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Telehealth: the backbone of healthcare financing

Suleiman AB

Stud Health Technol Inform, 2004;104:182-90.
PMID: 15747978 DOI: 10.3233/978-1-60750-947-9-182

Malaysia, like many other countries faces major challenges in meeting increasing demands with limited resources. Changes in demography, life-style diseases, increasing consumer expectations, new medical technologies and rapid economic growth all fuel demand for more healthcare services. There are problems related to the distribution and delivery of healthcare services, and there is inadequate integration of healthcare delivery and continuity of care is a major concern. Resources tend to be concentrated in the very expensive hospital sector, although services would be cost-effectively and conveniently delivered at primary care level. There is no ideal healthcare system, and how healthcare is supported and organized for service delivery influences the country's social, economic and political well-being. Like many other countries, Malaysia is undergoing health reform in meeting these challenges, and is becoming more reliant on telemedicine and telehealth.

Matched MeSH terms: Private Sector
Fulltext Understanding the modifiable health systems barriers to hypertension management in Malaysia: a multi-method health systems appraisal approach

Risso-Gill I, Balabanova D, Majid F, Ng KK, Yusoff K, Mustapha F, et al.

BMC Health Serv Res, 2015;15:254.
PMID: 26135302 DOI: 10.1186/s12913-015-0916-y

The growing burden of non-communicable diseases in middle-income countries demands models of care that are appropriate to local contexts and acceptable to patients in order to be effective. We describe a multi-method health system appraisal to inform the design of an intervention that will be used in a cluster randomized controlled trial to improve hypertension control in Malaysia.

Matched MeSH terms: Private Sector
Diffusion and utilization of magnetic resonance imaging in Asia

Hutubessy RC, Hanvoravongchai P, Edejer TT, Asian MRI Study Group

Int J Technol Assess Health Care, 2002;18(3):690-704.
PMID: 12391959

An assessment of the current status of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was undertaken to provide input for future government decisions on the introduction of new technologies in Asia. The objective of the study is to describe and explain the diffusion pattern of this costly technology in several Asian settings.

Matched MeSH terms: Private Sector
Fulltext WHO key access antibiotics price, availability and affordability in private sector pharmacies in Pakistan

Saleem Z, Saeed H, Akbar Z, Saeed A, Khalid S, Farrukh L, et al.

Cost Eff Resour Alloc, 2021 Feb 16;19(1):10.
PMID: 33593366 DOI: 10.1186/s12962-021-00263-x

BACKGROUND: Poor availability and unaffordability of key access antibiotics may increase antimicrobial resistance in the community by promoting inappropriate antibiotic selection and abridged therapy compliance.
OBJECTIVE: To check the prices, availability, and affordability of the World Health Organization (WHO) key access antibiotics in private sector pharmacies of Lahore, Pakistan.
METHODOLOGY: A survey of WHO key access antibiotics from WHO essential medicine list 2017 was conducted in private sector pharmacies of 4 different regions of Lahore employing adapted WHO/HAI methodology. The comparison of prices and availability between originator brands (OB) and lowest price generics (LPG) were conducted followed by the effect of medicine price differences on patient's affordability. The data were analyzed using a preprogrammed WHO Microsoft excel workbook.
RESULTS: The mean availability of OB products was 45.20% and the availability of LPGs was 40.40%. The OBs of co-amoxiclav, clarithromycin and metronidazole and LPGs of azithromycin and ciprofloxacin were easily available (100%) in all private sector pharmacies. Whereas, antibiotics like chloramphenicol, cloxacillin, nitrofurantoin, spectinomycin, and cefazolin were totally unavailable in all the surveyed pharmacies. The OBs and LPGs with high MPRs were ceftriaxone (OB; 15.31, LPG; 6.38) and ciprofloxacin (OB; 12.42, LPG; 5.77). The median of brand premium obtained was 38.7%, which varied between the lowest brand premium of 3.97% for metronidazole and highest for ceftriaxone i.e. 140%. The cost of standard treatment was 0.5 day's wage (median) if using OB and 0.4 day's wage (median) for LPG, for a lowest paid unskilled government worker. Treatment with OB and LPG was unaffordable for ciprofloxacin (OB; 2.4, LPG; 1.1) & cefotaxime (OB; 12.7, LPG; 8.1).
CONCLUSION: There is dire need to properly implement price control policies to better regulate fragile antibiotic supply system so that the availability of both OB and LPG of key access antibiotics should be increased. The prices could be reduced by improving purchasing efficiency, excluding taxes and regulating mark-ups. This could increase the affordability of patients to complete their antibiotic therapy with subsequent reduction in antimicrobial resistance.

