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The Health | august-September, 2020
| Innovation |
Dr Laksana Tri Handoko Datuk Dr Mohd Yusoff Prof Dr M Iqbal Choudhary Prof Dr Hasan Mandal
BY KHIRTINI K KUMARAN
The recent Road to Recovery
webinar organised by the
Malaysian Industry-Government
Group for High Technology
(MIGHT) highlighted the different
experiences of nations fighting
the Covid-19 pandemic.
Local and international panellists
shared interesting perspectives. But
the one common factor in fighting the
virus was the importance of science and
technology.
Episode 4 of the webinar series was
titled ‘Technology for Better Healthcare:
Covid-19 and Beyond’ and focussed on
issues relating to healthcare and its
broader implication to society’s wellbeing.
It also touched on strengthening the
delivery of healthcare services.
The panellists were Prof Dr Hasan
Mandal, President of The Scientific and
Technological Research Council of Turkey
(TUBITAK), Dr Laksana Tri Handoko,
chairman of the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences (LIPI), Prof Dr M. Iqbal Choudhary,
coordinator general of COMSTECH and
Director of International Center for
Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS)
at University of Karachi, Pakistan; and
Datuk Dr Mohd Yusoff Sulaiman, President
and CEO of Malaysian Industry-
Government Group for High Technology
(MIGHT).
Prof Tan Sri Zakri Abdul Hamid,
Chairman of Atri Advisory and Global
Ambassador of Campaign for Nature,
moderated the webinar.
Sharing on the pandemic response in
Malaysia, Dr Mohd Yusoff said: “Although
Malaysia was not the top in terms of
emergency response, once the government
took action, it became evident they were
severe, and the reaction gave a good result.
“Malaysia responded with massive
utilisation of its healthcare services and
technologies and has so far conducted
testing for almost half a million people.”
The rapid decision by the government
to implement the Movement Control Order
(MCO) was fruitful. The authorities were
transparent with their directions and
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
for the public.
Dr Mohd Yusoff especially credited the
effective communication of the experts.
“Science advisory is a good way of
communicating and getting the attention
of whether the leaders or the people.”
Referring to the Health Director-
General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah,
he said: “We need more of these icons for
us to converse with the leadership. They
may not be scientists but they presented
these science issues and challenges
in layman’s terms so it could easily be
understood.
“It’s good to have some form of
economic prosperity and enough funds
to do a lot of things but as we can see that
alone will not solve the pandemic issues.”
He asserted the willingness of leaders to
listen to the epidemiologist and scientists
was vital in handling situations such as
this pandemic.
Using
technology to
fight Covid-19
International panellists reveal how
technology helped their nations fight
the pandemic
Malaysia
responded
with massive
utilisation of
its healthcare
services and
technologies
and has so far
conducted
testing for
almost half
a million
people.”
– Dr Mohd Yusoff
“Decisions are best made based on the
inputs from experts,” he said.
Effective communication
by the experts
Turkey’s Prof Dr Hasan Mandal detailed
on their Covid-19 Turkey Platform. The
platform was launched in a record 10 days
and involved vaccine and drug development
by over 260 researchers from universities,
public R&D units, private sector and scholars.
“There are scholarships to support about
300 young researchers and scholars to take
part in Covid-19 R&D projects,” Dr Hasan
Mandal said.
These were efforts to mobilise and
strengthen their science-based response.
Dr Hasan added they were in the process of
developing a new diagnostic kit based on
nanotechnology that can be an alternative to
the PCR-based diagnostic kit.
Meanwhile, Dr Laksana Tri Handoko and
Prof Dr M. Iqbal Choudhary acknowledged
initially there were hurdles in their
respective countries. Yet, the cooperation and
the contribution of members of the scientific
and technology community remedied the
situation.
For Indonesia, the main challenge
was its vast and scattered population.
Dr Handako said Indonesia faced a severe
shortage of rapid test kits.
“The current golden standard for
testing technology, the PCR tests, are quite
expensive. That is the reason why we at LIPI
are developing what we call the alternative
technology comparable to the PCR test,
which is less expensive.
“The main contribution from science and
technology in terms of Covid-19 is of course
first and foremost delivering the vaccine as
soon as possible,” he added.
As such, they have established a Research
Consortium involving research institutes,
universities and local private companies.
They are actively engaged in the research
and development of Covid-19 medication.
Dr Iqbal said there were many
considerable hurdles, but the Pakistan
government was quick to listen to the
scientific community for inputs and
solutions.
“There was a strong realisation that
without the deployment of science, we could
not handle the pandemic. When the first
case of Covid-19 was reported in Pakistan,
there was no testing facility.
“No one knew how to handle this crisis,
and there were not many people who could
understand the epidemiology and modelling
of the disease. We did not have enough
hospitals and isolation infrastructure,” he
said.
However, within one month, Pakistan
went from 100 per cent reliance on imported
healthcare equipment to 80 per cent of it
locally-produced. He added local production
had since increased and they have started
exporting as well.
Also, their engineering universities have
developed, deployed and provided a new kind
of low-cost ventilators.
Dr Iqbal noted: “Of course it is not optimal
as the imported ventilators, but they are good
enough to provide good saturation levels
to patient. There is a difference between
healthcare facilities and the healthcare
system.”
Dr Iqbal also pointed out while the
United States may have excellent healthcare
facilities, there was inequality in its system
to provide equal healthcare access to the
public.
Contribution of social science and
humanities during a crisis
While it was agreed science and technology
played a vital role in combating the
pandemic and adapting to a new norm and
lifestyle, the contribution of social science
and humanities in policymaking during a
crisis should not be dismissed.
Dr Hasan Mandal said Turkey mobilised
social science and humanities research
committees to tackle the social-economic
situation.
“This was a learning path during this
pandemic, and so when we are planning
for the next problem, there will be much
more involvement of social science and
humanities in our system.”
Dr Handako said: “LIPI covers all
research fields from natural sciences
to social sciences. Since the beginning
of the pandemic, LIPI researchers from
various fields have been involved in the
policymaking led by our national Covid-19
task force.”
He stated that it was a very critical period
for nations to develop a new policy to support
the modern lifestyle of living with the virus
as well as post-Covid-19.
It is undeniable that the pandemic
has brought the importance of science
and technology to the forefront. The
four panellist countries have heavily
incorporated science and technology in their
efforts to deal with the pandemic.
Incidentally, the panellists at this webinar
series are also members of the Centre of
Excellence (COE), established during the
KL Summit last year. The COE is aimed
at bringing together organisations from
Muslim-majority countries and experts
from renowned universities and research
laboratories to share their knowledge and
facilities.
The Road to Recovery webinar series is
available for viewing at MIGHT’s YouTube
channel (https://www.youtube.com/
MiGHTmalaysia). — The Health