By Manik Mehta
NEW YORK, Sept 24 (NNN-BERNAMA) — A visiting Taiwanese surgeon, who enjoys international recognition, and presently heads Taiwan’s National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA), envisages “huge synergies” emanating from cooperation between the medical sectors of Taiwan and Malaysia.
Prof. Dr. Po-Chang Lee, who is the director general of Taiwan’s NHIA, recently participated in a panel discussion organized by the Foreign Policy Association in cooperation with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York, on Taiwan’s “single-payer healthcare”.
During the discussion, he highlighted the great strides Taiwan has made in successfully implementing affordable universal healthcare, driven by scientific and medical technological advancement.
Malaysia, as Dr.Lee pointed out, has a good healthcare infrastructure but it needs to keep itself updated on the latest technological innovations that are key to having a successful and modern healthcare system.
“One reason for achieving success in the national health insurance administration is to have a sound public health infrastructure which should be upgraded by alert healthcare experts,” Lee said in an interview with Bernama in New York.
Dr.Lee, who is also the chairman of the board of the Taiwan Organ Registry and Sharing Center said Taiwan’s healthcare system rested on a partnership between the private sector and the government.
A surgeon who specialises in kidney transplantation, and also a professor at the Medical College of Taiwan’s National Chang-Kung University, Dr.Lee is often invited to give lectures in ASEAN countries.
Lee spoke about Taiwan’s “southbound policy” which emphasizes the need to have greater cooperation with countries in South and Southeast Asia; Malaysia is a key country in this “southbound policy” focus. “Cooperation with countries like Malaysia is important element of Taiwan’s southbound policy,” he observed.
“There is a growing understanding among many developed and also, lately, among developing countries of upgrading their medical research and operating facilities. Building up a viable, modern and efficiently-running healthcare system is key to national development. Without a sound healthcare system to look after the healthcare needs of its citizens, a country can hardly make progress because, in the final analysis, this will also have a major impact on the resources and economy of a country,” Lee said.
But like Taiwan, which has been increasingly attracting so-called medical tourists – foreigners who visit the island specifically for medical treatment – Malaysia has also set a goal to market its medical facilities to attract foreign patients for medical treatment and thus generate revenue.
“We have been already collaborating with some ASEAN countries and offering them sophisticated state-of-the-art technology that can bolster their medical tourism sector,” he said.
He said another sector which could benefit Malaysia in cooperation with Taiwan would be the manufacture of generic drugs which are becoming increasingly popular because of the low-cost factor.
The U.S. also buys a lot of foreign-manufactured medical equipment and devices. Taiwan, which showcases its products, like Malaysia, at prestigious trade fairs like the MEDICA show in Duesseldorf, Germany, can also cooperate with Malaysian suppliers of medical equipment and devices.
“This can lead to huge synergies … and create a win-win situation,” Lee said.
–NNN-BERNAMA
