KUCHING – Top researchers from five higher education institutions in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia recently met to share their findings and explore collaborative ventures in sustainable health care projects for the elderly.
The experts in biomedical engineering and health informatics presented their work at a Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus-organised workshop themed “Towards sustainable healthcare”.
“The workshop was a platform for researchers to share their findings, encourage networking and generate new ideas with the possibility for collaboration,” said Associate Professor Dennis Wong, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science at Swinburne Sarawak.
He said that the workshop was held in response to the rise in the aged and upsurge in the cost of health care.
A United Nations report, “World Population Ageing: 1950 – 2050”, identified population ageing as an unprecedented, pervasive, enduring problem that has and will bring about profound implications to many facets of human life, Wong said.
“According to the report, by 2025 about 15% of the total world population will reach 60 years of age or over. Of this, 35% of the population in developed regions will be in that age group. They will experience changes in their daily life and may suffer from many aging related disorders such as dementia. Many will require elderly care but with the escalating cost of healthcare today, getting elderly care will be a challenge both in monetary terms and in human resource,” he said.
As a result, Wong said that there is need to look at new methodologies for providing future healthcare systems that are more efficient, accurate, and cost effective to ensure a sustainable healthcare environment.
Dr Usman Naeem, a senior lecturer from the University of East London, presented his work on the recognition of activities of daily life using radio frequency identification sensing technology, while Associate Professor Patrick Then from Swinburne Sarawak spoke about mobile telemedicine in rural areas pertaining to cardiac monitoring, a project he collaborated with Clinical Research Centre Kuching.
Renowned researcher in computer vision from University Malaya, Dr Chan Chee Seng, shared his work on “Non-intrusive monitoring of elderly care”.
Dr Eng Gee Lim’s work on Wireless capsule Endoscopy at Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University in China was presented by the workshop chair while Professor Sim Kok Swee delivered his work on automated tools for tuberculosis spoligotyping.
More than 30 participants from Kuala Lumpur and Kuching attended the workshop.