Tareq Salahuddin talks to some specialists from Singapore about different aspects of medical science in their respective fields.

A few noted physicians from Singapore came to participate different conferences in Bangladesh. During the conferences, they talked about the state-of-the-art technology available in Singapore and some recent advancements made by them in their respective fields of practice.

Dr Ian K S Tan is a Consultant Intensivist and Director of Critical Care Services of Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore.

He told about different aspects of the treatment of ICU (Intensive Care Unit) patients. As the equipment and drugs used for the ICU are high all over the world, appropriate knowledge can help to choose proper drug and treatment regimen can help to reduce the treatment cost. He expressed that it is not always badly necessary to use the cutting-edge technology for the treatment of ICU patients. Proper knowledge, skill, experience, clinical assessment are more important for the treatment of a patient.

He described that the most common hazard that ICU patients may suffer is the miscommunication. It is important to take care of the patients very attentively. More trained nurse staffs can reduce the load of the doctors. He described that there are newer drugs that can help to survive ICU patients.

Dr Ian Tan emphasised on the cleanliness of ICU to prevent hospital acquired infections that cause unnecessary hassle to the ailing patients. For example, a patient can develop pneumonia while taking artificial ventilation.

Later he presented a scientific paper on "ventilator-associated pneumonia" in the Qader Lecture Room of Department of Anaesthesiology, DMCH.

Dr Wai-Choong Lye is a Consultant Nephrologist and Physician in Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. He described many exciting features and recent advancement in the field of nephrology.

He informed that several drugs have been produced that can reduce the rejection of donated kidney. So dialysis is now of less important in the treatment of end stage renal diseases in recent days. Today kidney transplant is more preferable for them. Patients need not be cautious about the match of kidney. Simply the blood group match can help for the selection of a donor now-a-days.

The renal disease burden is increasing day by day globally. Specially kidney diseases due to diabetes, renal hypertension, glomerulonephritis are increasing. Awareness and healthy lifestyle can help prevent these diseases.

Dr Chi-Chiu Tan is a Consultant Gastroenterologist and Physician in Gleneagles Medical Centre in Singapore. They have improved a lot in treating the patients of end-stage liver diseases. They achieved milestones in living donor liver transplant.

He adviced to take preventive measures to prevent hepatitis B and C which can cut off the burden of the diseases. Vaccination of hepatitis B can help to prevent the disease while use of the recent drugs can combat hepatitis C. There is a tremendous advancement of the drugs like interferon and anti-viral drugs.

Adopting healthy lifestyle, change in the food habit can reduce other diseases of gastroenterology like colon cancer.

He described the recent treatment guideline for the patients of liver diseases. For some cases of liver patients surgery is very effective especially who have localised problem in small area and if detected early. Other options like radio frequency ablation therapy (RFAT) and trans arterial chemo embolisation (TACE) can also help for the patients of liver cancer. Trained, skilled, and experienced medical professionals are needed for the curing the patients.

All the doctors expressed their sincere will for sharing idea and view with the local doctors. They said that continuous communication with experts can help improving the skill of the doctors.

They opined that adequate knowledge and skill can help us to overcome our limited resource.