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theedgedaily.com:BioValley gets over RM100 mln investments

The government has lured over RM100 million of investments from three companies to conduct research and manufacturing activities in Malaysia’s biotechnology hub, BioValley.

Science, Technology and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Law Hieng Ding said the three companies were a Dutch entity, a Malaysia-China joint venture and a local company.

The companies would be involved in the neutraceutical and animal feeds production, he told reporters after launching the National Conference on Biotechnology & Life Sciences 2003 on July 21.

Neutraceutical, which comes from the combination of the words “nutritional” and “pharmaceutical,” refers to food that acts as medicines.

Law said the government was still negotiating with three other companies to invest in the BioValley project in its efforts to attract more investors in biotechnology.

“We are looking at the incentives. We will work out a package with MIDA (Malaysian Industrial Development Authority),” he said. On top of its rich biodiversity, Malaysia also offered good infrastructure and living standards, Law said.

In his speech earlier, the minister said Malaysia hoped to attract 150 biotech companies and pull in US$10.5 billion in investments over the next decade in its biotechnology hub.

BioValley Malaysia - located on a 200ha site south of Cyberjaya - is expected to be ready by 2006. Besides this, designated areas in Penang, Sabah, Sawarak, Malacca and Johor have also been classified as BioValley satellites.

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Most Ipoh Hospital staff don’t believe in smiling

IPOH: Only 20% of Ipoh Hospital staff admitted in a recent survey that it was important for them to smile while on duty.

The survey conducted by the hospital between June 25 and July 5 on 182 people showed that 70% ticked “disagree” for the question which stated that smiling was important while on duty.

Another question revealed that only 40% agreed they had to treat their patients well while only 7% agreed there was good communication among hospital staff.

About 30% of the staff also admitted to grumbling when one of their colleagues took either sick or emergency leave.

The findings of the survey were disclosed yesterday by the hospital to Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Dr Mohamad Taha Arif who launched the hospital’s Caring Services Campaign.

Dr Mohamad said it was difficult to believe the survey results because 80% of the hospital staff did not consider that smiling was important.

There might be some defects in the survey, he said.

“If the findings are true, I better pack my bags and leave,” he said during his speech yesterday.

Dr Mohamad, however, agreed that there were many complaints against hospitals.

He reminded staff to improve counter service and use discretion in allowing the sick to jump queue to see the doctor.

He asked senior doctors to set a good example to younger doctors.

Dr Mohamad also advised hospitals to acknowledge complaint letters before starting investigations.

Earlier, state health director Datuk Dr Abdul Razak Kechik said the findings of the survey were a wake-up call for all hospital staff.

He agreed the department had received many complaints.

He called on all district hospitals to organise similar campaigns, adding that Taiping Hospital launched its campaign last month.

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BMJ  2003;327 (19 July)
School exam results predict success in medicine
Medical students’ A level results predict their postgraduate medical qualifications and choice of career, whereas intelligence tests do not. McManus and colleagues (p 139) followed a cohort of students of a London medical school who started their clinical course between 1975 and 1982. They found that A level grades predicted performance in undergraduate training and in postregistration house officer posts, and time to achieve membership qualifications. No previous prospective studies relating postgraduate careers to A level grades have been conducted, and these results suggest they are valid selection criteria. The authors state that more study is needed to clarify whether the predictive value of A levels results from assessing knowledge, motivation, or study habits. Other factors such as personality may also play a role.

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Computerworld Malaysia - - Hospital goes fully wireless

Spotted this recently but I don’t know how old the news is:

Doctors at Selayang Hospital get remote access to test results, x-rays and other patient information.
By Computerworld Malaysia staff

DOCTORS and healthcare experts at Malaysia’s Selayang Hospital can now view patients’ x-rays and test results as they become available by “logging on” to electronic bedside charts and other media.

This is the result of a new wireless networking project at the hospital, the Total Hospital Information System (THIS). The system will also give doctors access to medical records, financial and administrative information through a variety of tools including electronic charts located at the foot of every patient’s bed. This enables care givers to do realtime drug reaction monitoring, access drug references and check clinical histories. X-ray images are also digitised so that they can be transmitted over the system, made possible with networking tools provided by netowrking vendor 3Com.

Selayang Hospital is a 960-bed facility, with experts in 20 clinical disciplines. Said to be the country’s most technologically advanced hospital, it is located 15 kms north of Kuala Lumpur. Similar systems to THIS are already in place in hospitals in the US states of Michigan and Illinois.

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Malaysia puts muscle behind biotech in bid to lift economy

SINGAPORE — With its manufacturing sector slumping as foreign investors flock to mainland China, Malaysia is turning to biotechnology as an engine for growth. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has committed $40 million to build a biotechnology center with state-of-the-art research institutes and training facilities on a 500-acre site near Kuala Lumpur International Airport to lessen the country’s dependence on manufacturing.

