KPJ Healthcare Bhd has emerged as Asean’s strongest healthcare facilities brand, scoring 86.8 out of 100 on Brand Finance’s Brand Strength Index, the New Straits Times reported. The group placed second among the region’s healthcare facilities brands by brand value, which rose 45 per cent to US$305 million from US$211 million.
The gain followed a 71 per cent rise recorded a year earlier, making 2026 the second consecutive year of growth. Across all industries, KPJ climbed 49 places in the Asean 500 to 182nd from 231st, placing it among the region’s 200 biggest brands by value.
Officer-in-charge Prof Datuk Dr Hanafiah Harunarashid said leading Asean in healthcare brand strength was a distinction for a Malaysian hospital group that has served generations of patients. “It is also a responsibility,” he said in the release published by PR Newswire. “The confidence placed in KPJ Healthcare must be matched by the standards of care we deliver and the capabilities we continue to develop.”
Figures from Brand Finance show that the 500 ranked brands were worth a combined US$315.6 billion, up 8 per cent year on year. Pantai, another Malaysian group, rose 25 per cent to US$164 million with a BSI score of 81.6, while Vietnam’s Bao Viet held the strongest score across all sectors at 96 out of 100.
The result rests on the KPJ Health System, which links the group’s hospitals with KPJ Healthcare University and its research work through three pillars: practice, education, and research and innovation. KPJ is building Centres of Excellence in heart and lung care, neuroscience and stroke, and orthopaedics and rheumatology, with a target of 15 centres by 2030.
Clinical work has drawn notice as well. Damansara Specialist Hospital 2 recorded 35 robotic-assisted minimally invasive cardiac surgeries in 90 days, which the group describes as a Southeast Asian record, and became the first hospital in Southeast Asia to offer supine high-intensity focused ultrasound for non-invasive fibroid treatment. KPJ Selangor Specialist Hospital carried out the Asia-Pacific region’s first HOBBIT minimally invasive cement-screw surgery.
Revenue from the health tourism segment rose 21 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026. KPJ also plans to launch a Future Health Institute in 2027 to assess how research and digital health can be applied in clinical care.
The group operates 29 hospitals across Malaysia and four ambulatory care centres, serving 3.3 million patients a year with 1,491 medical consultants. Nineteen of its hospitals are accredited by the Malaysian Society for Quality in Health and four by the Joint Commission International.
