Opening Ceremony Of 13th Singapore Live (Live Interventions In Vascular Endotherapy)

29 Mar 2004

By Dr Balaji Sadasivan

Venue: Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre

Introduction

1 It is my pleasure to be here today at this 13th Singapore Live Interventions in Vascular Endotherapy. To our overseas delegates and faculty, welcome to Singapore!

2 I understand that EURO-Paris Course on Revascularisation has been co-organisers of this LIVE Course the last 5 years. It is heartening to see the continuous partnership being established with a world-renowned course like the EURO-Paris Course on Revascularisation.

3 I have also been informed that there are participants from top interventional centres around the region like Jaslok Hospital and Research Centre of Mumbai, India and Queen Elizabeth Hospital of Hong Kong, at this conference. I am encouraged to see interventionalists from around the region gathered here to share and to learn from each other. It is through such collaboration and follow-ups after courses like this LIVE course that participants fully appreciate the benefits of, and gain from, the course.

Benefits From Technology: drug eluting stents

4 Two years ago, in 2002, I was here to open the 11th Singapore LIVE course, and the highlight then was drug coated stents. Today, two years later, the primary focus for this meeting continues to be drug eluting stents, although this time it is more on the results of their use, to validate their usefulness as a treatment option.

5 Stents are an important treatment alternative to open heart surgery, which is a more invasive, more expensive procedure with a longer recovery time. Since April 2003, when the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug eluting stent (the Cypher stent), many have benefited from this new treatment option that previously was available only to people in clinical trials.

Benefits from process reorganisation : Health Management Programme

6 Benefits to the patient can also come in the form of innovative reorganizing of processes. Singhealth has embarked on a series of Health Management Programmes (HMPs), which aims to provide comprehensive, integrated, evidenced-based disease management programmes with structured work processes, to effectively combat common chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease.

7 Heart Care Programme is a cardiovascular Health Management Programme, where patients with stable cardiac conditions are co-managed by a specialist institution (the National Heart Centre), a regional hospital (Changi General Hospital) and the primary healthcare physicians. Primary health care physicians are regularly updated through interactive teaching sessions and informed of programme-specific guidelines on the management of such patients. Patients managed by primary health physicians who show a recurrence of symptoms are referred to the specialist institution or the regional hospital (ie, National Heart Centre or Changi General Hospital) via a fast track referral system, thereby cutting any unneccessary red-tape and delay. This programme offers convenience and reassurance to patients with stable cardiac conditions, by providing them with easy access to medical care in a cost-effective manner.

Conclusion

8 By organizing the care of cardiac patients in an efficient manner, superior medical care can be delivered, leading to better outcomes. On this note, I wish you a fruitful and successful meeting. It is now my pleasure to declare the 13th Singapore LIVE course open.

Thank you.