New moves to guide buying of medical equipment

BEIJING, July 28 -- The Ministry of Health will get professional advice in the purchase of medical equipment in a bid to clean up the corruption-plagued healthcare sector.

A 800-member team of medical and healthcare experts has been formed by the China Medical Equipment Association (CMEA), under the ministry.

The team is tasked with securing quality medical equipment at reduced costs.

"The team will draw up a recommended list of medical equipment after examination of information provided by manufacturers about their products," said CMEA Director Li Banling.

The assessment will take into consideration the practical needs of all involved partners, including the government, hospitals and medical equipment manufacturers, Li said.

To guarantee an open, fair assessment, members of the team will be randomly selected for each task.

"No medical institution above county level will be allowed to evade the purchasing conducted by the medical authorities," said Zhao Zilin, director of the ministry's Budget and Financial Planning Department.

Each item of equipment bought by hospitals must be on the recommended list, he said.

"The ultimate goal is to benefit the general public in terms of a reduction in health expenditure," Zhao said.

China's total medical health expenditure was more than 800 billion yuan in 2006, according to official statistics.

About half of it was shouldered by patients.

Healthcare insiders said many medical institutions purchase unnecessary state-of-the-art equipment, to realize fat profits from patients.

To relieve the burden on the public from over-priced health services, the government has kept capping the price of a variety of medicines, but not the fees for physical check-ups.

The government will invite bids and use competitive negotiations in its collective purchasing of equipment, to be undertaken by the Ministry's International Communication and Cooperation Center.

"All stakeholders, the government and the producers alike, should practice self discipline to jointly contribute to 'transparent purchasing'," said Li Hongshan, director of the center.

Gerard Kleisterlee, Philips' president and chief executive officer, said he expects the market to grow about 10 per cent over the next three years, making it the third-largest medical equipment market, after the United States and Japan.

In the next five to seven years, the Chinese market is expected to surpass Japan to become the world's second-largest medical equipment market.

(Source: China Daily)

Myanmar bans outbound package tour

YANGON, Oct.

8 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has banned outbound package tour arranged by domestic travel and tour companies, the local Voice journal reported Monday.

Meeting with hoteliers and businessmen from travel agencies in Nay Pyi Taw recently, Director of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism U Hlaing Win said that domestic travel agencies are allowed only to arrange inbound package tour services within the country for domestic and foreign travelers but not for outbound package tour services for them.

The official warned of taking action against companies which break the tourism-related rules and regulations.

However, whether the package tours such as pilgrimage, Singapore and Bangkok ones being introduced by some companies are covered by the ban or not, remained unclear, the report said.

According to the ministry figures, there are 733 registered travel and tour companies in Myanmar.

Tourist arrivals in the country through Yangon entry checkpoint alone hit over 47,000 in the first four months (April-July) of the fiscal year 2007-08, up 20 percent from 2006-07 correspondingly, other local reports said.

These tourists came in the form of free independent traveler and package tour.

During the period, visitors with other visas reached over 26,000, up 5 percent correspondingly, the report added.

According to local statistics, in 2006-07, a total of 654,602 foreign tourists visited Myanmar, gaining 198.48 million U.S.

dollars, an increase of 11.4 percent compared with the previous year.

Of the 654,602 tourists visiting Myanmar in 2006-07, 276,613 entered through Yangon checkpoint, 5,763 through Mandalay and Bagan checkpoints and 372,226 through border checkpoints, the figures show.

Of the types of tours, package tour accounted for 25 percent, while free independent traveler 47 percent and the rest with other visas 28 percent.

The tourists visiting Myanmar mostly came from Thailand, China, South Korea and Japan in Asia, Germany, France and Italy in West Europe and some countries in North America.

Myanmar so far has over 600 hotels with 23,000 rooms, in addition to the 733 travel companies.

Shanghai sets up shelter in case of emergency

BEIJING, July 31 -- Emergency underground shelters have been set up in the city's Minhang District to hold up to 100,000 residents in case of chemical leaks, typhoons or gas explosions, Shanghai civil defense officials announced on Monday.

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HK experts reveals lupeol in fruits helps combat cancer

HONG KONG, Oct.

16 (Xinhua) -- A study found that a substance called "lupeol" contained in fruits may help beat head and neck cancer, announced the University of Hong Kong which made the result public here Tuesday.

The study, conducted by the university's Faculty of Medicine, revealed that lupeol, a compound rich in fruits, selectively targeted and killed cancer cells.

Using a mouse animal model, lupeol dramatically decreased tumor volume and suppressed local metastasis while bearing minimal effect on surrounding tissue and other vital organs like liver and kidney.

Interestingly, lupeol was found to be more effective and more potent than conventionally used chemotherapeutic drug, cisplatin, by approximately three-fold in terms of tumor volume and degree of metastasis suppression.

