Thursday 7 November 2013

iGene featured in the news video during the 9th WIEF 2013 in London.

The World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) was held in London on Tuesday, 29th October 2013. Where more than 1,500 delegates from 85 countries were gathered for the gigantic opportunities in exploring businesses and investments, and harmonizing global opportunities.


On the first day of this three days event, iGene® Sdn. Bhd. launched the world's first network of Digital Autopsy centres in United Kingdom. Where it is a network of 18 state-of-the-art Digital Autopsy facilities for the United Kingdom, the first of its kind in the world.
This video is from the original video produced by WIEF Foundation TV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGiMGX0Lvf8&feature=youtu.be during the second day of the 9th WIEF 2013. Where Mr. Matt Chandran and iGene's representative can be seen at the end of the video (minutes 3:19 to 3:23).

This second video is from TV3 News on 30th of October 2013 http://www.tv3.com.my/beritatv3/tajuk_utama/WIEF_Jadi_Platform_Penting_Bagi_Dunia_Islam.html. Where Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak launched the iGene Digital Autopsy Facility in United Kingdom during the event. (minutes 2:15 to 2:24).


I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts- Bill Gates.
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Tuesday 29 October 2013

9th WIEF - iGene® to launch Digital Autopsy Facility (DAF) in the United Kingdom



9th World Islamic Economic Forum 2013.
Changing World, New Relationships

iGene® to launch Digital Autopsy Facility (DAF) in the United Kingdom
 

LONDON, United Kingdom (Tue Oct 29, 2013) - The World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) is now back. After the successful story in Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Kuwait and Pakistan this international event will now be held in London; for the first time this event will be held outside of a Muslim country. The forthcoming 9th WIEF, an annual event, with its theme “Changing World, New Relationships" encapsulates the emergence of diversified new economic linkages between nations across borders, religions and cultures in a fast growing economic world.
The WIEF is organized by the World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation, a Kuala Lumpur based, non-for-profit organization under the Malaysian government. Key areas of focus for the upcoming forum in London include Islamic banking and finance, technology, infrastructure development, health, exports, education and youth. The Forum aims to deliver tangible investment. During last year’s 8th WIEF, deals worth an estimated RM28 billion equivalent to £5.8billion, were struck (London and Partners, 03 July 2013).
The WIEF is the connecting bridge for business networking between transnational companies and organization around the globe generally and between the Muslim and non-Muslim world specifically. This event will open gigantic opportunities for exploring businesses and investments, and harmonizing global opportunities among more than 1,500 delegates from 85 countries. 
                Technology, being one of the main key areas of WIEF, will get its limelight with the launch of an eye opening and innovative technology developed by a Malaysian company. With financial backing from Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), a driving force for the Malaysian government towards establishing ‘innovation economy’, iGene® Sdn. Bhd. (an INFOVALLEY®  Group of Company) will launch its Digital Autopsy Technology on the first day of the event under its subsidiary iGene® London Limited. It is with great hope that the innovative approach of iGene® will jostle up other potential Malaysian company to join the bandwagon towards opening new gateway for international benchmarking.
                Digital Autopsy a term coined by INFOVALLEY®, relates to conducting post-mortems digitally without mutilating the deceased. The innovative approach of this company provides complete forensic medicine and forensic science solution from the scene of crime till the production of a digitized multimedia post-mortem report which can be used in the court of law. The in-house developed innovative technology applies specific algorithms for 3D rendering to visualize the deceased in establishing the cause and manner of death. The technology is not just Diagnostic Imaging but is a complete comprehensive solution in forensic investigation. 
In the company’s interest to honour the dead; this technology will be pushed as the primary manner to establish cause of death. With no or minimum invasion, this solution has led much interest of the religious bodies. The Fatwa Committee National Council of Islamic Religious Affairs Malaysia has recognized Digital Autopsy System as a good way to handle a dead body for autopsy and forensic investigation purposes. Similar response has also been received from religious bodies from other countries. Involvement of iGene® with its impactful technology in this event will leave a good impression to the investors about Malaysian’s companies while creating a new breakthrough for Muslim world on digital autopsy. 
United Kingdom (UK) was chosen because of its acceptance of this frontier technology as well as its existing advanced medical arena. UK is an attractive springboard for companies who want to grow their global business. It provides a unique gateway of international connections, and is a recognized leader in the fields of creativity and innovation and is the sixth largest economy in the world. Supported by the Ministry of Justice, new guidelines have been introduced to embrace digital autopsies. iGene® has also been fortunate enough to get the backing of  Chief Coroner’s Office under the Home Ministry of United Kingdom, Royal College of Radiologists and Royal College Pathologists. iGene Sdn. Bhd. under its subsidiary, iGene® London Limited is currently building Digital Autopsy Facilities (DAFs) in the UK in stages, which will consisting of four full scaled Digital Autopsy Facilities (DAFs) and 14 Digital Autopsy Scanning Centers (DAsc). These four DAFs will be connected to a centralized data centre which will function as the digital repository for archiving. The first unit at Sheffield Medico-Legal is anticipated to be ready in time for the launch during this 9th WIEF. iGene®’s  investment is estimated to be up to £10 million which will also create around 60 jobs in the first three years.
iGene® subsequently plans to penetrate into the United State and the Middle East markets. Parallel with the forum’s theme, to change the world by opening and grasping new relationship with all the industry players regardless of their geographical borders, religions and cultures.  iGene® as well as others industry players are anticipated to makes the 9th WIEF as a stepping stone to navigate and pervade into wider business opportunities. 
By Ahmad Fakri Hilmi, iGene Sdn. Bhd., KL
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Monday 23 September 2013

Cancer misdiagnosis, how bad could it be?

