A Talk on a Sunday

Having a Medical Meeting a day before Ramadhan starts was never ideal. However, since I prepared for the initially planned meet before, it was hard to say no. The invitation was initially for the 10th July, but the venue being in KL Sentral - Le Meridien - having a meet a day after the then unpredictable Bersih rally, it appeared to be a bad idea. It was then postponed to the 31th July.

My talk was in the morning and the turn-out was a lot better than I expected. The topic covered was also pretty diverse, but ran the risk of being too varied. The crowd mainly consisted of the more junior doctors in training, so it was rather too specialized for most of them.

My topic was myeloma, and constraining the talk proved a challenge as I was not keen to dwell on things which were standard knowledge. I tried to introduce the new announcements and controversies, and sticking to 20 minutes and 40 slides was not easy. I therefore made the talk more focused around three main points, for clarity and economy of time.

I would have another meeting in the afternoon before calling it a day. Comparing the talk to the one I organized in UMMC last weekend was definitely an eye opener. We did not have the resources but I believe that if you concentrate on content, the meeting would be a success. And that was what apparent from the two meets, with a clearly different financial muscle backup. I also spent time discussing avenues of securing funding for my future talks as we had the capacity to identify relevant and interesting topics. I believe that clinician-lead meeting rather than one driven by the Pharmaceuticals is the way forward. 

Conference Day 2

So, today is the second day of the conference and I am suffering .... for the lack of sleep. Went to visit my parents last night as my Dad is flying off to Surabaya earlier this afternoon. Had no choice but to watch Akademi Fantasia, a spin-off of British Fame Academy. Suffered through much agony.

Then came the whammy! Stayed up until 3 am to watch United play Spurs. And by God, it was well worth it! Had 4 hours sleep, went to have breakfast at mum's and then gave Dad a ride to Sentral for him to catch his flight. Attended the meeting on time, and I did not dose off. Amazing.

The talk I thought were straight to the point, relevant and interesting! Rather than treating it as a lecture, it was more of a discussion. An intimate disclosure of how the experts actually deal with their day-to-day management of their patients, rather than the run-of-the-mill 'this is what the latest guidelines say we should do'! A few pearls were shared, and the question were answered matter-of-factly. The interesting discussion was certainly about patients getting pregnant while on Glivec. The party line is certainly clear.

Ornaments at the Main Lobby, Le MeridienUnder no circumstances should they get pregnant. Unfortunately, turning the disease into a chronic disability comes with it's own social baggage. We can't tell our patients - often young - and eager to have a family to just forget about having children. I have children of my own, and I appreciate how they feel. At the same time I understand the stance of the manufacturer not wanting to declare that the drug is safe during pregnancy, because there is definite evidence of theoretical harm to babies in the first three months of pregnancy. During the discussion, there emerged some strategy in terms of how to deal with it, but it is not something I wish to bore you with on this post. Do email me for details.

The whole thing lasted until 12.30, then had buffet, which was actually rather good. Had the standard rack of sashimi of course! Endured the usual chorus of 'Wah! You eat raw fish ah?'. Hey! It's Halal what? Enjoyed it!

Then spent the rest of the day pleasing the boys back home. We went to do a bit of shopping at Great Eastern Mall and had tea at Alexis. Good bowl of salad and pizza! It was nearly 7 when we finally reached home with both Idlan and Irfan nodding off to sleep!

Again to reiterate the point, bringing the speakers into Malaysia rather than flying us out is certainly a way forward. Apparently the dinner that I missed last night - at Carcosa - was rather nice. Cultural shows and the whole nine yards! Well done Novartis!