The Malaysian Endocrine and Metabolic Society (MEMS) is actively organising courses and conference, collaborating with others in the field of diabetes and endocrinology. The society also supports public programmes to increase the awareness of diabetes. MEMS Annual Congress (MAC) is a yearly event and this year is the 9th year of the conference. The conference aims to encourage scientific research in endocrinology, and foster collaboration with local and regional colleagues.
This year’s theme is “Evolving Towards Excellence in Endocrinology’ where delegates can look forward to receive unparalleled and powerful insights of the latest research, developments and treatments in the field of diabetes and endocrinology. The programme has been outlined with interesting topics to benefit the general practitioners, medical officers and specialists.
The National Morbidity Survey in 2015 showed a prevalence of diabetes at 17.5% in adults more than 18 years old. There was an increasing trend in prevalence with age, from 5.5% in the 18 – 19 years age group, reaching a peak of 39.1% among the 70 – 74 years age group. The prevalence was higher in females at 18.3% compared with males at 16.7%. This pattern of increasing prevalence has been a concern especially to young women in the reproductive age.
The prevalence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus from selected public tertiary hospitals was reported to range around 8 – 9% based on the National Obstetric Registry Report of 2011 – 2012 with Indians having a higher prevalence than other ethnic groups. In both years, approximately 16% babies were born to diabetic mothers weighed 4 kg and more. There was a 2-fold increase in macrosomia in babies of diabetes patients compared with those of non-diabetes. This could have contributed to the increased caesarean section rates.
The MAC conference this year serves as a platform for the launching of the Malaysian Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) on the Management of Diabetes in Pregnancy. This is a much-awaited CPG and hopefully it will help the clinicians managing diabetes cases in pregnancy according to latest current evidence within available resources.
The evidence-based CPG has been developed by a multidisciplinary team consisting of family medicine specialists, obstetricians, endocrinologists, a dietitian and a pharmacist. It provides recommendations on the diagnosis, investigations and treatment options of diabetes in pregnancy that are currently available in the country. Various algorithms, tables, figures and appendices are presented for better understanding of the target users. Implementation strategies such as a quick reference and a training module have also been developed to improve the utilisation of the CPG. All of these documents are accessible on the websites of Ministry of Health, Academy of Medicine and MEMS to facilitate access to as many people as possible nationwide.
DATUK DR. NOOR HISHAM ABDULLAH
Director General of Health Malaysia
4 May 2018