Related posts:
Malaysiakini: Sime Darby drops IJN plan
A letter to the Sun on the IJN issue
The slippery slope of corporatised healthcare
Sime Darby eyes IJN

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

Whatever is happening at IJN?

I am looking for information on DNA testing. I am told that there is a doctor that does DNA testing (by taking a sample of a hair) and then charges RM450 for it. After testing, her assistant will suggest supplement pills to the “deficiencies” that the DNA test results have indicated. Is there a cheaper alternative to DNA testing? Thanks Adrian

Hi Adrian. Everytime someone tries to sell you some supplements based on “scientific testing” you should ask yourself whether this is proven. Sometimes it is an outright scam like Live Blood Analysis.
Now we have to ask how accurately DNA tests are going to predict what health issues one may experience in the future, and indeed whether or not “supplements” are going to alter the course of events. In the US, DNA testing has been made direct to consumer, and this type of marketing has been subject to US government probes. I personally think the field of Nutritional genomics still needs more study on humans. We don’t know enough at this point in time to make strong recommendations.

Related links:
SFGate - Customized vitamins a fix for genetic flaws?

Fox video

Quackwatch: At Home DNA tests - Marketing Scam or Medical Breakthrough?

Cheaper alternatives?: don’t smoke, exercise, eat a well balanced diet, watch your waist line!

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

Feedback: DNA testing and nutritional supplements

I am sure this report spotted in Medscape will spark more controversy within the industry and concern amongst mobile phone users:

The new report, “Cellphones and Brain Tumors: 15 Reasons for Concern. Science, Spin and the Truth Behind Interphone,” was released in August by the International Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Collaborative, a group that includes Powerwatch and the Radiation Research Trust in the United Kingdom, and the EMR Policy Institute, ElectromagneticHealth.org, and The Peoples Initiative Foundation in the United States.

* Studies that are independent of the telecom industry consistently show there is a “significant” risk for brain tumors from cell phone use.
* The EMF exposure limits advocated by industry and used by governments are based on a false premise that a cell phone’s electromagnetic radiation has no biological effects except for heating.
* The danger of brain tumors from cell phone use is highest in children, and the younger a child is when he/she starts using a cell phone, the higher the risk.

You can download the report in PDF format here

The report also covers the issue of cellphone use and male infertility (something those of you who like to keep your mobile phones in your pockets might be interested to read):

Men, and particularly teenage boys, place their cellphone in the pants/trousers pockets when they are not holding it to their heads in conversation. There are multiple studies showing deleterious effects on sperm including decreased sperm counts and reduced sperm motility.
One study found a highly significant (99.99% confidence) 59% decline in sperm count in men who used cell phones for 4 or more hours per day as compared with those who did not use cell phones at all.
Another study reported an 80% increased near-significant risk (93.9% confidence) of testicular cancer when the cellphone was kept in the left pocket, then the left testicle developed cancer; kept in the right pocket, then the right testicle developed cancer.

Related MMR posts:
Cancer Center Warns Of Cell Phone Risks
Mobiles Don’t Cause Cancer
Relief for cell-phone users
Cell phones may affect sperm quality (II)
CAP calls for ban on mobile phones

While there will be once again more discussion and arguments about mobile phones and cancer, I personally don’t believe we are facing an epidemic of brain tumours so the absolute numbers can’t be that great, even if it were statistically significant. I would like to put things into perspective and repeat what I said in a previous post. Yes, mobile phones can be hazardous to your health but
the biggest risk to health from mobile phones is using them while driving!

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

More mobile phone & cancer controversy

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

Max Foundation Global CML Awareness Campaign

The answer, I believe, is summed up in a single word: magic. There are three facts that explain why so many people turn to alternative therapies:

1. People want their problems to magically go away.
2. Conventional medicine is not magical.
3. Alternative medicine promises magic.

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

Why do people use alternative medicine?

hi, currently am a med student in russia cutting it close to graduation. am really anxious about working in malaysia in the middle of the stigma and anti-russian grads thingy that seems to be going around. i was wondering if there was anything i could do to help prepare myself and become a good doctor? i’m not interested in becoming a substandard doctor like the ones that POTS blogged about. any help would be useful, thanks!

Hi Sarah. Thanks for taking the trouble to write in.
I am sure everyone who has read our Concern over Russian and Ukraine Med Schools would be worried.
But guess what Sarah, the most important thing about preparing to become a good doctor is the constant desire to improve oneself and good insight into one’s deficiencies.
No medical school can prepare one to be a perfect doctor. The education and preparation is lifelong. I think your peers and seniors will hold you in good stead if you demonstrate you are willing to put up with hardwork and show eagerness and willingness to learn. It’s the attitude which is important.
I think at the end of the day it its the individual more so than the medical school which counts.
I wonder if others feel the same.

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

Help for medical student in Russia

The role of the physician in the 21st century will be defined by its role in the social health space. As they say in Washington DC, if you don’t show up at the table you’re likely to wind up on the menu. And so far zealots peddling misinformation are eatin’ us for lunch.

