regarding national security.

“They are starting to get his message,” says Larry Stewart, IHU spokesperson. “They have used his ideas and words from the materials sent them since September 2001. We have sent them literally hundreds of packets of information that stress prevention. Responding to terrorism is not the best way to stop it. We need to be putting in systems and strategies to prevent the attacks. The point is you must be co-equal in prevention and preparedness to respond.”

Wilen added, “It is encouraging that the director of the FBI has announced expansion of present agency functions to include the new area of prevention. However, it will be a long and difficult transition from crime solving to terrorism prevention. They will need help from those of us who have worked in prevention for decades. Time is on the side of the terrorists.”

In operation since 1982, IHU remains innovative and cutting-edge. Staff consists of 20 full-time employees and a “consulting faculty in the thousands,” Wilen says, including five Nobel laureates.

“We have picked the cream of the crop from multi-disciplines – architecture, law, medicine, economics, archaeology and technology – to create multi-disciplinary teams to work on problem-solving projects,” he says.

Dr. David Madorsky, a local dermatologist in private practice, is often asked to provide his knowledge and background in public health administration to the company.

“I consult when they need me in the area of epidemiology, long-term care in geriatrics or my expertise in dermatology,” he said.
Dr. Madorsky, a former Air Force chief flight surgeon, said he enjoys contributing to IHU.

“I like working with Dr. Wilen who has a sharp and fertile mind,” he said. “And being on the cutting edge of thinking outside the box and the forefront of thinking ahead where medicine is and where it can go and leading the way.”

He is also impressed with IHU’s development of Cybershield.

“I wish I had more to do with it,” he said. “It focuses not on putting a Band-Aid on something, but on preventing the wound in the first place. It has a wide applicability not only here, but also other parts of the world.”

A Brooklyn, N.Y. native, Wilen came to San Antonio in 1973 where he served at Brooks AFB as a research medical officer. Later, he started his private practice in intensive care medicine. At the time, Wilen was one of the first critical care specialists in South Texas. But after 20 years, he chose to pursue a lifelong interest in education.

Wilen joined IHU in 1993 as director of expert and consultant recruitment, although he previously served as a company consultant part time while in private practice. He became president in 1999 and CEO the next year.

The chief executive agrees similarities exist between a physician and a corporate leader.

“At least for me,” Wilen said. “In the practice of medicine, I was the ultimately responsible individual for the care of my patients, using a team of people to assist me in accomplishing that goal."

“As head of a corporation, I am the ultimately responsible individual for making sure the team of people who work with me accomplish their roles in meeting the needs of the company.”

Speaking from experience, Wilen offers insight into an oft-raised concern whether doctors focus on building their practices in favor of providing quality patient care.

“I think building one’s practice is the logical extension of supplying quality care through an organization of what they do and how they do it to make them more efficient in their primary responsibility, which is to render quality care for their patients,” he said. “I think, unfortunately, we tend to look at building a practice as something that isn’t a meaningful thing to patients. It is a meaningful thing to patients because the better the structure, the better organized one is, the better handle the physician has on how to deal with all the extraneous pieces that go into patient care, the better the patient is for receiving that care.”

Though Wilen no longer practices medicine, he maintains his medical license. Which, of course, begs the question: Does he miss medicine?

“No. I miss the patients,” he says. “That’s not a part of my life I’m ready to give up on because it was very good and important to me.”

Technically speaking, he very much has a hand in medicine. He writes a monthly column on health issues and prevention called Monitoring Health for Healthcare Journals, Inc. that publishes in two Texas markets.

His sharp writing skills helped him pen his soon-to-be published book, “Common Sense: A 21st Century Imperative,” which the author describes as “an historically-based dialogue comparing and contrasting the problems that faced a new nation in 1776 to the problems that nation faces today.”

One could easily assume that Wilen believes he’s paid his dues through odd jobs, including maneuvering through the chaotic streets of New York City, to obtain his current position, and that those lean, early years are, thankfully, behind him. On the contrary, the CEO cherishes those times.

Taxi driving for the 20-something medical student involved human lessons Wilen might not have received in the classroom. Certainly, they contributed to the wonderful rapport the physician shared with his patients.

“It was an amazing experience. It taught me that diversity is important, but there are commonalities despite the diversity. I saw that everyday when someone got into the cab.”