Matched MeSH terms: Private Sector
Use of ATC to describe duplicate medications in primary care prescriptions

Lim CM, Aryani Md Yusof F, Selvarajah S, Lim TO

Eur J Clin Pharmacol, 2011 Oct;67(10):1035-44.
PMID: 21499761 DOI: 10.1007/s00228-011-1025-4

PURPOSE: We aimed to demonstrate the suitability of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical Classification (ATC) to describe duplicate drugs and duplicate drug classes in prescription data and describe the pattern of duplicates from public and private primary care clinics of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

METHODS: We analyzed prescription data year 2005 from all 14 public clinics in Kuala Lumpur with 12,157 prescriptions, and a sample of 188 private clinics with 25,612 prescriptions. As ATC Level 5 code represents the molecule and Level 4 represents the pharmacological subgroup, we used repetitions of codes in the same prescription to describe duplicate drugs or duplicate drug classes and compared them between the public and private clinics.

RESULTS: At Level 4 ATC, prescriptions with duplicates drug classes were 1.46% of all prescriptions in private and 0.04% in public clinics. At Level 5 ATC, prescriptions with duplicate drugs were 1.81% for private and 0.95% for public clinics. In private clinics at Level 5, 73.3% of prescriptions with duplicates involved systemic combination drugs; at Level 4, 40.3% involved systemic combination drugs. In the public sector at Level 5, 95.7% of prescriptions with duplicates involved topical products.

CONCLUSIONS: Repetitions of the same ATC codes were mostly useful to describe duplicate medications; however, we recommend avoid using ATC codes for tropical products for this purpose due to ambiguity. Combination products were often involved in duplicate prescribing; redesign of these products might improve prescribing quality. Duplicates occurred more often in private clinics than public clinics in Malaysia.

Matched MeSH terms: Private Sector
Healthcare financing in Malaysia

Kananatu K

Asia Pac J Public Health, 2002;14(1):23-8.
PMID: 12597514

This paper presents an overview of the Malaysian healthcare system and its method of financing. The development of the healthcare delivery system in Malaysia is commendable. However, the strength and weaknesses of the public healthcare system and the financing problems encountered are also discussed. Cost of healthcare and funding of both the public and private sectors were also revealed. One must optimise the advantages of operating a health financing scheme which is affordable and controllable which contribute towards cost-containment and quality assurance. Thus, there is a need for the establishment of a National Healthcare Financing, a mechanism to sustain the healthcare delivery network and operate it as a viable option. A model of the National Health Financing Scheme (NHFS) was proposed.

Matched MeSH terms: Private Sector
Effective family planning programs

Rosenfield AG

Med Today, 1973;7(3-4):80-94.
PMID: 12309877

PIP: Organizational and content features of various national family planning programs are reviewed. The Thai program is cited as an example of a family planning program organized on a massive unipurpose compaign basis. The Korean and Taiwan programs have utilized special field workers while upgrading the general health care network. 3 major problems with family planning programs are: 1) the lack of experience with such programs; 2) lack of commitment at the highest political levels; and 3) medical conservatism. Utilization of all available contraceptive methods instead of reliance on 1 method would improve most programs. Nursing and auxiliary personnel could be trained to take over the work of physicians in family planning programs. This is already being done with IUD insertion and pill prescription in several programs. The postpartum tubal ligation approach has proven effective and should be extended. There is a place in all national programs for both the private and the commercial sectors. Incentives for clinics, personnel, and acceptors might spread family planning more rapidly.

Matched MeSH terms: Private Sector
Health-care providers' perceptions, attitudes towards and recommendation practice of cervical cancer screening

Hweissa NA, Lim JN, Su TT

Eur J Cancer Care (Engl), 2016 Sep;25(5):864-70.
PMID: 27350095 DOI: 10.1111/ecc.12537

In Libya, cervical cancer is ranked third as the most frequent cancer among women with early diagnosis being shown to reduce morbidity and mortality. Health-care providers can influence women's screening behaviours, and their lack of recommendations for screening can be one of the barriers that affect women's participation in screening programmes. This study aims to assess the health-care provider's perception around cervical cancer screening. In-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 16 health-care providers, from both public and private sectors in Az-Zawiya city, Libya, between February and July of 2014. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, then analysed using thematic analysis. Our findings suggest that health-care providers did not provide sufficient information regarding cervical cancer screening for women who attend health-care facilities. The results highlight the role played by health-care professionals in motivating women to attend cervical cancer screening programs, and the need for health education of health-care providers to offer a precious advice regarding the screening. On the other hand, health-care providers highlighted that implementation of reminding system of cervical cancer screening will support them to improve screening attendance. In addition, health-care providers stressed the necessity for educational and awareness campaigns of cervical cancer screening among Libyan women.

Matched MeSH terms: Private Sector
Fulltext Antihypertensive drugs for elderly patients: a cross- sectional study

Lim KK, Sivasampu S, Khoo EM

Singapore Med J, 2015 May;56(5):291-7.
PMID: 25597751 DOI: 10.11622/smedj.2015019

As the population ages, the prevalence of hypertension also increases. Although primary care is usually the patient's first point of contact for healthcare, little is known about the management of hypertension among elderly patients at the primary care level. This study aimed to determine the antihypertensive prescription trend for elderly patients, the predictors of antihypertensive use and any inappropriate prescribing practices in both public and private primary care settings.

Matched MeSH terms: Private Sector