The 17th Medical Association of South East Asian Nations (MASEAN) Mid-Term Meeting was held from 25 to 27 April 2017 at PARKROYAL Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This year's meeting was hosted by the Malaysian Medical Association and attended by delegates of the seven ASEAN medical associations: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The SMA delegation comprised Dr Wong Tien Hua, Dr Lee Yik Voon (Secretary General, MASEAN), Dr Tammy Chan (Treasurer, MASEAN), A/Prof Mahesh Choolani (Interim Secretary General, MASEAN Group of Journals), and the secretariat team (secretarial support for MASEAN and MASEAN Group of Journals).
Pre-conference meeting: MASEAN Group of Journals
Following the discussion on "How to Boost the Collaboration of our Medical Journals" held at the 17th MASEAN Conference and the Asia Pacific Association of Medical Journal Editors (APAME) meeting in 2016, the MASEAN Group of Journals held its first interim meeting on 25 April 2017. Representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam attended. The mission of the MASEAN Group of Journals is to build capability and quality within the Group through the training, collaboration and development of its members. Collaborative efforts include providing open access to journals and sharing of selected journal articles and abstracts on the MASEAN website. Through this collaboration, we envision to be among the top international medical journals. We look forward to more collaborative efforts from the MASEAN Group of Journals.
Scientific Symposium
The theme for this year's Scientific Symposium was "eHealth – The way forward". Through the advancement of technology, the working processes have changed over the years to allow better productivity and effectiveness, and this is the same for the healthcare industry. With information being easily accessible online, along with the growing usage of digital and social media platforms, the needs of our patients have changed accordingly. Discussed during the meeting were some common challenges that may arise as the healthcare industry moves into the digital age, such as data protection and infrastructure capability in the less advanced countries. Through the presentations and discussions, the national medical associations had the opportunity to learn from the experience of other countries and hopefully to apply what they have learnt back home in their country.
MASEAN dinner
The 17th MASEAN Mid-Term Meeting ended with a gala dinner on 26 April. Malaysia's Minister of Health, Datuk Seri Dr Subramaniam S/O KV Sathasivam, graced the event as the Guest of Honour. He expressed his delight in what MASEAN is doing and encouraged the national medical associations to keep up with the collaborative efforts.
Next MASEAN meeting
We would like to thank the Malaysian Medical Association for hosting this event and we look forward to the next meeting – the 18th MASEAN Conference – to be held in Vietnam in 2018.