Th e HealtH | may, 2019
04
Current News
Briefs
Briefs for page 4
edwards Lifesciences plans
to invest rM100 million in
Malaysia
GLoBaL medical technology company
Edwards Lifesciences (Edwards) expects
to invest RM100 million in Malaysia over
the next 5 years through its new regional
business service centre (BSC) located at
KL Eco City. Edwards, based in Irvine,
California, USA, is the global leader in
patient-focused innovations for structural
heart disease and critical care monitoring.
More than 60 years ago, it was the fi rst
company to develop a commercially viable
heart valve.
The new Edwards BSC is expected
to provide key support functions such
as Finance, IT, Supply Chain, HR, Digital
Health, Marketing and Quality Assurance to
seven (7) offi ces across the Japan, Asia and
Pacifi c (JAPAC) region.
In the next phase of BSC growth,
Edwards plans on setting up an analytics
Centre of Excellence and hopes to attract
talented employees with expertise in
artifi cial intelligence & machine learning,
data management, big data analytics and
digital, to join the company. These talents
will help support business needs in the
JAPAC region out of the KL BSC offi ce, and
more importantly, use their expertise to help
patients with structural heart disease.
Japan’s tech makes it
possible to use turmeric to
fi ght modern day diseases
aCCordInG to WHO’s report released in
September last year, NCDs are the leading
cause of deaths globally, and accounts for
41 million, or over 71% of the world’s 57
million deaths in 2016.
Four major NCDs are identifi ed as being
responsible for 54 percent of all global
deaths, or 79 percent of all NCD deaths.
These are cardiovascular diseases (17.9
million deaths), cancers (9 million deaths),
chronic respiratory diseases (3.8 million
deaths) and diabetes (1.6 million deaths).
SL Ho, whose company distributes
a variety of popular health supplements
to retail pharmacies across the country,
explains, “It is in this context that we
decided to introduce Theracurmin® health
supplement that has an innovative and
clinically-proven curcumin formulation using
extracts of Curcuma Ionga, better known as
Turmeric.
“Studies have shown that curcumin can
switch off the main infl ammatory activities
in the body by blocking the protein complex
known as NF-kB, or nuclear factor kappa-
light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells,
which is believed to play a major role in
many chronic diseases such as arthritis,
cardiovascular diseases, cancer, metabolic
syndrome, Alzheimer’s, as well as other
degenerative conditions,” he explained.
“Theracurmin® is effective because it
is produced through a patented process
using Japanese Nano-particle technology
that leverages on ultra-fi ne granulation and
suspension system to convert turmeric
powder into sub-micron particles called
Nano-particle curcumin.
Theracurmin® health supplement
is available at all leading retailers and
pharmacists across the country. The
supplements come in capsule form with
each containing 100gms of curcumin,
equivalent to four full tablespoons of
Turmeric powder. — The health
Malaysian cancer
challenges in line
with global trends
Cancer incidence and related healthcare costs continue to grow
Y
eAR after year, the
spectre of cancer
remains on the front
of our minds and in
the sights of health-
care professionals and
offi cials. Th e World he alth Organi-
zation mentions cancer among the
Top 10 threats to global health in
2019 with approximately 9.6 mil-
lion people worldwide estimated to
have died from cancer in 2018. Yet,
evidence suggests that between 30
percent and 50 percent of cancer
deaths could be prevented by modi-
fying or avoiding risk factors, which
include unhealthy eating habits.
“As a healthtech company, our
vision at Philips is of a health
continuum, where the healthcare
and consumer worlds integrate
to put people at the heart of a
holistic system that monitors them
continuously and helps the right
people to take action when needed.
Th rough our innovations, we pro-
vide clinicians with better tools to
help diagnose and manage the most
eff ective delivery of care, besides
also helping consumers eat health-
ier with our innovative kitchen
appliances,” said Mr Muhammad
Ali Jaleel, Personal health and
health Systems Leader for Philips
Malaysia.