The BioValley Malaysia project is planned for 2006, and Malaysia hopes to attract $10.5 billion to $12.2 billion of investments within a decade in such fields as agro-biotechnology, genomics and molecular biology. A $13.1 million campus also is planned to train researchers and biotech entrepreneurs with the help of experts from overseas, including China. The government hopes the investments will launch 150 biotech firms and create 30,000 jobs within 10 years.

Malaysia has reported that its manufacturing investment shrank by almost 36 percent in 2002 from 2001. Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz blamed it on the postponement of several large projects that were stalled by the uncertainty of the global economy. In addition, capital investment by the Malaysian American electronics industry fell to $420 million last year from $605 million 2001. This was blamed in part on dwindling foreign investments and the greater competitiveness of China as a manufacturing locale.

Analysts see recent pump-priming measures by the government as insufficient to jump-start manufacturing or the electronics sector. A $1.92 billion stimulus package announced last week by Prime Minister Mahathir to arrest the impact of SARS and revive an economy dependent on foreign investments, tourism and international trade may be too little, too late, said Nagulan Narendran, a retired market analyst from Frontline Investments Sdn. Bhd.

With SARS, the Iraqi war and continuing economic sluggishness worldwide, Malaysia’s gross domestic product is estimated to fall from 6.5 percent to 4.5 percent this year. The fiscal incentives were deemed necessary to stimulate the economy while raising competitiveness. Close to 90 measures were announced. In addition, the government separately unveiled a $263 million package to act as a tax relief fund for the tourism sector and to assist traders that needed fresh funds for their businesses. Bank Negara, Malaysia’s central bank, is also expected to cut its interbank interest rates to a low of 4.5 percent.

Malaysia tries to catch up with biotech center

KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia launched a $26 million biotechnology center on Tuesday, hoping to attract homegrown and large foreign firms to a cluster and help it narrow a knowledge gap with neighbours Japan and Singapore. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his country might be late entering the biotech scene, but could catch up fast because its rich and diverse natural resources. “Other countries are already ahead,” Mahathir told a news conference. “But we think we have great potential.”

Sited on 2,000-acres of flat, former tin-mining land, the government-backed center is called BioValley Malaysia and located just south of software development town Cyberjaya. Two firms — Dutch-based nutriceuticals Improser Technologies Sdn Bhd and biofoods INS ZHEN-AO Biotech Corp. Sdn Bhd — signed up as pioneer tenants. “I don’t care if this turns out to be a white elephant,” Wong Kin Nam, INS ZHEN communications director, told Reuters. “We appreciate the government support. It helps small firms like us develop our products at affordable costs and that improves our chances of making it in the overseas markets.” Companies which set up stall at BioValley will be given at least five years free of rent, be eligible for tax incentives and get to use advanced laboratory facilities built by the government, Wong said.

“We think the government needs to give a greater boost to advanced areas like biomedicine, where the payback takes longer,” said Henry Low, director of clot blood bank CryoCord Sdn Bhd. Low, a UK.-trained biochemist, said Malaysia was a leader in several specialized palm oil-based research niches, but was on the whole about 10 years behind Singapore and Japan. “But creating a BioValley helps to narrow the gap,” he said. Three more centers in Penang, Malacca and the eastern state of Sarawak on Borneo island are planned. Malaysia has huge bio-resources. It is estimated to have some 12,500 species of flowering plants and more than 1,100 species of fern.

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Male menopause ‘down to laziness’

The male menopause is a myth, the symptoms more likely to be caused by laziness and an unhealthy lifestyle, researchers have claimed. Some men claim symptoms such as hot flushes, depression and a lack of libido - similar to those experienced by women going through the menopause - are due to hormonal changes. But US researchers said they were more likely to be caused by men’s unhealthy habits, such as weight gain, smoking and too much drinking. Conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and depression probably also have more of an impact on levels of testosterone than ageing, they said.

Professor John McKinlay, dismissed the male menopause as a “myth”, and said drug companies were cashing in on some men’s belief that they need hormone replacement therapy. He told the British Fertility Society conference in Aberdeen he had carried out research which showed men did not suffer the same drop in hormone levels as women in middle age.

Professor McKinlay, from the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Massachusetts, looked at data from the Massachusetts Male Ageing Study (MMAS) which looked at 1,700 men. He said male hormones levels only declined gradually with age, by about 1% a year, and there was no evidence for the existence of a syndrome. Around 5% of men showed signs of hypogonadism, a clinical loss of hormones which is not connected to middle age. Professor McKinlay said: “The notion of a male menopause, mid-life crisis or andropause has been discussed for several decades. “Worldwide, male ageing is generating public interest and also, incidentally, a lucrative market. ” He added: “Pharmaceutical involvement is producing new treatments, such as testosterone replacement, in search of a disease.” Professor McKinlay added that many “non-scientific” books had been written about the male menopause, but warned they used self-selected data and misrepresented research to back up their ideas.

