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 Well, the paper that people referred to in early 2020 has recently been retracted, but can the misinformation be taken back?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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Recently, a report by the Lancet public health commission on gambling found that gambling is a growing threat to public health globally, with about 450 million people who have experienced consequences of gambling. On this episode of Mind Matters, we speak to Dr Amer to find out how serious this problem is here in Malaysia, and what are the unique circumstances that we need to account for in addressing the threat of gambling to public health.

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What role do medical teams at sporting events play beyond just treating injuries that happen during the event? How much has sports medicine evolved to keep up with the changes in both sports and medicine? We speak to consultant orthopaedic surgeon Dr Harjeet Singh as well as consultant sports medicine physicians Dr Kamaljeet Singh and Dato’ Dr Gurcharan Singh to find out.

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What would our world look like if HIV was eliminated? 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 first episode, we find out from Dr Anjanna Kukreja, an infectious diseases physician, if eliminating HIV is possible in our lifetime.

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Quitting smoking is probably one of the most difficult goals to achieve. Despite stories of smokers successfully quitting cold turkey, many people will find themselves making several attempts and may even get discouraged. In the first Doctor in the House show for the new year, Dr Takdir Singh Riar, Head of the Smoking Cessation Unit, Klinik Kesihatan Tanglin, joins Dr George Lee to motivate those looking to quit smoking this year.

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