Philips launches Asean healthcare program
MANILA, Philippines - Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) highlights its support to find sustainable, long-term answers and solutions to the challenges non-communicable diseases (NCDs) bring across the Southeast Asia (SEA) region today. The company, a global leader in healthcare technology, recently launched a new program called Asean Healthcare Consultation 2012: Addressing Non-Communicable Diseases in Southeast Asia.
This program, an industry first, brings together policymakers, patient groups, academics, and healthcare providers in seven countries across the region to collaborate and find answers to modern-day healthcare challenges in an aligned, international, and sustained approach.
The precursor to this year’s consultation, the Asean Access to Healthcare Symposium had a broad, regional focus. Experts participating in the seven roundtables in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines all recognized the need for proactive and sustained thought leadership combined with effectively targeted local advocacy to achieve this. Supported by Philips, it is hoped that constructive debate and knowledge sharing among this Asean-wide network of experts may culminate in practical, innovative policy solutions that may help ease the growing burden of NCDs on national health systems.
“Philips recognizes the scale of the challenge, as Southeast Asia prepares to meet the new reality of a rapidly increasing number of NCD patients. We are in the midst of an unprecedented epidemiologic transition, and the region needs to come together and consider new and innovative solutions to control and prevent NCDs,” said Dr. Joel Beltran, general manager of Philips Healthcare Philippines. “The inaugural Asean Healthcare Consultation has sparked some ideas that may be further developed into actionable policies and initiatives to help ease the burden of NCDs on national health systems.”
“NCDs are a growing concern in Southeast Asia, causing more than 2.5 million deaths in the region every year. While significant improvements in healthcare infrastructure have been made over the years, more will be required and we need to act quickly to implement sustainable methods of controlling and preventing NCDs. The NCD challenge is a multi-discovery one and solutions must be holistic. Key challenges include an aging society, providing healthcare to rural communities, a shortage of healthcare professionals, and rising healthcare costs — all in the context of a society with a wide and growing gap in health access between a rich minority and the por majority of the population,” said Dr. Alberto G. Romualdez Jr., moderator of the Asean Healthcare Consultation 2012 in the Philippines, and president of Culion Foundation.
In the Philippines, the top four NCDs are cancer, chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes.