But Dr Malcolm Carruthers of the Andropause Society, who runs a clinic which offers testosterone treatment attacked the study.
He told a daily newspaper: “The academics who come up with these findings are deluded, and really it is only by seeing and talking to the patients that you can find out what is happening after testosterone treatment - not looking at some laboratory treatment.”

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New Straits Times Online :Not ready for such liver transplants

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16: Malaysia is not ready for living unrelated donor liver transplants in adults, especially in terms of possible complications for the donor.

Health deputy director-general Datuk Dr Ismail Merican said this was the consensus of the workshop on clinical practice guidelines on liver transplants held recently in conjunction with the Fifth Liver Update.

The workshop was organised by the Health Ministry and the Malaysia Liver Foundation with the collaboration of the Academy of Medicine of Malaysia, Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and the Malaysian Society of Transplantations.

Dr Ismail said there was a lot of concern about living unrelated liver donors.

“Although world-renowned liver surgeon Professor Fan Sheung Tat, who had conducted living donor liver transplants, had talked about his experience and techniques used in the surgeries at the recent Fifth Liver Update, there were apprehensions on the repercussions on the living donor,” he said in an interview.

Dr Ismail, who is also the president of the Malaysian Liver Foundation, said it was strongly felt that living donor liver transplants, especially if opened to unrelated donors, might lead to room for abuse and commercialisation.

He said there was no problem accepting genetically-related or emotionally-related living donors provided they were vetted by an independent professional committee comprising senior clinicians, psychiatrists and medical social workers.

“For the moment, we will stick to cadaveric organ transplantations,” he said, adding that the ministry would soon release the much-awaited Liver Transplantation Guidelines.

The proposed guidelines, in the final stage of drafting, are expected to be submitted to the ministry for approval in two weeks.

“Depending on cadaveric organs alone may not be feasible in view of the acute shortage of such donors despite intensified efforts to get people to donate their organs upon death. That is why there is growing interest in living donor liver transplant to offset this acute shortage.” He said the ministry was not against living unrelated liver donor transplants and might allow it, especially in children, because of the shortage of cadaveric donors.

“As for children, it is accepted, provided the liver is donated by those who are genetically or emotionally linked.” In adults, he said, living unrelated liver donor was still a new area and needed to be studied further.

“We do not want the donor to die or become sick after donating part of his liver.” As for those donating to children, he said, an independent vetting committee comprising, among others, senior surgeons and psychiatrists, would interview the donor and the recipient to evaluate their knowledge of the whole process and the implications of the transplant, its risks and impact.

When the liver transplant guidelines come into force, Dr Ismail said liver surgeons must be present at the hospital for at least 48 hours after surgery.

Only hospitals that meet criteria under the guidelines, which include, among others, having good infrastructure, international credential specialists, pathologists, and hepatologists, will be allowed to conduct transplants.

At present, the Selayang Hospital fulfils all the criteria to function as the National Liver Transplant Centre.

Dr Ismail said anyone qualified to carry out liver transplants could do so at the hospital.

He said the hospital, which has four liver surgeons and five hepatologists, handled acute liver failure and difficult cases.

Selayang Hospital, a tertiary centre for liver diseases, handles some 50 cases a month with two liver transplant patients awaiting implementation of the guidelines.

The proposed guidelines, drafted jointly with the Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Academy of Medicine Malaysia and Malaysian Society of Transplantation, will indicate who should go for liver transplantation.

It will also indicate timing of referrals and potential patients for transplants.

As for living liver donors, the guidelines stipulate that this is an effective life-saving procedure for selected patients with end-stage liver disease.

But such operations must have an expert surgical team and appropriate selection of recipient and donor.

Unrelated donors may be allowed provided they are vetted by an independent professional body.

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Computerworld Malaysia - Vol. 13 Issue No. 8, 7 July - 10 August 2003 - HKL achieves telemedicine first

HOSPITAL Kuala Lumpur (HKL) celebrated a historic telemedicine first when it announced a successful first year of operations of its Telemedicine Command Controls Centre (TCCC) in the Urology department recently. HKL is the first hospital in the region to install a TCCC on the premises, which utilises info-communications technologies to enable monitoring of the individual operating theatres simultaneously and separately, and conferencing between doctors and these theatres. Provided by local healthcare sector technology provider Intuitive Controls this system also offers the setting for an interactive classroom. It has been up and running since August 2002 after an initial planning and implementation period of about three years.
Malaysia today is facing an acute lack of trained medical experts and medical service providers. The medical industry, until recently, was facing a brain drain from the government sector to private or other international options. In Malaysia currently, the general hospitals and universities have been the main centres that are responsible for training specialists.

