“The insulin pen is my best friend.” For Nazril Hadani, being diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of four means a lifetime of “being poked and prodded” with daily insulin injections. Listen to Nazril’s story about growing up with Type 1 diabetes, and why consultant paediatric endocrinologist Prof Dr Muhammad Yazid Jalaludin thinks of young people with Type 1 diabetes as being resilient. 

NCD Chronicles is a series about people living with NCDs, going beyond the diagnosis to explore their personal experiences, their challenges, as well as the impact of their health condition on their loved ones. These stories reveal the importance of understanding the unique struggles and needs of the individuals behind the disease, in our response to the NCD epidemic.

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Some babies are born with a gap in their spine, a condition known as spina bifida. But how exactly will it affect them from childhood into adulthood? What kind of treatment and support will these children need to lead a good quality of life? We find out from consultant paediatrician and paediatric neurologist Dr Sofiah Ali and consultant neurosurgeon Dr Azizi Abu Bakar, both from Subang Jaya Medical Centre.

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What would our world look like if no one caught the flu anymore? In this limited series, we’re looking at how we can eliminate the public health challenges that continue to plague us today and how far we are from that goal. We speak to medical microbiologist Prof Dr Jamal I-Ching Sam from Universiti Malaya to find out if influenza could cause the next pandemic and the dangers posed by transmission of the influenza virus from animals to humans.

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 If you’ve watched a medical drama, you would’ve seen scenes of emergency physicians rushing about trying to save people’s lives - but is that what it’s like in real life? On this episode of Humans of Healthcare, we speak to Dr Ahmad Suhailan Mohamed, an emergency physician, about what his job entails, the stress he’s under, as well as the work of emergency physicians in the great outdoors.

Image credit: Dr Ahmad Suhailan Mohamed

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Medical insurance policyholders have received a temporary reprieve from a huge increase to their premiums. But what happens after 2026, when higher premium adjustments will likely be inevitable to reflect the increasing cost of healthcare? Datuk Indrani Thuraisingham, Vice-President of FOMCA, joins Azrul Mohd Khalib to discuss the impact of medical inflation on consumers, what regulatory measures are needed, and why short-term bandaid measures can no longer hold the system together.

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When speaking to individuals with rare disorders or their families, it’s not uncommon to hear about the diagnostic odyssey they’ve been through just to get a name for what they’re going through. But what happens after that? We want to look beyond the diagnosis, to understand what are the challenges they still face. Today, we’ll be exploring what access to medicines looks like for rare disorders and the importance of orphan drugs to these individuals and their families.

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If you hadn’t heard of nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) before Lee Chong Wei was diagnosed with it, you’re not alone. Although NPC is a very common cancer in Malaysia, people aren’t aware of it, which often leads to late diagnosis. We dive into the peculiarities of why NPC is so prevalent in our population, especially among Chinese men, and the journey that patients go through from diagnosis to treatment.

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What would our world look like if mothers no longer died from pregnancy or childbirth? In this series, we’ll look at how we can eliminate the public health challenges that continue to plague us today and how far we are from that goal. In this conversation, Dr Muniswaran Ganeshan, President of the Obstetrical & Gynaecological Society of Malaysia, covers the medical, public health and socioeconomic aspects of eliminating preventable maternal deaths.

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Remember that time during the pandemic Trump and many others promoted hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment? Well, the paper that people referred to in early 2020 has recently been retracted, but can the misinformation be taken back? Consultant urologist Dr George Lee is joined by health services and systems researcher Dr Mark Cheong to delve into the murky world of misinformation and whether scientific journals matter to the lay public.

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You can't be a good parent if you're emotionally stressed and dealing with trauma. Where is this trauma coming from? What is the impact of these stressors on our children? Dr Christine Gibson, a family physician and advocate of trauma-informed care, speaks to us about how parents can relearn their trauma response through brain-based and body-based strategies. Register here for her workshop in Kuala Lumpur on 23, 24 and 25 February (special promo rate for BFM listeners by registering as a group and entering ‘BFM’ in Group Name). For direct inquiries, call 03-2600 3156 or email [email protected]

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