19 November 2014 – IMU Alumnus, Lim Ka Keat, gave a talk entitled ‘The ABC of Health Economics’ at the International Medical University (IMU)’s campus in Bukit Jalil. The talk was organised by the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society – Young Pharmacist Chapter (MPS-YPC) and IMU Alumni. Ka Keat is currently a health economics researcher in Clinical Research Centre. After graduating as a pharmacist from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, he practiced in hospital before developing interest in health economics and subsequently obtained his MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
In this talk, Ka Keat shared with the participants the basic principles of health economics. He explained about the factors that make paying for healthcare different from paying for other things in daily life and described on how these differences affect the clinical practice and health policy. He also described the perspective of patients in seeking for healthcare services. Besides that, he compared the cost and effectiveness of healthcare systems of a few countries to help the participants gain a better understanding.
Before the talk ended, there was a Questions and Answers session. During this session, a few participants took the opportunity to clear their doubts about the zero-rated GST. One of the pharmacy students who attended the talk found it to be very interesting and would like to attend such talk again. Related story: From IMU to LSE: An Alumnus’ Journey from Undergraduate to Postgraduate