“As such, telemedicine presents a real opportunity to address this fundamental issue by enabling training to be conducted in-house and more frequently for specialists on a wider scale,” stressed Prem Kumar, managing director of Intuitive Controls. “In addition, the cost savings in training these doctors is very attractive as the training is conducted on the job.”

Prem added that telemedicine relies on the ability to administer medical care over different locations as well as to transfer electronic medical data, such as high-resolution images, live video, sound and patient records.

Jason Chung, Intuitive Controls’ marketing manager, said that with telemedicine facilities a doctor could, for example, monitor a patient’s heart condition remotely and alert the patient to visit a hospital when necessary. In other examples, an ambulance equipped with the latest imaging technology and telecommunications equipment could be turned into a mobile hospital, where information can be sent to a designated hospital prior to the patient’s arrival or even have the patient treated in the ambulance itself.

The TCCC at KLH combines tele-monitoring with tele-collaborative systems to enable surgeons and specialists to work together with experts located around the world to conduct operations, training and conferences. This sets the platform for surgeons in the operating theatre to remotely control the endoscope via voice controls, while surgeons based at another location are able to remotely access peripheral devices and key surgical information.

This in turn opens the door for implementation of Robotics Aided Minimal Invasive Surgery, which is commonly used in procedures such as radical prostectomy in urology, appendectomies and cardio vascular procedures. Besides a shorter rehabilitation period, minimal invasive surgery allows for zero infection, less cosmetic damage, shorter hospital stays and lower costs.

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Ill-prepared to stop a growing AIDS epidemic

NEW YORK: There are only about 10 doctors throughout Malaysia who have significant experience treating HIV/AIDS and the country will be ill-prepared to thwart a growing epidemic, with indications that the infection rate is going up.

According to a report in the latest issue of TREAT Asia Report, a quarterly newsletter published by the American Foundation for AIDS Research on behalf of TREAT Asia (Therapeutics Research, Education, and AIDS Training in Asia), the rate was rising, especially among injection drug users and female sex workers in urban areas.

The report said that presently, compared with many South-East Asian countries, Malaysia, however, had a relatively low prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

UNAIDS (Joint United Nations programme on HIV/ AIDS) in 2001 estimated that only 0.4% of the adult population was infected with HIV and about 42,000 people were living with HIV/AIDS.

The quarterly featured the University Malaya Medical Centre’s (UMMC) infectious disease unit as a premier referral service for HIV/AIDS patients in Kuala Lumpur and is a participating site in TREAT Asia. The other site in Malaysia is the Kuala Lumpur Hospital.

TREAT Asia is a network of clinics, hospitals and research institutions working to ensure safe and effective delivery of HIV/AIDS treatment in Asia and the Pacific.

Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman of UMMC, a top health expert on HIV/AIDS, attributed the shortage of experts in Malaysia to doctors tending to shy away from specialising in infectious diseases and opting instead for more lucrative fields like dermatology and ophthalmology.

Another reason was the high level of stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. She said that Malaysians traditionally condemned activities that could lead to the transmission of HIV, including intravenous drug use, premarital, extramarital and homosexual sex, and sexual relations with sex workers.

Dr Adeeba, a member of TREAT Asia’s steering committee, said her unit had three physicians to treat all cases of infectious disease, including HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, typhoid, malaria and dengue fever.

The unit runs HIV/AIDS-specific programmes three days a week and currently serves about 300 patients, mostly men in their mid-30s showing symptoms of AIDS-related disease like tuberculosis.

While injection drug users represent the majority of the cases, Dr Adeeba said they made up only 15% to 20% of patients who came to the unit. Most of her patients contracted HIV through heterosexual sex.

As part of the TREAT Asia/HIV/AIDS Observational Database, the unit will start to compile anonymous patient data. It hopes to help develop effective national data collection practices and ultimately, effective AIDS prevention and treatment strategies.

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MTUC wants action against disappearing medical centre

A medical centre in Selangor which ceased operations overnight after 10 months in business has not only left its staff in limbo, but may have also breached some laws, said trades union secretary general G Rajasekaran today.

Rajasekaran said that the Teluk Panglima Medical Centre had suddenly ceased operations on June 23 without informing its workers - two doctors, eight nurses and three administrative staff - who have since lodged a complaint to the Labour Department.

“And more importantly, the action of the centre could also be in breach of law as they have failed to abide by the Employment Act to inform the nearest Labour Department of their impending closure,” Rajasekaran told malaysiakini.