By Ahmad Fakri
Kuala Lumpur | Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:25pm

(INFOVALLEY) - It is a norm for people to feel afraid when they talk about cancer. According to World Health Organization (WHO), cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide[i] [ii]. Imagine a scenario when a doctor informs a patient that he or she has been diagnosed with cancer. The news might be unbearable for some, they might feel worried, stressed out, lost, scared, angered, sad, and confused. The family will likely react the same, they will be worried and start to feels that they may soon lose their loved ones.

           What if the “cancer patient” is actually cancer free and they are just as healthy as anyone else? This question keeps escalating over the years where people are misdiagnosed for having cancer while they are not.
           
          Misdiagnosis can be defined as the incorrect assessment of a patient’s illness type or stage. Researcher at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore reviewed 6,000 cancer patients’ tissue samples in the country and they found one out of every 71 cases was a misdiagnosed; as an example, a biopsy was labeled cancerous when it was not. Furthermore, one out of five cancer cases was misclassified[iii]. 

           In a joint study between Best Doctors and the National Coalition on Health Care (NCHC), entitled Exploring Diagnostic Accuracy in Cancer, 21 cancers were named for the most often misdiagnosed or mischaracterized conditions and the top five conditions by considerable margin was Lymphoma, followed by Breast Cancer, Sarcomas, Melanoma, and Cancer of Unknown Primary Site.
Table 1
                From Table 1, the study showed the top reasons for misdiagnosis to occur were “fragmented or missing information across medical information systems” (38.5%), “inadequate pathology diagnostic resources” (22%), “inadequate genetic/genomic information available at the time of diagnosis” (20.3%) and “inadequate radiology/procedural diagnostic resources”.

             From the statistic it is understandable that the main issue leading to misdiagnosis is lack of diagnostic information. Diagnostic information is crucial as it is one of the main determining tools in medical diagnosis. The information that required for medical diagnosis varies, from clinical information, medical history, genetic information and few others. Thus if the doctors lack any of these information the diagnosis may become a questionable result.

Table 2
                  From this study as well, as in Table 2 the most popular answer by the doctors about the possible ways to avoid misdiagnosis was “new or improved pathology tools and resources” with 36% of respondents, followed by “new or more rapidly accessible resources for tumor genetic testing” with 17.8%, and “new or improved radiology tools and resources” with 15%. 

             The doctors agreed that the improvement needs to be done in terms of upgrading the information resources including pathologic, genetic, radiology, and clinical information. One of the major contributions to the cause of misdiagnosis is insufficient or no genetic (genomic) information available at the time of diagnosis.  As suggested by the doctors, new or more resources for tumor genetic testing should be readily accessible, because more absolute and accurate result on the cancer conditions could be obtained.

               New dimension of genetic screening is now starting to take over the market in the form of genetic predisposition testing. Genetic predisposition test identifies individuals who are genetically predisposed to certain health problems. The physician will be able to  ‘peak’ into the patient’s  genetic make-up and take the necessary steps to help prevent the conditions from manifesting. A genetic predisposition test is considered as one-step-ahead initiative in health screening compared to biochemical based markers that will detect a disease when it has manifested, in the cases of discussion, cancer that is already present in the body. However, tumour marker levels are not always altered in people with cancers, especially in the early stages of cancer. At times, the cause of the elevated levels of biochemical markers can also due to other causes and factors. For example, the level of the tumor marker CA 125 can be high in women with gynecologic conditions other than ovarian cancer. The genetic predisposition test caters for the wellness sector and therapeutic lifestyle interventions with periodic screenings that helps for cancer diagnosis and cancer prevention altogether.

               In cases where cancer is already present at an early stage, genetic tests plays a role to determine the condition, level and seriousness of the cancer accurately. This will create a better decision making in determining the types of treatment a patient should undergo, be it surgery, radiation, chemotherapy or endocrine therapy. In addition if it is surgery, radiation, or endocrine therapy, the test will help to ascertain the type of the treatment that should be performed. For the fact from the study, the genetic test will be able to reduce the chance of misdiagnosis by 20.3 percent and will increase the diagnostic accuracy rates in cancer cases by 17.8 percent. This effective cancer screening will avoid a late detection, economic lost and loss quality of life.

Picture of Kylie Minogue, a cancer ‘survivor’; a victim of misdiagnosis
         American Cancer Society suggested that the second opinion is crucial in determining the cancer status condition and the type of treatment if the cancer is confirmed to be positive[iv]. This message was also expressed by the top Australian multi-talented artist Kylie Minogue during her appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in 2008. She said “Because someone is in a white coat and using big medical instruments doesn't necessarily mean [he or she is] right” (BBC News). She is one of the thousands of patients victimized by misdiagnosis of cancer. She is now busy raising awareness on importance of early detection of cancer and hosting charity for cancer societies. 

           Cancer is preventable. Will and effort in undergoing early screening and seeking for second or maybe third opinion, matters. Don’t take things for granted. Prevention is better than cure.
  
By Ahmad Fakri Hilmi, iGene Sdn. Bhd., KL
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