Asia urged to use less invasive heart bypass-experts
Doctors in Asia should adopt minimally invasive techniques in harvesting blood vessels for heart bypasses because the traditional open method is exposing patients, many of them diabetics, to risks of infection, Hong Kong researchers say.
In many heart bypasses, the great saphenous vein in the patients leg is removed and grafted onto the heart, bypassing blocked arteries so as to improve blood supply to heart muscles.
Although this major surgery is common and safe, patients in Asia are exposed to post-operation infection and trauma because of the way the leg vein is removed – which involves an incision running from the ankle to the top of the inner thigh. Incisions could be as deep as 2-inches (5 cm) for overweight patients.
More: alertnet.org
Related Travel Information
Patients make a beeline for South Asia
Medical tourism to South Asia will be booming, with Singapore, Thailand and India aggressively marketing their services to patients all over the world.
Medical tourism to these countries has already crossed 3m annually, according to estimates, and is likely to grow by over 30% every year.
Singapore, a favoured destination for high-end surgeries, has almost 1,50,000 people visiting for medical purposes.
Major procedures like open heart surgery, minimally invasive surgery, robotic surgery and stem-cell procedures are regularly performed in the country, says Jason Yap, director, healthcare services, Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
More: economictimes.indiatimes.com
Asia takes different integration road than Europe--experts
Asia is deepening economic integration to complement closer trade links but the region looks set to take a different road than Europe and a common currency remains far off, officials and experts said Monday.
The approach to financial integration in Asia ... will take a different path from what we have seen in other parts of the world, in particular in Europe, said Malaysian central bank governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz.
Given that our region is more heterogeneous in nature, it has different aspirations and different starting points in this integration process, she told a seminar
Regional cooperative movement for reducing poverty stressed in South Asia
South Asian experts at a regional conference held here on Rural Financing Institutions and Cooperatives stressed that the region needed to expedite cooperative movement for reducing poverty, a leading English newspaper, The Himalayan Times reported on Wednesday.
According to the newspaper, some experts presenting papers Tuesday emphasised that all governments in the region needed to focus on reducing poverty through empowering poor people with easy access to credit.
The participants from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives are representing their countries financial institutions.
More : english.people.com.cn
Arab Diplomats, W Asia experts condemn Israel''s Apartheid Wall
Arab diplomats in India and West Asia experts have condemned the 'Apartheid Wall' that Israel is constructing in the West Bank as a security measure, saying it would further isolate Palestinians.
"We are under brutal Israeli occupation. We want the world to condemn Israel and its continuing violations of international treaties," Osama Musa, the Palestinian envoy, said at a panel discussion at the India Habitat Centre at Delhi Friday evening. The discussion, part of the campaign against the fence that Israel began constructing four years ago, was organised by the Arab Diplomatic
South America and Asia energy specialists to advise on Energy City Qatar
Gulf Energy today announced the addition of Henri Philippe Reichstul, a South American energy expert, and Simon Tay, a Harvard Professor and Asian energy expert, to the International Advisory Board to the multi-billion dollar Energy City Qatar (ECQ) project.
Mr. Esam Janahi, Chairman of Gulf Energy said, 'Mr. Reichstul and Mr. Tay are experts on South America and Asia, both increasingly important energy markets. We are delighted that they have joined Energy City Qatar's International Advisory Board to help shape this single point of access to markets and expertise -
