Min-Sheng General Hospital to host 2nd Asian Diabetes Surgery Summit

Min-Sheng general Hospital in Taiwan will host the Second Asian Diabetes Surgery Summit (ADSS) July 7, 2010. Diabetes is a pandemic and its effects are particularly felt in Asia where it is putting an ever greater strain on public health care. Bariatric surgery has recently been extended to metabolic surgery because of the associated gut hormone change and Incretin Effect.

Organized by Min-Sheng Hospital's Bariatric & Diabetes Minimally Invasive Surgery Center, the Diabetes Association of the Republic of China, and the Taiwan association for Endoscopic Surgery, the summit will look into the current state of diabetes surgery, and discuss the latest surgical techniques and disease management practices. The summit will also feature a workshop with live surgery demonstrations, including the latest technique, the "duodenum-jejunum bypass + sleeve gastrectomy." Says Professor Lee Wei-Jei, Chaiman of the organizing committee and Honorary President of the Asia Pacific Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Society, "It is an appropriate time for gastro-intestinal metabolic surgeons in asia to get together, learn cutting edge techniques, and share personal and institutional experience in the management of the disease."

The First Asian Diabetes Surgery summit which took place in 2010 led to the launch of a large scale cooperative study of diabetes surgery in Asia. More than two hundred patients have been enrolled and followed up in the study so far, and its findings will be discussed at the second summit.

CEO of Min-Sheng’s International Healthcare Center now also a licensed tour guide

Taiwan is stepping up its effort to attract foreign visitors to its medical facilities, and local travel agents have embraced the concept. Many are now offering packages that combine sightseeing tours of the island with a visit to a hospital or a clinic for a health check up, or a minor cosmetic procedure. Although these travel agents are mostly catering to Chinese tour groups and the Chinese tourists who will soon be allowed to travel individually in Taiwan, they also set up websites in english to tout visitors from other countries.

Foreign patients have been traveling to Min-Sheng General Hospital to seek medical treatment for quite while now, and the hospital has a department dedicated to these patients. The CEO of the International Healthcare Center (IHC) at Min-Sheng, Dr. Chen Shing-Han has long had a keen interest in the integration of the healthcare and hospitality industries, and was the first Medical Doctor in Taiwan to pursue a masters degree in hotel management. He took it a step further by passing the examination to become a licensed tour guide in Taiwan hence gaining credentials to manage most aspects of "medical tourism."