Besides, when lupeol was used in combination with cisplatin, the anti-tumour activity of the chemotherapeutic drug could be enhanced by 40-fold.

The above research result was published in the international scientific journal Cancer Research in September, 2007.

Head and neck cancer includes cancers of the nose, oral cavity, salivary gland, etc.

In the year 2004, 2,087 new cases were diagnosed in Hong Kong, with the number of new cases increasing steadily every year.

Human papilloma virus infection, alcohol and tobacco consumption and low fruits and vegetables intake all contribute to the increased risk of head and neck cancer development.

The university was in the hope that the findings will also show people that only a slight change in their everyday meal or a small change in their choice of food intake may have an astounding impact on cancer prevention and therapy.

Have a warm feeling all night long

BEIJING, Oct.

22 -- As temperatures start to drop, most party goers don't go out as often as they do in the summer.

The cold wind chills both the body and the heart when people shuffle between pubs or between bars and home.

So here we offer a list of 24-hour coffee shops in Beijing and Shanghai.

People can come here in the sunshine and leave them in the day as well.

While they stay inside, they can have warm drinks, books as well as likeminded souls.

Academy, WHO standardize medical terms

BEIJING, Oct.

17 -- Terminologies of traditional medicine should no longer be lost in translation.

The world's first document listing international standard terminologies of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was jointly launched in Beijing yesterday by the World Health Organization(WHO) and China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (CACMS).

The document contains nearly 4,000 terms covering eight categories including basic theories, disease, acupuncture, and medical treatments, each with English rendering, definition and descriptions and a Chinese version, up to 90 percent of which are commonly used TCM today.

"It's a great pioneering undertaking and a milestone for the promotion of TCM globally," said Cao Hongxin, the director with CACMS, which was entrusted by the Western Pacific Region Office (WPRO), WHO to compile the works.

He said uniform terminologies would be applied in present day education, practice, research, and information exchanges.

Originated from ancient China, TCM has developed and thrived in neighboring countries of the Western Pacific Region, sometimes with certain variations in accordance with local languages and practices.

That's why some 10 percent of the terms included in the document are from traditional Korean medicine, Kampo medicine of Japan, and traditional Vietnamese medicine, Xie Zhufan, a TCM professor with Peking University, told China Daily.

Xie participated in the work with counterparts from other countries.

"Given the recent rapid increase in the worldwide use and exchanges of time-honored medical science, the document just meets the pressing need of traditional medicine practitioners for a common language," Seung-hoon Choi, regional traditional medicine adviser at WPRO, said.

Considering constant updates to the rapidly developing science, the terminologies would be renewed every three to five years, Choi said.

"Notably, standardization of traditional medicine is a key step to facilitate the science, which is proved by the past experience to be safe, effective, easy, and cost-efficient, going worldwide and benefiting the human race," Choi said.

A great number of foreigners nowadays turn to TCM for disease prevention and health maintenance, when modern medicines don't work well enough.

However some foreign quarters have downplayed the benefits of TCM and said they should be used in tandem with modern medicines.

"However, that doesn't alter one of our long time missions, to promote traditional medicines among member countries," Choi said.

"It heals diseases." Choi is one of four out of 3,000 health experts with WHO, who specialize in traditional medicine.

(Source: China Daily)

Preventive healthcare targeted

BEIJING, Oct.

17 -- Preventive healthcare initiatives feature largely in the blueprint for China's medical reform, a key official closely involved in the policymaking revealed.Ge Yanfeng, deputy chief of the social development research department under the Development Research Center of the State Council, made the remarks on Monday at the one-day Summit of the Pacific Health Forum held in Beijing.

"The most urgent issue is how to make the prevention-oriented healthcare approach become a reality, and how to efficiently persuade Chinese citizens and medical institutions to be more proactive about health issues," Ge told China Daily.

Ge said the proposal was still at an early stage.

However, he urged the government to invest more in the health sector and offer more free health services to prevent diseases.

Most preventive medical measures are not presently covered by the umbrella of health insurance.

Many costly and disabling conditions - cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes - are linked to preventable risk factors, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which highly recommends member countries integrate prevention medical services into public healthcare.

"For that, the government is obliged to extend support with favorable policies and systems," Ge said, adding the current medical system was unable to achieve that goal effectively since most hospitals are more "business or market-orientated."Currently, the government only subsidizes a mere 5 percent of the actual running costs of public or State-owned hospital, a major source for medical care.

As a result, some hospitals have reportedly "cashed in" on patients by over-prescribing drugs and ordering unnecessary medical checks for patients.

"The government is aware of that and is working to revamp the system, which in fact conflicts with public health," Ge said.(Source: China Daily)