Rose Foundation founder and Front & Female Award 2023 winner Prof Dr Yin Ling Woo shares what this healthcare award means for the foundation and its mission to make Malaysia a cervical cancer-free nation
The Univants of Healthcare Excellence Award is a global awards programme created by US-based healthcare brand Abbott Laboratories in partnership with leading healthcare organisations like the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine, The European Health Management Association, the American Association for Clinical Chemistry and several others. The award represents the shared goal of all these various prestigious institutions to inspire and celebrate healthcare excellence.
Past winners in its hall of fame include the UK's Croydon University Hospital–whose multidisciplinary care team decreased mortality in HIV patients from 23 per cent to 0 per cent over an 18-month period in its emergency department through opt-out HIV testing–as well as Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital, for its efforts to introduce initiatives identifying heart failure patients earlier, while improving access to and utilisation of limited resources.
On June 26, 2023, the top 3 winners of the 2022 Univants of Healthcare Excellence Award were announced. Among the distinguished recipients, one organisation stood out by securing this coveted accolade, representing a notable departure from the traditional selection of hospitals and healthcare centres that had historically been recognised for their exceptional achievements in previous years.
That organisation was Malaysia's own Rose Foundation, a charitable foundation and a joint venture between the University of Malaya and the Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer.
The first Asian healthcare foundation to receive this award, Rose Foundation has been praised for its groundbreaking initiative called Programme Rose, a cervical screening program that uses Human Papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling instead of the conventional pap smear. The programme tackles the barriers preventing women from undergoing cervical cancer screening, giving them the choice of using a quick, painless and effective self-swab test. The foundation also works with various NGOs to conduct mobile screenings, especially in rural areas that lack access. The tests are processed at Rose Foundation's own laboratory which provides a centralised cervical screening service using HPV testing, and the results are delivered straight to the women's mobile phones via SMS or WhatsApp. Women who test positive for HPV (a major cause of cervical cancer) are then connected to the nearest tertiary hospital for treatment.
"The award validates what Rose Foundation works towards, which is to innovate and look at women-centred healthcare solutions," says Prof Dr Yin Ling Woo, founder and trustee of the foundation. "The award looks at several aspects, from cost-effectiveness of treatments, how it saves time, saves lives, makes things more efficient or makes healthcare intervention more accessible. In our case, it looked at the impact on our patients.
"You have to remember that the women we screen aren't patients yet. They are women whom we hope to prevent from developing cancer. We have screened 23,000 women, and we know from the numbers that 7 per cent will have an abnormal screening. In our foundation, 91 per cent of women who have had an abnormal screening test are followed up in a hospital."