Left to Right: Choo Yit Lee, Chief Executive Officer; Yam Mun Li, Operations Director; Professor Marion Saville, Trustee; Professor Dr. Woo Yin Ling, Founding Trustee & Medical Technical Advisor; Professor Dato’ Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Chairman.
ROSE Foundation is the first Asian integrated clinical care team to win a global award under the Univants of Healthcare Excellence programme.
Univants was established in 2018 to recognise those who achieve exceptional outcomes for patients, communities, healthcare professionals and the environment.
According to Rose Foundation chairman Prof Datuk Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, the home-grown non-governmental organisation (NGO) took its place alongside more than 60 other integrated clinical care teams worldwide that had high-impact achievements.
These range from innovative problem-solving to transforming healthcare delivery.
“The award encourages us to expand the use of high-impact technology to empower vulnerable under-screened women in the fight against cervical cancer,” said Prof Adeeba.
In Malaysia, cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women aged under 45.
Comprehensive screening becomes critical in the overall goal of eliminating cervical cancer.
It enables early diagnosis and timely treatment, which substantially increases the possibility of a cure.
Foundation trustee Prof Dr Woo Yin Ling, said: “Our Rose programme incorporates self-sampling for HPV, which is more accurate than the conventional pap smear.
“This simple method helps to remove obstacles to cervical screening.”
The programme’s second innovation is integrating mobile devices with a secure digital ehealth platform for registration and data collection.
This facilitates communication and linkage to care while helping women smoothly navigate through a complex healthcare system.
Rose has made remarkable progress in enhancing healthcare access and cervical cancer outcomes for many women.
Since its inception in 2019, Rose has screened 23,000 women with a 92% linkage-to-care rate for those found positive for HPV.
Nearly 200 women have been treated for pre-cancer and early cancer.
