JUST A SHORT WORD. ENCOURAGING DEVELOPMENTS IN HEALTHCARE IN MALAYSIA

1. As you all know, I was flying out to KK, Sabah on Saturday afternoon. As I was early, I stopped by the book shop at the Departure terminal. Just outside the bookshop, was a tall beam and on it, I saw this sign which said that KLIA has an AED ( Automatic External Defibrillator ). This is good. Anyone who collapses suddenly needs an AED shock to revive the heart.
I surely hope that there are trained personnel in KLIA to handle the device and use it correctly. I also hope that it is not kept under so many locks and keys that it may take hours to get to it. Of course, I assume that they are all in working condition.
But it is a good step, in the right direction, and we must thank the government for keeping abreast with the latest strategy to improve sudden cardiac death survivors.

2. The other issue that was highlighted in the press, that should be applauded is the need for a specialist register in the country and also the need for doctors to attend CME ( continual medical education ) to update themselves. This is part of the amendments to the Medical Act 1971, that was tabled in Parliament on the late Friday night sitting.
It certainly does not make sense that a medic who graduated in 1970 will know everything forever more without updates. All of us need to keep abreast with the latest updates, because medicine is advancing so fast, especially in the fileds of cancer therapy, cardiology and diabetes, just to mention a few.
I only hope that both the specialist register and CME will be run " colour blind". Sometimes licensing is another form of ethnic cleansing ( we are so paranoid ). I also hope that the government will look to provide grants to bona fide associations and societies to run CME for doctors. Nowadays, all the CMEs are run with big pharma sponsorship and there is always the issue of " conflict of interest " viz, I sponsor your meeting, you use my product. That is bad. So I hope that the government will help. Currently, my weekend seminar meetings cost about RM100,000 to cater for 900 attendees. No small sum of money. I go canvasing for 18 sponsors so that I am never indebted to anyone of them, and also the pre-condition for sponsorship is that the scientific committee runs the scientific program without pharma interference. Some medical societies are not as strict as us, and so they may end up compromised.