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

Doctors need to get involved with social media

Thus overall, the Budget 2010 for health care has been more noise than substance, and is quite disappointing, with a few shocks and regressive suggestions which are at best impractical, but at worst even contradictory, to our existing system and regulations.
We urge the government and the MOH to help resolve some of these incongruities by tapping, perhaps integrating, existing services such as urban private GP clinics, and engage and enhance greater public-private partnerships.
We must move towards better and a more consistent maintenance culture for our existing health facilities and management so that they function at tip top, zero-defect efficiency, with enhanced quality and safety, supported and manned by adequately trained personnel and physicians.

I agree.

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

Budget 2010 and Healthcare

SDMC SJ will be organising the Global Diabetes Walk 2009 in conjunction with the World Diabetes Day on 14 November.
The walk will be held at Kompleks Sukan Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya (Padang MPSJ) on Sunday, 8 November 2009 at 6.30am.
For registration, drop by the hospital’s Healthcare Information Library during office hours until 30 October to fill a form and pay a fee of RM10.00, which will be donated to the Malaysian Diabetes Association-Diabetes Education Consultative Section. Each participant will get a T-shirt and goodie bag. Families and children above the age of 12 years are encouraged to participate.
Another venue for registration is at the ground floor of the Subang Parade Mall in Subang Jaya on Saturday, 10 October where SDMC SJ has set up a booth for the convenience of the public.
The theme for the World Diabetes Day 2009-2013 campaigns is: “Diabetes Education and Prevention”; the specific 2009 campaign slogan is: “Understand Diabetes and Take Control”.
The hospital is encouraging its staff and surrounding community to join in this campaign as an effort to create awareness and educate the public that all it takes is 30 minutes a day to keep the disease at bay.

via SDHC

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

SDMC Global Diabetes Walk

Soon there will be jostling for positions even in rural Government clinics as the positions become saturated and increasingly competitive in an open market. There will no longer be any need for compulsory service as any available positions will be a blessing in itself.  As the cost of medical care increases, more patients will flock to public hospitals hoping to pay only a fraction of the amount. As healthcare expenditure rises, the Government can no longer maintain the current subsidisation strategy, and privatisation becomes inevitable. Retrenchments will then become a surreal reality for doctors as many will have to look elsewhere to ply their trade.

Doctors in Malaysia have never had to worry about jobs as the demand for doctors currently still outstrips its supply.  However, the number of doctors under the purview of MOH is increasing exponentially as evident from the number of housemen flooding in from the 28 local medical schools and those from foreign universities. With a declining birth rate, we will soon race past the 1:600 doctor to patient ratio.

So why do you think the MOH is keen to shorten the duration of compulsory service? Their reason of appreciating those that have long been in service appear distant and unrelated. Surely the expense needed to maintain a bulkier service is not ideal for a country with a shrinking budget. They are well aware of the fact that many choose to leave upon completion of their Government service. So what is the motive for the reduction in the years for compulsory service?  You make the deductions.

Indeed the clock has already started ticking. Soon fresh graduates will be clamoring for that one position in rural Sabah.

Links

Proposal to reduce compulsory service for doctors

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

Compulsory service : soon to be a relic

Testifying in the inquest into Teoh’s death Wednesday, she said there was only a 20% chance that Teoh had committed suicide.
She added that marks on Teoh’s neck region looked like he had been strangled manually.
“The contusion of the skin on the right side of the neck looks round, indicating it might have been caused by fingers,” she added.

and disturbingly, she adds :

Dr Pornthip: The first is the anal injury; from the picture there’s a penetrative injury at the anal region. I have never seen this type of injury in cases of fall from height.
She added that if the injury had indeed been caused by a bone protrusion, it would have come from the inside of Teoh’s anus as opposed to being a penetrative injury.
Dr Pornthip also said the abrasions found on Teoh’s upper right thigh also appeared like he had been beaten with a piece of wood.
There is more than one line and the direction of the force on the thigh is different from the direction of the penetrative injury to the anal region, she said.
According to Dr Pornthip, there was a need to open the skin in the area where the haemorrhage was found to determine if torture had been involved. (Both the pathologists who had conducted the post-mortem on Teoh had failed to do so.)
She added this was necessary to determine whether the haemorrhage was compatible with a fall from a height and single impact from the ground.
Dr Pornthip also said Teoh’s skull fracture was not typical of a transferred injury due to a fall but was more compatible with a blunt force being directly inflicted to the head.
She said the transferred injury to the skull due to impact of the fall would typically cause a ring fracture at the base of the skull around the spinal column and not a cervical spine fracture such as that suffered by Teoh.
Dr Pornthip said Teoh, 30, was probably alive when he hit the ground but may have been unconscious before the fall.
She added this was in view of the fact that there was no reaction or defensive wounds on his ankles and wrists which would have occurred if he had been conscious.

So was it suicide or homicide?
It makes a world of a difference though if it was the latter it remains to be determined who the real killers were - and that will require good police work and not just post-mortem conclusions.
I suspect eventually there will be an exhumation order and a second post-mortem (m’kini: Family mulls exhumation for fresh autopsy). I hope TBH’s body does not mysteriously disappear!

Spotted in the blogosphere:
DrRafick: Death at MACC: My CSI XV
Lucia Lai: Teoh Beng Hock Did Not Commit Suicide
AnilNetto: “Dr Death” drops bombshell at Teoh inquest

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

CSI Thailand vs Malaysia

from the Malaysian Medical Resources

Video: Atrial Fibrillation Awareness