First-of-its-kind Index reveals Malaysia’s positive progress towards Personalised Healthcare

  • Newly launched Personalised Health Index for Asia-Pacific measures readiness of 11 countries to embrace more tailored patient care.

  • Greater interoperability and better systems of capturing health-related data should be a key aim across the region.

  • Overall, Malaysia is at 8th place, but was also3:

    • Ranked 3rd for good financial support for scale ups, revealing that new personalised health technology companies should be able to find support developing solutions for the Malaysian market.

    • Ranked 7th for personalised health strategy, this could be improved by advancing a national strategy or policy for personalised health or personalised medicine

    • Ranked 7th for data infrastructure, has room for improvement forhealthcare digitisation, as the foundation for the application of personalised healthcare

  • Findings show the transition towards personalised healthcare is underway in Malaysia and reveal enormous potential in improving existing health outcomes.

 

Petaling Jaya, February 19, 2021 – Today, we revealed the Personalized Healthcare Index for Asia- Pacific  focusing on Malaysia. This follows the recent launch by FutureProofing Healthcare initiative, led by a panel  of 15 leading healthcare experts across Asia-Pacific, who crafted theThis first-of-its-kind, data-driven policy tool measures the readiness of 11 health systems across the region  including Malaysia to adopt personalised healthcare – enabling the right care to be tailored to the right  person at the right time.

The Index is built on robust, publicly available, credible and open-source data supplemented with input from  public health authority representatives across APAC and validated by a panel ofincluding Prof. Dr. Maude Elvira Phipps, Professor of Human Genetics at the Jeffrey Cheah School of  Medicine and Health Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. Theinitiative –supported by Roche – aims to help stakeholders across health ecosystems understand local, national, and regional strengths and needs. It also helps enable tailored, data-driven decision-making and encourages best practice sharing across the region to drive conversations and guide actions to improve health systems and enhance their readiness to adapt to rapid change. 

Health systems across Asia-Pacific, including in Malaysia are facing challenges related to growing populations, and rising costs, which have only been compounded by the rise of non-communicable diseases and the current COVID-19 pandemic. This is coupled with lack of regulatory strategies and policies to enhance digital health technologies. Adopting more personalised approaches can improve health system efficiencies by helping decision-makers prioritise their efforts and resources, and initiate policies and  frameworks that support healthcare innovation. 

The Personalised Health Index measures performance against 27 different indicators of personalised health  across four categories called 'Vital Signs'. These include (1) Policy Context, (2) Health Information, (3) Personalised Technologies, and (4) Health Services.  

While, regionally, the Index reveals significant disparities between the countries measured, encouragingly, the results show that this transition towards personalised healthcare is underway and gaining momentum in Malaysia as well. Challenges around policy and personalised technology impact lower-scoring territories, several of which are at the very early stages of personalised healthcare.

To achieve long-term resilience, health systems must strive for a personalised healthcare framework that  leverages data, analytics and technology to generate meaningful insights, inform decision-making, drive  innovation supporting both individual and population health – and empowers patients to manage their health.  

Malaysia is in the process of formulating and implementing plans that aim to enable personalised healthcare  and has a digital infrastructure and data collection capabilities that can support limited aspects of  personalised care. Increasing investment in research and development, streamlining regulatory processes,  opening access to data for research, improving access to digital health services, and building capacity in the  healthcare workforce are potential focus areas for Malaysia. In addition, there is a need for a strong emphasis  on health ethics and equity to address issues of access and quality in Malaysia as it makes its’ transition to  personalised healthcare3

“Personalised healthcare can transform patients’ lives by delivering care tailored to the individual and  populations, thereby helping prevent, diagnose and treat patients more effectively and quickly. It has the potential to improve the lives of millions of people across Asia-Pacific. It is clear that better health access,  literacy and collaborative partnerships are needed across the region,” said Prof. Dr. Maude Elvira Phipps,  Professor of Human Genetics, Monash University Malaysia, one of the independent experts involved in the  development of the Index. The Index was developed to drive evidence-based decisions in policy and  healthcare and help various countries measure their progress towards more sustainable, personalised,  integrated and digital health systems. This Index helps to facilitate critical changes in health system design  that work better for current and future generations,” said Professor Phipps.  

“We are proud to support this novel, data-driven initiative to measure and accelerate progress towards  personalised healthcare in Malaysia,” said Lance Duan, General Manager of Roche (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd.  "FutureProofing Healthcare brings together core elements of Roche’s vision for a better future for healthcare,  including innovation in treatment, advances in technology, understanding of human biology and the ability  to analyse data to make the promise of personalised healthcare a reality. We are committed to working in  partnership with policymakers to leverage the opportunities and address key areas of focus highlighted in  the Index, to ensure Malaysia continues to develop more resilient and sustainable health systems that work  better for the people who need them." 

The Index findings have also been published in a whitepaper2coordinated by theand informed by expert insights from across  Asia-Pacific. The whitepaper also includes several policy recommendations based on the Index findings to  help accelerate this transformation in the region. 

The Personalised Health Index andare now available on                                          

About the Asia-Pacific Personalised Health Index

The APAC Personalised Health Index is a first-of-its-kind, online policy tool that provides a unique overview of the current  status of 11 health systems. The Index evaluates 27 measures across four Vital Signs, drawing over 550 data points from  19 sources to measure readiness. The information is based on robust, credible, third-party data supplemented with newly collected input from government representatives and was built in collaboration with and validated by an external panel  of leading healthcare experts spanning health systems, policy, patient organisations, think tanks, and academia from  across Asia Pacific. The Index aims to equip policymakers with data that can guide and inform the direction and  prioritisation of efforts to improve health system readiness and realise the potential of personalised healthcare. It  offers specific, tailored insights and best practice to drive these conversations and underpin future action. The Index  along with information on the expert panel and methodology is available

About FutureProofing Healthcareis a collaborative, data-driven initiative that aims to examine the fundamental drivers  ofsustainable healthcare systems, compare approaches between countries, identify elements that lead to more  sustainable care and promote best practices through a future-focused discussion of real-world solutions. Supported by  Roche, FutureProofing Healthcare develops indices designed by leading, independent experts and serves as a resource  that enables accredited, third-party data to be effectively leveraged across health systems. The aim is to support  healthcare stakeholders to make data-driven decisions and evolve their health systems according to individual country  challenges and priorities. The initiative began in Europe in 2018 and has since developed four indices focused on  sustainability, breast cancer, multiple sclerosis and, most recently, personalised healthcare. 

M-MY-00000266-02-2021
Expire: 17-02-2023 unless superseded by a new version

Reference: 

  1. Asia-Pacific Personalised Health Index 2020. Available at:Last accessed 28 January 2021. 

  2. Getting to Personalised Healthcare in APAC: Findings, insights and recommendations. Published  January 2021. Available at:Last accessed 28 January 2021. 

  3. Malaysia-Personalised Health Index 2020. Available at:Last accessed 28 January 2021 

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