Recently, Philips Malaysia spoke
to prominent oncologist Dato Dr
Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Wahid
of Beacon hospital on the latest
cancer-related issues and challenges
faced by Malaysians and the health-
care system on the whole.
“early detection and screening is
important when it comes to cancer
cases but the challenge in Malaysia
is what policy you should implement
to ease the process of screening and
detection. What’s more important
is the positive steps you take to
ensure patients go for screening.
In Malaysia, health screenings are
still done on a voluntary basis. No
one encourages you or guides you
on where or when to go or tells
you what to do. Th us, there is poor
uptake of early detection in the
country,” said Dr Ibrahim.
“Th e next challenge is limitation
of resources. If you want to do a
mammogram screening in Malaysia,
you can’t just walk into any public
hospital to do the test, and in the
private sector you have to pay for it
and not everybody can aff ord it,” Dr
Ibrahim added.
Dr Ibrahim also lists the cost of
cancer drugs as a challenge faced by
Malaysia. he believes that the gov-
ernment should play an important
role in negotiating drug prices. “In
some countries like Australia, South
Korea and India, the government
steps in and negotiates. Countries
like the United Kingdom also have
bodies like the National Institute for
health and Care excellence (NICe),
which advises on the aff ordability
rate for medicines,” he said.
For this year, Dr Ibrahim predicts
that cancer cases will definitely
increase due to Malaysians’ lifestyle
including our diet, smoking habit
and many other factors. “On a
positive note, patients’ treatment
outcomes have seen a huge improve-
ment across the industry as we now
Dr Ibrahim explains the various
challenges in regards to cancer
treatment and management
in Malaysia and how little the
diff erences compared to other
parts of the world.
have better treatment equipment
thanks to technology and drugs
development. For example, back in
1990, the survival period for lung
cancer patients is about 3 months,
while today, Stage 4 lung cancer
patients can survive for a minimum
of 1-2 years. Some can even survive
more than 5 years,” said Dr Ibrahim.
As cancer incidence and related
healthcare costs continue to grow,
there is a big need to diagnose and
treat patients in effi cient settings
with a focus on the best care. Philips
helps in making this possible with
tools and services for accurate
first-time-right decision-making
imaging and fast supporting right
decision-making tools to enable
targeted, patient-specifi c therapy.
— Th e Health
MenCare, a project to get men
more involved with breast cancer
B
ReAST cancer has long been
seen as a women’s issue, one in
which men play a small part.
Medical practitioners and social
workers have discussed the role of
men in breast cancer awareness and
agree that there is an urgent need
to educate the husbands, fathers
and other members of the male
community about breast health, as
well as encourage their support to
the women in their life. Men, espe-
cially husbands, play a decisive role
in ensuring women go for regular
screening for early detection. Beyond
screening, if a woman is diagnosed
with breast cancer, her husband’s
support is crucial in her journey to
recovery.
In September 2006, Pfi zer Malay-
sia sought to involve men in the fi ght
against breast cancer and thus col-
laborated with the National Council
of Women’s Organisation (NCWO)
to launch MenCare or the Male
Support of Breast Cancer Screening
project. Touted as a breakthrough
project, MenCare is essentially a
comprehensive and nationwide
training programme to encourage
men to become more knowledge-
able about breast cancer and adopt a
new attitude of care, as well as instil
in them a more supportive set of
behaviours.
Th is training programme is tar-
geted at service providers of women
and healthcare organisations as they
were identifi ed as the stakeholder
most likely to convey the message
down to the ultimate audience i.e.
the men.
The project found its footing
early in 2006, and it grew to become
a stronger initiative as the years
progressed. Th e latest development
for the project in 2019 saw Men-
Care adopted by the Selangor state
government. Th e latest edition of
MenCare campaign saw an alliance
between NCWO and the Selangor
state government to bring the
message to all corners of the state
through 12 instalments of Karnival
3Ws in 2019. Th e partnership also
helped synchronise the awareness
effort with MammoSeL, a free
mammogram service for all women
in Selangor offered by the state
government. — Th e Health