Singapore healthcare leaders forge strong new links with the Middle East

Singapore, with its expertly trained physicians and high-tech medical equipment, boasts the best healthcare system in Asia and one of the finest in the world. It has a reputation for excellence in a broad range of specialties - including those related to cardiology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, oncology, and neurology.

One result of this has been strong year-on-year growth in the number of patients visiting Singapore for treatment. Last year, some 410,000 people from around the world traveled to the island-state for medical treatment. The country hopes to attract about one million international patients by 2012.

The increasing reputation of Singapore's doctors has led interestingly to a flow in the opposite direction. Singapore's specialists, surgeons and physicians are now highly sought-after speakers at medical conferences in the Middle East, and recent years have been marked by a steep rise in the number of professional delegations.

"There is a high degree of interest in Singapore's advanced medical research from colleagues in the Middle East, and we very much enjoy meeting and exchanging new information with them," said Dr Jason Yap, Director (Healthcare Services), Singapore Tourism Board.

Internationally-renowned Dr. Susan Lim of the Susan Lim Surgery at Gleneagles Medical Centre, Singapore, has visited a number of countries in the Middle East, delivering high-level lectures on the use of stem cells in regenerative medicine and tissue repair. In 2003, she founded Stem Cell Technologies to research into adult stem cells for cell therapy. The Company has since entered into collaboration with the National University of Singapore to research a cure for diabetes using adult stem cells.

Developments in Singapore in the field of stem cell treatment are followed with interest by the Middle East medical community, especially since such transplants have been successful in the treatment of thalassemia - the inherited blood disorder which is particularly prevalent in the region. Doctors in Singapore have performed haematopoietic stem cell transplants from unrelated sources for thalassaemia major which allows transplants to be done successfully even in the mismatched setting. It offers patients with no matched sibling donor a chance of a cure.

Singapore's innovations in the field of cancer treatment and research are also a major source of interest. Institutions like Johns Hopkins and The West Clinic from USA have set up medical centres in Singapore and contribute to Singapore's status as an advanced healthcare hub, which attracts patients from around the world looking for cutting-edge surgery and treatment options.

Beyond knowledge exchange and international patient services, Singapore is also working, and welcomes opportunities to work, with Middle East countries on other healthcare concerns like healthcare policy, healthcare operations and management, and healthcare training.

Similar cultural and social factors have helped to encourage the development of stronger relationships between the Middle East and Singapore. Aside from Singapore's proximity to the region, the advanced state of the treatment on offer and the reasonable costs, the status of Singapore as a multi-faith, multi-cultural society, where 15 percent of the population is Muslim, provides a useful basis for developing stronger links.

"Muslim patients in particular have benefited from this sense of familiarity. Being a multi-cultural society, we offer patients from the Middle East a wide variety of specialist options, including halal menus, same gender-doctors, direction signs for prayers and prayer mats," said Dr. Yap.

Along with the medical facilities themselves, Singapore's healthcare providers now offer dedicated services for international patients, taking care of every aspect of the journey including travel, visa administration, appointments, local transport and even interpreters.

Perhaps most influential is the spirit of cooperation and interest in forging stronger links. Singapore will be sponsoring four conferences at Arab Health 2008, the region's largest healthcare event, bringing in one of the most significant panels of speakers ever hosted in the Middle East.

"We are hugely excited by the potential for development of new professional bonds with our peers in the Middle East," said Dr Yap. "2008 will be a very important year."